June 17, 2008 - June 20, 2008

San Diego Convention Center

San Diego, CA

Michael Gollin will chair a panel entitled "The Rise of Trade Secrets in Biotechnology."

For complete details on the 2008 Bio International Convention, please click here.

The Rise of Trade Secrets in Biotechnology
June 20, 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Recent Supreme Court decisions, USPTO regulations and proposed legislation in the United States and activity in the World Health Organization and World Trade Organization, all tend to weaken patents, thus tipping the scale toward keeping biotechnology inventions secret instead of patenting them. This panel will discuss the basic bargain in patent disclosure; the best corporate practices in determining what to maintain as a trade secret; protecting, licensing and enforcing biotechnology trade secrets as compared to patents; and the special risks of trade secrecy -- academic publication, diminished industry/university collaboration, regulatory disclosure, litigation, employee departures, Web site postings and the open source movement. Following the decline of patents to its logical conclusion will lead to practical approaches for managing intellectual property in a time of great change in law and policy.