Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court 14th Annual Reception May 24, 2022 Union League Club
The Honorable William C. Conner
Program 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Cocktail Reception 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Dinner Congratulations to The 2022 Conner Inn Excellence Award Honorees Hon. Debra Ann Livingston Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Presented by Hon. Dennis Jacobs Hon. Evan J. Wallach Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Presented by Hon. Raymond T. Chen Hon. Jed S. Rakoff Senior District Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Presented by Hon. J. Paul Oetken Dinner Committee Jeffrey M. Butler and Melvin C. Garner
At the Inaugural Dinner in 2009, members of the Conner Inn presented Mrs. Janice Files Conner with a bouquet of her favorite flowers - yellow roses. Honorable William C. Conner passed away on July 9, 2009 and Mrs. Janice Files Conner passed away on September 12, 2011. The Conner Inn continues to commemorate Mrs. Conner every year with yellow roses on each table at the Annual Dinner.
Mission of the Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court, to promote excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills for judges, lawyers, academicians, and students of law and to advance the education of the members of the Conner Inn, the members of the bench and bar, and the public in the fields of intellectual property.
Message from the Conner Inn Executive Committee Chair Welcome to the 14th Annual Reception and Dinner of the Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court. We are very pleased to return to an in-person format to celebrate excellence in our profession. This year, we are very proud to present the 2022 Conner Inn Excellence Awards to three outstanding jurists -- Hon. Debra Ann Livingston, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Hon. Evan J. Wallach, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; and Hon. Jed S. Rakoff, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York -- for their dedication to the promotion of excellence in our profession. Please enjoy this commemorative journal, including biographies of our award recipients and an article written by Melvin C. Garner that highlights the many excellent programs that were presented by judges, senior lawyers, junior lawyers, and law student members of the Conner Inn during its thirteenth year of substantive IP programs. As we return to in-person programs and events like this, we look forward to continuing to build on Judge Conner’s legacy of excellence and professionalism through the enthusiasm of our membership. As chair of the Executive Committee, I would like to thank our Conner Inn President, Hon. J. Paul Oetken for his continued leadership; the other members of the Executive Committee: Jeffrey M. Butler, Amy Gallup Klann, Melvin C. Garner, Patrice P. Jean, and Anne E. Li for their commitment; Jeffrey M. Butler and Melvin C. Garner for coordinating this event and putting together this commemorative journal; Hon. Richard Linn for his vision and initiative; and each of you for your enthusiastic support of the Conner Inn and its mission to promote professionalism, legal skills, ethics and civility in the practice of intellectual property law which Judge Conner exemplified. Anthony Giaccio Executive Committee Chair
Conner Inn Leadership Officers President: Hon. J. Paul Oetken, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Secretary/ Treasurer: Anthony Giaccio Executive Committee Chair: Anthony Giaccio Members: Jeffrey M. Butler, Amy Gallup Klann, Melvin C. Garner, Patrice P. Jean, Anne E. Li Judicial Members of the Inn Hon. Laura Taylor Swain, Southern District of New York Hon. Margo K. Brodie, Eastern District of New York Hon. Kerry Begley, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Gary R. Brown, Eastern District of New York Hon. Sarah L. Cave, Southern District of New York Hon. John P. Cronan, Southern District of New York Hon. Thomas L. Giannetti, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Cynthia M. Hardman, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Lewis J. Liman, Southern District of New York Hon. Kimberly McGraw, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Shelia McShane, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. J. Paul Oetken, Southern District of New York Hon. Donna Praiss, USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Barbara S. Jones, Southern District of New York (Ret.) Visiting Judicial Members of the Inn Hon. Timothy B. Dyk, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Richard Linn, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Pauline Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Jimmie V. Reyna, US. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Paul R. Michel, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit (Ret.)
Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court Activities for the Year 2021-2022 Because of the continued presence of Covid-19, the Inn’s activities for the period April 2021 to April 2022 were again impacted. On June 15, 2021, members of the Inn participated in the virtual inaugural meeting of the Nashville Entertainment & IP Inn. Also attending and supporting the new Inn were members of the Linn Inn of Chicago and the Nancy F. Atlas Inn of Houston. The first event of the period was the 13th Annual Virtual Reception which was held remotely on June 24, 2021. At the Reception Excellence Awards were presented to the Hon. Alan D. Lourie, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Hon. Richard C. Wesley, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the Hon. Margo K. Brodie, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Hon. Paul A. Engelmayer, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Remarks were made by Judge Kent Jordan of the 3rd Circuit, the President of the American Inns of Court Foundation. Also, in memoriam comments were made on the recent passing of Hon. Robert A . Katzmann, former Chief Judge of the 2nd Circuit. On September 2021 the Inn contributed to the Linn Inn Alliance’s partnership with the Foundation for Advancement of Diversity in IP Law initiative for the present year. With the apparent waning of the COVID pandemic, the Inn held a hybrid in-person/ virtual Happy Hour event at Crowell & Moring LLP on October 12, 2021. This is an annual event for the Inn, which is free for Inn members, judges, law clerks and government employees. It was a pleasant fall evening and was a great opportunity to meet members of the Inn as well as the members of the Executive Committee as the Conner Inn celebrated the beginning of the membership year. Of note was the attendance in person of Hon. Barbra Jones (Ret.) the former President of the Inn. The first substantive program entitled “Editing the Ectoplasm: Studying the Ghosts of CRISPR” was held virtually on October 27, 2021. It was a joint program with the Pauline Newman IP American Inn of Court. It followed a brilliant inventor, Dr. Napoleon Brain’s interest in protecting his new biologic drug candidate. In a subsequent dream, he realized that with a few tweaks using CRISPR, it could be used to promote extreme proliferation of algae in the world’s first algae powered carbon capturing bioreactor. After feeling elated with his progress, Dr. Brain was racked with worry about protecting his original invention and his modified one. But he was afraid of the ghosts of patents past coming to haunt his bright green future full of algae, biologic drugs, and money in clear blue skies. The program allowed attendees to join a ghost-busting experience as the ectoplasm around his inventions was studied and allowed Dr. Brain to try to save the world from itself. In addition, it included spooky tales around the campfire about what happened to the IP covering the revolutionary CRISPR gene modification technology and the patent prosecution, litigation and licensing lessons that could be learned. On February 9th, 2022, the Conner Inn put on a program featuring a guest speaker, Martin Schwimmer, who spoke on “NFTs, trademarks, and the artistic relevance defense: Hermes v. Rothschild and MetaBirkins.” Artistic Relevance doctrine sets out a defense to trademark infringement if defendant’s reproduction of a third-party trademark is artistically relevant to its expressive works, and if such use is not explicitly misleading. Originally applied to a movie title (Fellini’s Ginger and Fred), the doctrine has now extended the concept of “expressive works” to greeting cards and dog toys. Mr. Schwimmer discussed this trademark concept in the context of marketing non-fungible tokens, encrypted files on a blockchain linked to digital files. It was explained that the blockchain can be used to establish provenance of an item. As explained by Mr. Schwimmer, Hermès, owner of the BIRKINS trademark for handbags, has now sued an artist, under the name META BIRKINS, for selling a collection of NFTs which depicts fanciful depictions of imaginary Birkin bags. Melvin C. Garner Executive Committee Member
Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court Conner Inn Joining Forces with the Linn Inn Alliance and Foundation for Diversity in IP Diversity Initiative The Honorable William C. Conner Inn of Court is a proud Bronze Level contributor and sponsor of a Sidney B. Williams, Jr. Scholar for 2022-2023, which is provided through the Foundation for Diversity in IP Initiative. Sponsored scholars are given an opportunity to participate as student members of the individual Inns of the Alliance – which includes the Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court. Spearheaded by the Hon. Richard Linn and Robert Armitage, the objective of Foundation Partnership, coordinated by Linn Inn Alliance co-chairs Hon. Cathy Bissoon and Amy Gallup Klann, is to bring a “unique set of tools and programs developed and implemented by the Foundation to the member Inns of the Alliance to advance the important goal of promoting diversity within the patent bar.” Under the leadership of Robert Armitage, the Foundation, which was established in 2002 by AIPLA, the ABA IPL Section, and MCCA has a goal of recruiting STEM–educated members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to join the patent bar. Since then, it has nurtured into a pan-Intellectual Property bar with Trustees from IPO, ACPC, and the Linn Inn Alliance. The program provides more than just scholarships: guidance on how to succeed in law school, assists with the patent bar exam, mentors on career paths within IP and provides guidance throughout their law school careers. With the participation of IP Inns such as the Conner Inn, the scholars will be embedded into the practitioner and judicial networks and provide for life-long mentorship and connections. This year, the Sidney B. Williams Scholar Program has hit its current target of 25 1L’s per year. With continued support from the IP Inns and other sponsors, the program is expected to continue to expand. Amy Klann Executive Committee Member
Honored Guests in Attendance Special Guests of Honor Hon. Debra Ann Livingston Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Evan J. Wallach Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Jed S. Rakoff Senior District Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York United States Court of Appeals Federal Circuit Hon. Raymond T. Chen, Circuit Judge Hon. Leonard P. Stark, Circuit Judge Second Circuit Hon. Eunice C. Lee, Circuit Judge Hon. Myrna Pérez, Circuit Judge Hon. Dennis Jacobs, Senior Circuit Judge Hon. John M. Walker Jr., Senior Circuit Judge United States District Courts Eastern District of New York Hon. Carol Bagley Amon, Senior District Judge Hon. Raymond J. Dearie, Senior District Judge Hon. Taryn Merkl, Magistrate Judge Hon. James M. Wicks, Magistrate Judge
Southern District of New York Hon. Laura Taylor Swain, Chief Judge Hon. John P. Cronan, District Judge Hon. Philip M. Halpern, District Judge Hon. John G. Koeltl, District Judge Hon. Lewis J. Liman, District Judge Hon. J. Paul Oetken, District Judge Hon. Lorna G. Schofield, District Judge Hon. Analisa Torres, District Judge Hon. Loretta A. Preska, Senior District Judge Hon. Sidney H. Stein, Senior District Judge Hon. Stewart D. Aaron, Magistrate Judge Hon. Sarah L. Cave, Magistrate Judge Hon. Ona T. Wang, Magistrate Judge United States Patent & Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board Hon. Thomas Giannetti, Administrative Patent Judge Hon. Sheila McShane, Administrative Patent Judge Hon. Donna M. Praiss, Administrative Patent Judge United States Court Executives and Clerks Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Michael Jordan, Circuit Executive Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court United States District Court, Eastern District of New York Eugene Corcoran, District Court Executive United States District Court, Southern District of New York Edward Friedland, District Court Executive Ruby J. Krajick, Clerk of Court
Honoree Hon. Debra Ann Livingston U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
Debra Ann Livingston was appointed United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit on May 17, 2007, entered on duty June 1, 2007, and became Chief Judge on September 1, 2020. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, in 1980 from Princeton University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, in 1984 from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor for the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Edward Lumbard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Livingston was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1986 to 1991, where she served as a Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Criminal Division. She was an associate with the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1985 to 1986 and again from 1991 to 1992, when she elected to pursue an academic career. Judge Livingston was a member of the University of Michigan's Law School faculty from 1992 until 1994 and was there awarded the L. Hart Wright Award for excellence in teaching. Judge Livingston joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 1994 and has taught there since. At the time of her appointment to the Second Circuit, she was the Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at Columbia, where she also served as Vice Dean. Judge Livingston as a co-author of the casebook, Comprehensive Criminal Procedure, and has published numerous academic articles on legal topics. She has taught courses in evidence, criminal law and procedure, and national security and terrorism. Judge Livingston has served on the Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence and, from October 2017 to October 2020, she chaired the Advisory Committee. From 1994 to 2003, Judge Livingston was a Commissioner on New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board. Judge Livingston is a recipient of Columbia's Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. She received the Learned Hand Medal for excellence in jurisprudence of the Federal Bar Council in 2021.
Evan Wallach is judge of the Federal Circuit. Prior to his 2011 appointment he served for sixteen years as a judge of the Court of International Trade. He is holds an LLB (Public International Law) from the University of Cambridge, a JD from U.C. Berkeley and a BA (Journalism) from the University of Arizona, and completed the U.S. Army JAG Advanced Course. At various times he was a Combat Engineer Reconnaissance Sergeant, an Army JAG officer in International Affairs dealing with Persian Gulf War POW and war crimes issues, a litigation partner specializing in media representation in the largest law firm in Nevada, a restaurant critic, and the General Counsel and Public Policy Advisor to Sen. Harry Reid. He has taught and published extensively on the law of armed conflict and maintains a website on the subject, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, New York Law School, Brooklyn Law School, George Washington Law School and the University of Muenster. He has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Air Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Nevada Medal of Merit. From 2015 to 2018 he was a member, and then Vice Chair of the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Naval Academy. He is a member of the American Law Institute, of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Board of Directors of the Lieber Society of the American Society of International Law. His hobbies include fiction, song and poetry writing, photography, cooking and long-distance hiking. In 2017 he completed a nineteen year section hike of the Appalachian Trail.
Jed S. Rakoff has served since March 1996 as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York. He frequently sits by designation on the 2nd and 9th Circuit Courts of Appeals. His most noteworthy decisions have been in the areas of securities law and criminal law. He is an Adjunct Professor at both Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, and also teaches at Berkeley Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. He has written over 170 published articles, 835 speeches, 1800 judicial opinions, and has co-authored 5 books. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, and the author of Why The Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free, and Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2021). Judge Rakoff holds a B.A. degree from Swarthmore College (1964), an M.Phil. degree from Oxford University (Balliol, 1966), and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School (1969). He clerked for Hon. Abraham L. Freedman, US Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit. From 1973-80, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, the last two years as Chief of Business Fraud Prosecutions. From 1980-95, he was a litigation partner at two large law firms in New York. Judge Rakoff served on the National Commission on Forensic Science (2013-17) and as co-chair of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Eyewitness Identification. He served on the New York City Bar Association’s Executive Committee and was chair of the Association’s Nomination, Honors and Criminal Law Committees. He was Chair of the Second Circuit’s Bankruptcy Committee, and of the Southern District of New York's Grievance Committee and Criminal Justice Advisory Board. He served on Swarthmore College’s Board of Managers, on the Governance Board of the MacArthur Foundation’s Project on Law and Neuroscience, and on the Committee on the Development of the 3rd Edition of the Manual on Scientific Evidence. He assisted the U.S. Government in the training of foreign judges in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia, Dubai, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. He is a Judicial Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. He is alsoa member of the board of the Touro Synagogue Foundation and of the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation. Among many other awards, he received the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence in 2018 and the American College of Trial Lawyers’ Leon Silverman Award for Distinguished Public Service in 2021. Judge Rakoff is married to Dr. Ann Rakoff, a child development specialist. They have three daughters and two grandsons. Judge Rakoff has officiated at over 75 weddings. He is the author of numerous lyrics and humorous poems, several of which have been published. His and his wife’s hobby is ballroom dancing. In 2014, Judge Rakoff was listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
Honoree Hon. Evan J. Wallach U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
Honoree Hon. Jed S. Rakoff U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Previous Recipients of the Conner Inn Excellence Award 2021 Hon. Alan D. Lourie, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Richard C. Wesley, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Margo K. Brodie, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York Hon. Paul A. Engelmayer, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York 2020 Hon. Richard G. Taranto, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Denise L. Cote, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Hon. Pamela K. Chen, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York 2019 Hon. Raymond T. Chen, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Richard J. Sullivan, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Kiyo A. Matsumoto, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York 2018 Hon. Pierre N. Leval, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Jimmie V. Reyna, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2017 Hon. P. Kevin Castel, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Hon. Dora L. Irizarry, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York Hon. Kathleen M. O'Malley, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2016 Hon. Timothy B. Dyk, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2015 Hon. Denny Chin, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Sharon Prost, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2014 Hon. Robert A. Katzmann, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Hon. Richard Linn, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2013 Hon. Barbara Jones, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Hon. Colleen McMahon, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York 2012 Hon. Carol Bagley Amon, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York Hon. Pauline Newman, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit Hon. Kimba M. Woods, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York 2011 Hon. Dennis Jacobs, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit 2010 Hon. Raymond J. Dearie, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York Hon. Loretta A. Preska, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York Hon. Paul R. Michel, U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit 2009 Hon. William C. Conner, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court 2020 Annual Reception and Dinner
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