Defensive Patent License Launch Conference

The current patent system poses a growing threat to innovators. Broad patents of often suspect quality can cripple legitimate competitors and prevent new entrants’ access to the marketplace. Patent trolls buy these broad patents and use them to threaten everyone from large companies to start-ups to municipalities and non-profits.

The DPL Launch Conference will focus on innovative private-ordering solutions to address the patent threat issue. These solutions can go hand-in-hand with congressional or judicial reforms. We will discuss Twitter's Innovator's Patent Agreement, Google's four possible approaches to patent licensing, Electronic Frontier Foundation's Trolling Effects resource, and other solutions. Participants include Alexander Macgillivray, former General Counsel at Twitter, Eric Schulman, Director, Patents at Google, and Julie Samuels, Senior Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The conference will then feature and officially launch the Defensive Patent License (“DPL”).