Strategies for Safeguarding Your Brand in the Digital Age — Corporate Counsel's IP Trademark, Copyright & Licensing Counsel Forum

This two-day event did a great job of covering the array of issues that companies navigate related to trademark and domain name protection and enforcement, focusing on some of the unique challenges presented by the growing role of the Internet and social media in the creation, use, and misuse of intellectual property. Topics included hashtags, crowd-sourcing, utilizing User Generated Content (“UGC”), policing trademarks on social media, domain name issues and combatting the sale of counterfeit goods sold through online channels. Both in-house and outside counsel shared strategies on protection and enforcement in a global marketplace, the importance of developing and implementing internal guidelines for trademark use and social media use, terms of use for online services/content providers, and cybersecurity risk management. Fish & Richardson hosted a panel on the latest developments in copyright fair use, moderated by Kristen McCallion (Principal and Copyright Chair), who engaged panelists from Oxford University Press, the New York Public Library, and BuzzFeed. Rounding out the discussion of intellectual property issues was a patent panel on the implications of the Alice decision and what developments are ahead in the field of software and business method patents. Many interesting questions were raised at this event. It is clear that the universe of issues that brand owners need to deal with have grown exponentially in recent years due to the expanding role that the Internet and social media are playing in the marketplace and staying abreast of these issues is critical to the protection of brand and other company assets. Stay tuned to Fish’s Trademark & Copyright Thoughts blog for further developments on these issues.