New AIPLA Chief Will Prioritize Diversity and Content Access

In light of becoming the new president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA),  Finnegan partner Patrick Coyne was interviewed by Managing Intellectual Property  to discuss his appointment and what initiatives he will prioritize. Patrick wishes to look for ways to “reengage with our members and come out of [the COVID pandemic] in a way that allows everyone to feel comfortable and willing to get involved again.”

To foster a high level of re-engagement, Patrick stated that diversity will be his top priority. He explained:

“When I started in IP, most people in the profession were white and male – there were very few women or minorities, and almost no female minorities…”

“That’s changed a lot and got a lot better, which is really good because it’s not a good thing for a society to have so little diversity – but more work needs to be done. If nothing else, for IP litigators in the U.S., we try cases to juries – and to be persuasive we need to be able to relate to people.”

He stated that there has been growth with women in the legal profession, but there is still room for growth around inclusion and diversity, especially for minority candidates: “It’s better than it was, but we still have gross underrepresentation of minorities, and it’s got a long way to go. We need to do better in attracting and retaining people who aren’t coming into the profession.”

Patrick’s second priority as president is to provide wider access to AIPLA content produced over the years and re-packaging information in ways that are more accessible (i.e., podcasts, publishing in journals, etc.):

“All of that content is available to our members, but what we’ve noticed since COVID is that people now need to be able to access that content in different ways than they had historically – it can’t just be the case of calling up headquarters or coming to a meeting anymore,” he says.

“We need to better manage that content and figure out ways to get it to our members more effectively.”

Another goal includes focusing on AIPLA’s international outlook and increasing advocacy abroad to restore connections with international organizations:

“It is the ‘American’ and not ‘international’ IP law association, but we have a substantial number of international members that have joined us as associate members…”

“We’ve also been very engaged in harmonization efforts and cooperation with different groups, including the Korean IP Lawyers Association and the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys in the UK.”

Along with increasing advocacy abroad, Patrick wants to highlight the importance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit:

“People say the law is made in the Supreme Court … They take 80 cases a year. The Court of Appeals issues thousands of decisions a year and try to set good legal standards…”

“We try to be very active and engaged in the Federal Circuit for that reason.”

Read “New AIPLA Chief Will Prioritize Diversity and Content Access”