Home Law School News Drake welcomes World Intellectual Property Organization

Drake welcomes World Intellectual Property Organization

On Thursday, March 12, representatives of the World Intellectual Property Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, will visit Drake University Law School to introduce their organization.

The event will be held from 4-6 p.m. at the Neal and Bea Smith Law Center courtroom, 2400 University Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Titled “WIPO Comes to Iowa,” the panel provides an overview of the organization, including its alternative dispute resolution services and the latest developments concerning patent law harmonization. It also offers a detailed discussion of the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The panel is chaired by Professor Peter K. Yu, the Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law and the founding director of the Drake Intellectual Property Law Center.

“We are very excited that WIPO representatives will visit our campus to share their experience and expertise,” said Yu, a leading expert in international intellectual property and communications law. “Central Iowa has a fast-growing intellectual property community, and there is an increasing need to understand better how intellectual property rights are protected in the global business environment.”

The two featured WIPO panelists are:

Todd Larson is a senior counselor of WIPO and has undertaken extensive outreach on behalf of the organization throughout North America. He has been with the United Nations system for more than 15 years, previously serving in various countries with both the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations. He served as Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo from 1983-1985. He received his M.A. and J.D. from the University of Washington.

David Reed is a senior PCT consultant for WIPO. He retired from The Procter & Gamble Co. in 2006, after almost 40 years of service. While at P&G, he managed the company’s foreign filing and prosecution effort, with responsibility for filing and prosecution in Canada, Latin America, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific regions. A Chicago native, he joined P&G in 1966 following graduation from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. He became a registered patent agent in 1988 and has lectured extensively on Patent Cooperation Treaty practice for WIPO and others around the world.

Joining the panel will be Janaé Lehman Bell of McKee, Voorhees & Sease PLC. Her practice includes U.S. and foreign patent prosecution in the biotechnology industry. She received her J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

On Wednesday, March 11, Larson will deliver a lecture titled “WIPO 101” to Drake students in the International Intellectual Property Law seminar.