Intellectual Property Section

The Intellectual Property Section strives to promote the practice of intellectual property law and focuses on patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and related matters. The Section promotes the development of industry and the useful arts by encouraging the establishment, maintenance, respect for, and utilization of intellectual property rights that fairly balance the limited monopoly enjoyed by the owner of intellectual property rights with the benefit to society derived from the creation of useful subject matter protectable by those rights.

The Section provides benefits to members by providing continuing legal education events, including the Intellectual Property Institute, and publishing a newsletter. The Section conducts outreach activities with members and law students providing financial support to law students attending law schools in Washington State. The Section reviews, comments on, and makes recommendations related to pending legislation, and proposes statutory enactments to improve and to facilitate the administration of justice.

Annual Report  |   Budget  |   Bylaws  |  Year in Review

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Shape Your Section for the Future: Apply Today to Become a Section Leader

Application Deadline is 5 p.m. April 17, 2023.

The following section executive committee positions are open for applications. Regular terms begin Oct. 1, 2023, with remainder terms starting upon election.

• Secretary/Treasurer: one-year position beginning Oct. 1, 2023, and ending Sept. 30, 2024.
• At-Large Member (one position open): two-year position beginning Oct. 1, 2023, and ending Sept. 30, 2025.
• At-Large Member: remainder of current term ending Sept. 30, 2024.

Eligibility Requirements: Applicants must be a current section member and should be eligible to vote in accordance with the section’s bylaws.

Application Process: Go to the myWSBA portal to complete the online application for open executive committee positions. The Section has requested that each applicant submit a statement of interest with your application. This document can be uploaded with your online application (pdf format only). Please be advised that application materials may be posted on this website for public viewing.

Note: If you are applying for more than one position on this or multiple sections’ committees, you must complete and submit all applications at the same time, as you will not be allowed back into the portal at a later time. Please make sure you are completing the applications within the application window for all of the relevant sections.

Nomination Process: The Chair shall annually appoint, in November, a Nominating Committee consisting of no less than three of the Section’s voting members. At least one of the appointees should not be a current member of the Section’s Executive Committee. The Nominating Committee shall prepare a list of nominations for open At-Large Executive Committee member positions, i.e., to fill the positions of At-Large Executive Committee members who will step down from the Executive Committee on September 30 of the following year, and to fill vacancies then existing for unexpired terms. The committee shall also prepare a list of nominations for open Officer positions in accordance with Section 6.02. The Nominating Committee shall present its list(s) to the Executive Committee at an Executive Committee meeting occurring no later than in March of the same Bar fiscal year. The Executive Committee will select final nominees from the Nominating Committee’s list(s) at its March meeting.

The Executive Committee should reflect diverse perspectives. To assist this, all such applicants will apply through an electronic application process administered by the Bar when such electronic application process is available. The application form in the electronic application process administered by the Bar will, on a voluntary basis, solicit information including, but not limited to, the person’s ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, area of practice, years of practice, employer, number of lawyers in law firm, previous involvement in section activities, and skills or knowledge relevant to the position. Any such applicants that apply through the Bar’s electronic application process will be considered by the Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee should actively take factors of diversity into account when making recommendations to the Executive Committee.

Alternate Nomination Process: The Executive Committee may also solicit, each year, from the Section’s members, nominations for open positions to the Executive Committee (hereinafter, “Solicitation Process”). The Solicitation Process will be by way of a call for applications for nominees. The Solicitation Process will commence March 1 of each year and will close no later than March 31. If more than three applications are submitted in any given year, the Executive Committee shall review the applications and select three final nominees from the applications based on demonstrated interest and excellence in the area of intellectual property law, commitment to service, and factors of diversity. If three or fewer applications are submitted in any given year, the three applicants shall be the final nominees from the Solicitation Process, unless one or more of the applicants is not eligible, pursuant to these Bylaws, for the applicable open position(s), in which case the ineligible applicants shall not be included in the list of final nominees. The Executive Committee shall approve a list of nominees for the open Executive Committee positions no later than the end of April each year. The list of nominees shall include the final nominees from the Nominating Committee process and the final nominees from the Solicitation process.

Elections Process: All voting members of the section will receive an electronic ballot sent to their email in June 2023. Visit this webpage in early June for election updates and voting instructions.

Questions? 
For more information about the Section, its executive committee roles, and elections process, please review the Section’s bylaws. You may also contact any member of the current Section Executive Committee or email sections@wsba.org.

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Upcoming! Inland Empire Mini-CLE

Register Now, In-Person Only

Developed in partnership with the WSBA Intellectual Property Section

This Mini-CLE will discuss recent issues in IP surrounding trade secrets, jurisdiction, and strategies surrounding IP disputes, all relevant to a broad range of practitioners.

When: 2–4 p.m. March 3, 2023, 

Credits: 2.00 Law & Legal Procedure

Location: Gonzaga University School of Law

Tuition: $0 — Intellectual Property Section Members (discount applied at checkout), $35 — Standard/Non-Section Members, $0 — Law Students (after adding seminar to car, enter promo code LSNN and click checkout)

Registration will close at noon March 1.

Faculty:
Marcellus Chase, Randal Danskin, P.S., Spokane
Russell Wagstaff, Lee & Hayes, Spokane
Mark Hendricksen, Wells St. John, P.S., Spokane

Register Online Now!

Executive Committee

Please contact subcommittee member for details on their upcoming meeting dates and locations.

To join the Section list serve and get general section questions, please send your email address and Bar number to sections@wsba.org. For more information and to get involved with the Section, please contact the Section chair, Dario Machleidt.