Joseph M. Potenza recently completed his one-year term as Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, the largest IP organization in the world and the oldest substantive ABA section.
In one of his final contributions as Chair, Mr. Potenza moderated a panel session titled, “Women & the World of IP,” during the 2013 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. He was joined by U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Acting Director Teresa Stanek Rea, U.S Patent & Trademark Office Commissioner for Trademarks Deborah Cohn and U.S. Copyright Office General Counsel Jacqueline Charlesworth for a discussion on current and future opportunities for women within IP law. He organized the panel in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.
During the ABA Annual Meeting, Mr. Potenza presented the second annual Mark T. Banner Award to Judge Pauline Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Professor Christina Bohannan of the University of Iowa College of Law. He also received recognition for his year of service at the ABA-IPL business meeting.
His many accomplishments include advocating for improvements in IP law to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, U.S. Copyright Office, U.S. International Trade Commission, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and World Intellectual Property Organization. He lead efforts to develop policy positions and file amicus briefs in influential cases such as The Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., at the U.S. Supreme Court and Lighting Ballast Control LLC v. Philips Electronics North America Corp. and University Lighting Technologies Inc., at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also worked to increase the ABA-IPL’s attention to and presence in international IP law.
A complete list of highlights from the 2012-2013 ABA-IPL year can be found in the July/August 2013 issue of Landslide. Please click here to read the article.
Washington, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton honored Mr. Potenza for his work with the ABA-IPL. On July 19, she read into the Congressional Record an overview of his achievements, both in his 38-year legal career and with the prestigious organization. She asked that her colleagues applaud Mr. Potenza’s “determined efforts to improve the legal process and promote intellectual property across the nation and around the world.”
Please click here to read Ms. Norton’s full statement.
Posted: September 9, 2013
