Professional dignity and judicial prestige establish the tone at the Bench and Bar Conferences, making them profoundly insightful experiences for attending litigators. The 2023 Bench and Bar Conference held by the Delaware Chapter of the Federal Bar Association was no exception.
On the first day, I was privy to two panel discussions, including a resourceful recap offered by the IP/DE blog. The topics essentially revolved around appellate issues and litigation funding.
The former panel comprised an exceptional line-up of circuit judges who facilitated a complex discussion around claim construction, a fundamental aspect of patent cases. The conversation further highlighted the importance of preparing the district court’s claim construction for appellate review to avoid significant decisions being made by the CAFC panel during an appeal.
In addition, the panel offered several valuable tips for managing appeals. Engaging an appellate specialist was brought up as a worthy consideration, alongside the essence of being direct and succinct in citing important points from the record. The complexity inherent to patent cases underscores the importance of these considerations, as there are often numerous potential appealable issues.
The second panel engaged the audience with a dynamic discussion on litigation funding, a topic I have covered concerning Delaware’s practicesin the past. This included the controversial question of whether funders can implicitly control funded cases. Moreover, various traditional funding schemes, recent high-profile cases involving third-party litigation funding, and the probability of these discussions continuing in the future were all thoroughly examined.
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