This Week in Washington IP: AI Applications in Cyberspace, Innovating Active Carbon Management Technologies, and INTA’s Annual Meeting Live+

This week in Washington IP news, Senate committees are planning to host hearings on the applications that artificial intelligence can have in cyberspace, both for good and bad actors, as well as legislative proposals that could force social media platforms to increase transparency regarding algorithms for targeted advertising and news feeds. During the first half of the week, the International Trademark Association hosts its first in-person Annual Meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic began, although this year’s edition retains many virtual elements for registrants who cannot attend in person. Elsewhere, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation explores how national governments can improve active carbon management R&D, while both New America and the Heritage Foundation focus on Big Tech issues surrounding either legislative proposals on censorship or shareholder proposals on environmental and social issues.

Monday, May 2 

American Enterprise Institute 

Private Stablecoins: Fad or Lasting Innovation?

At 10:00 AM on Monday at AEI Auditorium, 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036.

Last November, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) issued a report on stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that achieves stability by tying its value to corresponding fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar, raising concerns about achieving the proper regulatory framework to achieve consistency in oversight. In recent weeks, draft legislation for creating a regulatory framework to incorporate stablecoins into the U.S. financial system has been introduced by Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), while Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN) has circulated a legislative draft in the House that reportedly would enable dividend-producing stablecoins to register as a security with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This event will feature a discussion on the future of the private stablecoin industry with a panel including Kara Calvert, Head of U.S. Policy, Coinbase; Sean Campbell, Chief Economist, Financial Services Forum; Bert Ely, Principal, Ely & Company; and moderated by Paul H. Kupiec, Senior Fellow, AEI.

International Trademark Association 

2022 Annual Meeting Live+

At 12:15 PM on Monday at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt. Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC 20001.

The Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association returns to in-person sessions for 2022, though many of the workshops and table topics will also be available virtually to registrants. Starting on Saturday, INTA’s Annual Meeting will continue through Wednesday and features programming along several education tracks including building a better society through brands, enforcement and anticounterfeiting, innovation and the future of IP, the business of brands as well as complementary rights, regulatory issues and brand restrictions. This year’s Annual Meeting features INTA’s first-ever Solution Showcase, which highlights success stories in branding and technology as well as short programs on building dynamic skills. The Grand Finale of the INTA Annual Meeting takes place at 7 PM Wednesday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery with an after-party to follow at Ultrabar. 

Brookings Institution 

The Future of American Air Power

At 1:00 PM on Monday, online video webinar.

Growing military tensions across the world have cast a spotlight on the need for the United States to improve its military capabilities, especially in the Air Force and Space Force. Especially in the Air Force, aging aircraft and defense systems will need to be replaced in the coming years with technologies that are still under development, including hypersonic flight systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. This event will feature a fireside chat on how the U.S. military can develop new air combat systems to deter potential aggressors with the Honorable Frank Kendall, Secretary of the Air Force, U.S. Department of Defense; and Michael E. O’Hanlon, Director of Research, Foreign Policy, Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Africa Security Initiative, and the Sydney Stein, Jr. Chair. Following that conversation will be a discussion with a panel including Kevin Mickey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Air Dominance Division, Northrop Grumman; Mike Moeller, Vice President for Business Development and International Programs, Pratt & Whitney; Rebecca Grant, President, IRIS Independent Research; Stephen P. Mueller, Vice President for USAF Programs, Lockheed Martin; and moderated by Michael E. O’Hanlon.

Tuesday, May 3

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Active Carbon Management: Critical Tools in the Climate Toolbox

At 10:00 AM on Tuesday, online video webinar.

Active carbon management technologies, including carbon capture and storage as well as direct air carbon capture, can help combat the effects of climate change while ensuring that global consumers across the globe have their energy needs met. These technologies could be capable of helping national governments meet climate goals set out in treaties like the Paris Agreement, but a recent report from ITIF highlights the need for national policymakers to increase federal incentives as well as funding for research, design and development (RD&D) to create new active carbon management tech. This event will feature a keynote address by Jennifer Wilcox, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (Acting Assistant Secretary), Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, U.S. Department of Energy. The findings of the recent ITIF report will be presented by Stefan Koester, Senior Policy Analyst, ITIF. The event will also feature a discussion on active carbon management tech with a panel including Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY), Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives; Peter Freudenstein, Climate Policy Manager, Climeworks; David M. Hart, Senior Fellow, ITIF; Jeff St. John, Director of News and Special Projects, Canary Media; and Anu Khan, Deputy Director of Science and Innovation, Carbon180.

American Enterprise Institute 

STEM Voices: Women and Minorities in the STEM Workforce

At 2:00 PM on Tuesday, online video webinar.

Despite recent advances in diversity efforts which have introduced a higher number of girls to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers at a young age, and have even increased the number of women who enroll in STEM degree paths at institutions of higher education, women have yet to make up one-third of the total STEM workforce in the United States. In July 2020, the American Enterprise Institute released a report on barriers on the STEM workforce finding in part that women are more likely than men to face obstacles on their career path in STEM fields. This event will feature a discussion regarding interviews conducted for the 2020 STEM workforce report with a panel including Anne Kim, Contributing Editor, Washington Monthly; Nicol Turner Lee, Senior Fellow, Brooking Institution; and moderated by Brent Orrell, Senior Fellow, AEI.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Trademark Basics Boot Camp, Module 5: Application Filing Walk-Through

At 2:00 PM on Tuesday, online video webinar.

This workshop, the fifth in the USPTO’s Trademark Basics Boot camp series, is designed to teach small business owners and entrepreneurs the basics of using the agency’s Trademark Application Electronic System (TEAS). Topics covered in this workshop include TEAS basics, pre-filing checklists as well as a demonstration of TEAS Plus. 

Senate Subcommittee on Cyber

Hearing to Receive Testimony on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Operations in Cyberspace

At 2:30 PM on Tuesday in 232A Russell Senate Office Building.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have applications on either side of the cybersecurity equation. On the defense side, AI can provide a more dynamic approach to ferreting out malicious code than current signature-based detection systems, many of which are typically only capable at identifying known malware. However, for attackers, AI algorithms employing machine learning techniques can dramatically increase the opportunities that hackers have to infiltrate and abuse critical systems. The witness panel for this hearing will include Dr. Andrew Moore, Vice President and Director, Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence, Google; Dr. Eric Horvitz, Technical Fellow and Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft; and Dr. Andrew Lohn, Senior Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University.

Wednesday, May 4

New America

Charting the Future of Big Tech Accountability

At 10:30 on Wednesday, online video webinar

Although the recent Big Tech Scorecard issued by Ranking Digital Rights shows that some progress has been made by major online service providers in terms of promoting internal governance while protecting both freedom of expression and consumer privacy, the 2022 scorecard shows that no Big Tech firm has yet to earn what the consumer rights organization considers a passing grade. This slow improvement is creating a tension with a rising tide of calls from civil advocacy groups seeking transparency on algorithms used for targeted advertising, as well as shareholders who are increasing their calls for environmental, social and governance (ESG) resolutions to ensure these companies improve their social consciousness. This event will feature a discussion on the regulatory and legislative activities ongoing to heighten accountability for Big Tech firms with a panel including Jessica Dheere, Director, Ranking Digital Rights; Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, Corporate Engagement and Advocacy Manager, SHARE; Jesse Lehrich, Co-Founder, Accountable Tech; Chris Lewis, President & CEO, Public Knowledge; Katarzyna Szymielewicz, President, Panoptykon Foundation; Sophie Zhang, Facebook Whistleblower; and moderated by Nathalie Maréchal, Policy Director, Ranking Digital Rights.

Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law 

Platform Transparency: Understanding the Impact of Social Media

At 2:00 PM on Wednesday in 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Legal frameworks providing access to social media platform data for researchers and the general public are at the center of a series of bills currently being debated in Congress that would increase some access to paid advertising, algorithmic reporting for content removal, and reasonably public or viral content. With the European Union enacting the Digital Services Act, which requires online service providers to provide much of the same information, commentators in the U.S. have urged Congress to move its own bills forward, enabling data researchers to perform analysis on misinformative posts or algorithms used to deliver offensive content to users. The witness panel for this hearing will include Brandon Silverman, Founder and Former CEO, CrowdTangle; Nate Persily, James B. McClatchy Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; Professor Daphne Keller, Director, Program on Platform Regulation, Cyber Policy Center; Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Jim Harper, Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Professor Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University Stern School of Business.

Thursday, May 5 

Heritage Foundation

Big Tech Censorship: How Does the First Amendment Apply to the Internet?

At 1:00 PM on Thursday at the Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002.

The censorship of certain topics and dialogues taking place online has grown into a hot debate in political circles around our nation’s capital in recent years. The Internet came of age thanks to many developers who saw the World Wide Web as the greatest free speech tool that humanity could access. On the flip side, the spread of misinformation during political campaigns has contributed to domestic and international tensions, leading many to question whether social media platforms have a role in ensuring that such content should be reasonably removed. However, that viewpoint has caused some pushback from those who feel that such reasonable censorship would remove a lot of authentic political discourse, thus hurting the civil nature of our society. This event will feature a discussion about how the First Amendment applies to content shared over the Internet with a panel including Kara Frederick, Director, Tech Policy Center; Adele Malpass, President, Daily Caller News Foundation; Josh Hammer, Newsweek Opinion Editor and Syndicated Columnist; Niam Yaraghi, Senior Fellow, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution; and moderated by Paul J. Larkin, Rumpel Senior Legal Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 

The Path to a Patent, Part IV: Learn How to Draft a Patent Application

At 2:00 PM on Thursday, online video webinar.

This workshop, the fourth in the USPTO’s eight-part Path to a Patent series, is designed to teach prospective patent applicants about the requirements of drafting patent applications for filing with the agency.

Friday, May 6 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 

PTAB LEAP: Preparing for Your AIA Argument

At 12:00 PM on Friday, online video webinar.

This workshop hosted by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) Legal Experience and Advancement Program (LEAP) provides attendees with tips from experienced practitioners on how to prepare for and conduct oral arguments before the PTAB in America Invents Act (AIA) trials. Speakers at this event will include Miriam Quinn, Lead Administrative Patent Judge, PTAB; Andrew S. Ehmke, Haynes and Boone, LLP; and Eldora L. Ellison, Stern, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC.