This past July, longstanding member of the listserv community Terry Carroll suggested that a new listserv be created for discussions of some general intellectual property topics that did not fall squarely within any of the existing listservs. Today it is launched. As a reminder, the existing listservs include the following:
- e-Trademarks – for trademark practitioners
- Madrid – for practitioners who are users of Madrid Protocol
- PCT – for practitioners and paralegals who are users of Patent Cooperation Treaty
- Designs – for practitioners protecting industrial designs (including US design patent practice) and including Hague Agreement practice
- Copyright – for copyright practitioners
- EFS-IL – for practitioners who use the e-filing system of the Israeli patent office
- EFS-Web – for US patent practitioners and paralegals
- PAIR – for practitioners who are users of PAIR
- Patentcenter – for practitioners and paralegals who are users of Patentcenter
- ST26 – for practitioners and paralegals who are getting ready for the transition to the ST26 standard for sequence listings
As Terry pointed out, none of these existing listservs squarely offered a place to discuss, for example, trade secrets, confidential information or non-disclosure agreements. Other listserv members pointed out that licensing, asset and portfolio acquisition, and IP components of corporate transactions might also span all areas of IP in a generic way (across patents, copyrights, and trademarks for example) and would not fit squarely within in any of the existing listservs.
It did not take long for more than seventy people to express interest in joining such a practitioner community. So today it is launched. The listserv is called “IP-transactions”. Here is its charter:
IP-transactions is a listserv for collegial discussion among practitioners in the areas of trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, employee agreements, licensing, asset and portfolio acquisition, and IP components of corporate transactions. These topics may extend generically across trademark, patent, copyright and trade secret subject matters. This is not a place for lay people to seek legal advice. Responses to requests for referrals of counsel should be provided off-list.
For more information, or to subscribe, click here.