Back to Vail: The IP CLE Conference, January 6-9, 2027

by Dennis Crouch

Time to make January plans. The IP CLE Conference returns to the Grand Hyatt Vail on January 6-9, 2027, and I will again be handling the patent case law review on Saturday morning. David Bernstein (Debevoise & Plimpton) and Scott Alter (Michael Best) co-chair the program, which is co-sponsored by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. This is the ski CLE, so the schedule is built around the mountain: morning sessions run 7:00 to 9:15, the middle of the day is a “Ski Break,” and the program picks back up from 4:00 to 7:00 in the late afternoon.

I have been coming to this one for years, and what keeps me returning is the mix of people in the room and wintery mix on the mountain. Federal Circuit Judge Kara Stoll and Judge J. Campbell Barker (E.D. Tex., Tyler) close the conference Saturday afternoon in a bench-and-bar dialogue with Willy Jay, who moved his Supreme Court and appellate practice to Paul Weiss last month. Two in-house panels bookend the final days: CoorsTek, Sandisk, and Medtronic on Friday, then Dolby, Samsung, Microsoft, Pure Storage, and Intel on Saturday.

The patent block. Saturday morning is the patent-heavy stretch: Lisa Kattan (Baker Botts) on navigating the ITC, my look back at 2026, and Brian Rosenbloom (Rothwell Figg) on prosecution issues. Friday’s late-afternoon session may be the one most worth planning around. Scott Alter and Jon Trembath are covering IPR and reexamination strategy, including how to avoid enhanced damages, “in view of a fluid Patent Trial and Appeal Board.” That is a diplomatic phrase for the Director’s expanded control over institution, which the Office is now defending across a substantial volume of litigation.

AI runs through the program. Nick Aries (Bird & Bird, London) and Megan Bannigan (Debevoise) open Thursday morning on protecting IP against AI systems; Kendall Howell (Debevoise) has the ethics hour on practicing in the age of AI; and Ann McCrackin covers AI tools for the IP attorney on Friday. There is a full trademark and copyright track as well, including Tsan Abrahamson (Cobalt) on the PTO and TTAB, Mindy Sooter and Louis Tompros (WilmerHale) on copyright, Josh Lerner (Debevoise) on trade secrets, Phyllis Marcus on the National Advertising Division, Jeremy Kaufman (Versant Media) on art forgeries, and a domain-name governance panel with Brian Beckham of WIPO, Dana Brown Northcott of Amazon, and Zak Muscovitch of the Internet Commerce Association.

Registration and the full agenda are at cle.com. A good number of attendees each year never put on skis and still have a fabulous time.

I will start assembling the 2026 case list in December. If there is a patent decision or issue you think belongs – send it my way.