Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt has created a new blog focused on IP cases at the International Trade Commission (ITC). Check out their ITC 337 Law Blog, authored by the firm's ITC practice co-chairs, Thomas Fisher and Barry Herman, along with senior associate Eric Schweibenz. I've already added it to my RSS reader—and I've already learned something useful from it, which I'll post about soon.
But first, kudos to Oblon, Spivak for starting this project, which I think is a great idea. I've just started digging into ITC cases in the last few months, and while it's nice that the ITC provides so many public documents without charge, the ITC website and search functions can be quite unwieldy for newcomers. It's a stark contrast to the sources available to get federal court documents, like Pacer, Justia, Stanford Law School's new IP Litigation Clearinghouse, and the many excellent blogs that cover federal courts. And while there's more IP and law blogs now than anyone could possibly keep up with, there is an information gap around the ITC, as noted in the blog's welcome message.
Posting ITC complaints and basic case information in a simple, sequential way, and making documents easy to download, would be a nice public service in and of itself. But it's clear that this blog has the potential to do more, and I'm sure will add a layer of real insight. The best legal blogs go beyond self-promotion to become a true public good, and I already see this project moving in that direction.
With so many law firms eager to drum up more ITC work, I'm sort of surprised this is the first ITC blog out there (at least, that I'm aware of.) But like the patent lawyers are fond of saying… it's all obvious in hindsight, right?
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