Reflecting on Our ABA-IPL Year

• Pages: 1-2
• Date: 01 June 2025
• Published date: 01 June 2025
• Author: Susan E. McGahan

LANDSLIDE June/July 2025

Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 4, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

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American Bar Association.

1

PERSPECTIVE

Thank you to William Boudreaux for

leading this eort.

•

Congress: Comments advocating for

remedies to combat digital piracy or

“site blocking.” These measures aim

to help copyright owners combat

large-scale commercial piracy, partic-

ularly from foreign websites, through

the creation of no-fault injunctive

remedies. Thank you to the Copy-

right Law Reform Task Force and

Pippa Loengard for their leadership.

Approved ABA-IPL Section Policies

Council has approved two key resolutions:

•

A context-specific, fact-intensive

approach for courts determining

“patented” false advertising claims

under section 43(a)(1)(B) of the

Lanham Act, including whether such

claims conflict with the Patent

Act. Thank you to Alessandra

Masciandaro for chairing this policy

eort.

•

Legislation requiring entities oer-

ing generative artif‌icial intelligence

(GenAI) tools to disclose, upon

request, any copyrighted works

ingested by their tools. Special thanks

to Pippa Loengard and the Copyright

Law Reform Task Force for their

contributions.

Education and Value

The ABA-IPL Section remains committed

to providing expert content, educational

opportunities, and practice resources to

advance the intellectual property (IP)

profession. Recent and upcoming programs

include:

•

February 7, 2025: Annual Copy-

right Day: Held at the U.S. Copyright

Office in Washington, D.C., this

event allowed participants to engage

with Register Shira Perlmutter and

her team to learn about ongoing

initiatives and law student oppor-

tunities, particularly regarding

AI issues. Thank you to Tammy

A

s I write this f‌inal letter, it marks

the conclusion of my term as chair

of the ABA Section of Intellectual

Property Law (ABA-IPL). Serving as the

face of ABA-IPL domestically and abroad

has been a profound honor.

Before delving into the ABA-IPL

Section’s recent accomplishments and

applauding its leaders, I want to remind

my fellow members of the oath we took

during our bar admissions before becom-

ing ocers of the law: to uphold the rule of

law and the Constitution regardless of the

circumstances. This commitment is echoed

in a joint statement by the ABA and over

50 bar associations in support of the rule of

law (https://www.americanbar.org/news/

abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/03/

bar-organizations-statement-in-support-

of-rule-of-law/).

Advocacy Highlights

For a comprehensive overview of the

Section’s advocacy initiatives, please visit

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/

intellectual_property_law/initiatives/.

ABA Day 2025 Digital Broadcast

ABA Day Online is a select advo-

cacy event, and Andrew Coffman,

Chris Katopis, and Susan McGahan

were invited to participate in a call-to-

action video addressed to members of

Congress (https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=uWHswuWXdyU). The discus-

sion emphasized the need for federal

legislation to prevent unauthorized digi-

tal replicas and voiced ABA-IPL’s support

for the reintroduction of the NO FAKES

Act by Senators Coons and Blackburn and

Representatives Salazar and Dean. This

legislation aims to protect individuals and

creators from digital replicas.

ABA Day Online IP and the TAKE IT DOWN Act

breakout session. Screenshot from YouTube.

Submitted House of Delegates Resolutions

and Reports

The ABA-IPL Section has submitted the

following resolutions and reports for

adoption at the August 2025 ABA Annual

Meeting:

•

Brooklyn Brewery Resolution: This

resolution seeks support when f‌iling

an infringement claim or unfair

competition under the Lanham

Act in federal court or appealing a

Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

decision. It argues that competition

between parties’ goods or services

should not be a prerequisite for

establishing Article III constitutional

standing. Special thanks to Kate Saba,

Bruce McDonald, and Alessandra

Masciandaro, with input from Ted

Davis, for leading this initiative.

•

ICANN Resolution: This resolu-

tion requests an amendment to

ICANN’s def‌inition of “DNS abuse”

to include any deceptive use of trade-

marks in relation to domain names,

the Domain Name System protocol,

or other digital identif‌iers similar in

form or function. Thank you to Roger

LaLonde for spearheading this eort.

Letters Submitted to Government Agencies

The ABA-IPL Section has also submitted

the following letters:

•

USPTO: Comments addressing

the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual

Property, Genetic Resources, and

Associated Traditional Knowledge.

Susan E. McGahan

Ref‌lecting on Our ABA-IPL Year

Susan E. McGahan is chair of the ABA

Section of Intellectual Property Law.

She is assistant vice president, senior

legal counsel at AT&T in New Jersey. She

can be reached at sm1561@att.com.