ABA IP Law Conference Hosts "Avatars at the Bar"

By Nazz Lane

On the 1^st of April, the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law’s 24th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference began. The conference brought together practitioners for discussions on critical legal developments in the area of intellectual property. Virtual Worlds was one of the hot topics to be discussed in this year’s forum. Simultaneously at the start of the conference in Arlington Virginia, an “Avatars at the Bar: Welcome Reception” which had been organized by the Young Lawyers Committee of the section, began in the virtual world of Second Life. While this wasn’t the first ABA event in SL, there’d been committee meetings held, this was a first “section-wide” event and also included members of the Science and Technology Section.

Avatar Matheus Saramago (aka Matthew Asbell), who was present in both worlds, kicked off the virtual event by relaying a welcome from Gordon Arnold, the Chair of the Section, in text chat. Mr. Arnold thanked everyone for coming “to this welcome reception, aptly called Avatars at the Bar. We hope you'll enjoy the opportunity to get to know your peers while observing and learning about our simultaneous event in Second Life.” He further commented on this being a joint effort of the IP and Science and Technology sections. He then closed out his comments by acknowledging “the hard work of Chris Bullard of Oblon Spivak and Matthew Asbell of Ladas & Parry, who organized the event” and in thanking the “several sponsors for making this evening possible.” Those mentioned by Mr. Arnold included; The SL Bar Association, the Virtual Intellectual Property Organization (VIPO), the firms of Ladas & Parry, Pillsbury Winthrop, and Stradley Ronon. Entertainment at the event was provided by JueL Resistance, the well known SL Musician, who captivated attendees with her distinctive musical style.

With the event underway, current SLBA President Legal Writer (aka Steve Wu), SLBA President and Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law greeted the SL audience by saying, “Thank you all for coming to this gathering. Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Virgil Chronowire, who is Steven Teppler in RL. He is vice chair of the Section of Science & Technology Law's E-Discovery and Digital Evidence Committee. He is also very interested in virtual worlds.”

As Ms Resistance’s performance began so too did a lively chat amongst the attendees, where they exchanged introductions and comments on the event and venue. Their text chat then took them into topics of discussion that included; potential locations for the Second Life Bar Association headquarters, anecdotal comments on what problems there would be in practicing in SL, Avatar Anonymity and legal issues in SL.

Ida Recreant, an attorney in real life and Business Law teacher, initiated a conversation asking her fellow avatars what were the most critical legal issues in SL and the consensus response was; information protection law issues, copyright, and trademark. Comments coming back to her suggested that, “It most closely parallels copyright and contract law.” While the discussion was underway, noted author and former president of the SL bar Association Benjamin Duranske (aka Benjamin Noble in SL), signaled to the assembled avatars that he was present at the event in Arlington. Mr. Duranske was scheduled to speak at one the panels during the conference.

Shortly after the conclusion of Avatars at the bar, I was able to speak with Mr. Saramago and ask a few questions.

“Were you pleased with the turn out in SL?”

“Yes, but I was a bit distracted by RL events. Most of the time I was explaining to attorneys what SL is and how they might think of it.”

“Is this the first ABA sponsored event hosted in a mixed reality?”

“I heard from one person that they may have done something previously, but I don’t think it was an ABA section event. As I understand it, a committee may have held an event in SL, but this was likely the first event to which all members of the Section of IP Law, as well as the Science and Technology Section were invited. So, it is significant in that the issues raised by virtual worlds are beginning to be recognized even by IP attorneys that are not themselves active in the space. The success of the event suggests that virtual worlds may be on their way to becoming more mainstream.”