This week, Shira Perlmutter, Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will visit Texas A&M University School of Law to participate in events organized by the Center for Law and Intellectual Property (CLIP) at the Law School.

Before joining the USPTO, Perlmutter served as Executive Vice President for Global Legal Policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy at Time Warner. In 1995, she was appointed the first Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office.

On Thursday, March 22, Perlmutter will deliver a presentation on "New Technology and Emerging Intellectual Property Challenges: A Global Perspective." Organized by CLIP in collaboration with the Texas Regional Office of the USPTO, this presentation will be held at the Law School Conference Center from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.

On Friday, March 23, Perlmutter will offer a luncheon address as part of CLIP's annual spring symposium. Titled "Digital Millennium Copyright Act at 20," this symposium brings together legal commentators, policy makers and industry representatives to critically examine the past two decades of developments surrounding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).

Perlmutter's luncheon address will focus on "DMCA at 20: The Global State of Play." The full program of the symposium is available online.

"We are very excited to have Shira Perlmutter visiting the Law School," said Professor Peter K. Yu, who organized both events. "Since the establishment of the USPTO Texas Regional Office three years ago, our Center for Law and Intellectual Property has worked closely with ​them to put together events that are of great interest to the intellectual property community in North Texas."

Yu is currently the director of CLIP and holds a joint appointment at the Law School and the Department of Communication. Under his leadership, the intellectual property law program at Texas A&M University School of Law has been ranked seventh in the nation in the past two years, based on peer surveys conducted by U.S. News and World Report.