Mock Trial Explores Legal Dilemmas Arising from Technology
November 20, 2000
PASADENA—Can a group of Internet users legally create and freely distribute an operating system that imitates a popular proprietary operating system?
This question, based on a potential real-life situation, will be debated in the mock trial of Closed Corp. v. Open Sesame, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on December 9 in Ramo Auditorium at the California Institute of Technology.
"At the Crossroads: A Retrospective" will be presented by the Program for Law and Technology, a joint academic venture between Caltech and Loyola Law School–Los Angeles, sponsored by Henry Yuen, a graduate of the two schools. Yuen is president and chief executive officer of Gemstar–TV Guide International, Inc. The event is free and open to the public.
The case is an appeal of the decision made by a "judge" during a mock pretrial hearing last year in which the "court" ruled in favor of Closed Corp. which brought a patent infringement suit against Open Sesame. The defendant moved to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction and venue, reflecting the difficulties the legal system faces in lawsuits involving Internet-based organizations that may not have one geographical home base.
The purpose of the program is to bring scientists and lawyers together to explore new developments at the intersection of law and technology. The program plans for a major conference on law, technology and the genome in fall 2001.
The jurist for the mock appeal will be U.S. Appeals Court judge Richard Posner, the attorney for Open Sesame will be Don Baker of Baker & Miller, LLP, in Washington, D.C., and the responding attorney will be Terry McMahon of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, San Jose. Students from Caltech and Loyola will once again participate.
The welcome will be given by Loyola Marymount University president Fr. Robert B. Lawton, S.J., and the keynote address on "Law, Technology and the Genome," will be given by Caltech president David Baltimore.
The case's background, pleadings, trial documents, the court's ruling and other pertinent documents are available on the Program for Law & Technology Web site, http://techlaw.lls.edu.
To RSVP for the event, please call Caltech Corporate Relations, (626) 395-4864.
Members of the media who plan to attend should contact: Jill Perry, (626) 395-3226, jperry@caltech.edu, by 5 p.m. Dec. 7.
