July 18, 2017
AAP CEO Maria A. Pallante to Receive Top Intellectual Property Award
Washington, DC; July 18, 2017 – Association of American Publishers President and CEO Maria A. Pallante will receive the 2017 Champion of Intellectual Property (ChIP) Award on Wednesday, July 19, at a reception hosted by The Honorable Sharon Prost, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Special guest Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Congressman and Chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, will offer remarks during the award ceremony.
Presented by the D.C. Bar Intellectual Property Law Community, the ChIP Award honors an individual who has served the IP community with distinction, based on a nomination and voting process open to about 2,300 IP professionals. In a letter to Pallante, the Intellectual Property Law Community’s co-chairs highlighted her “far-reaching career in IP,” including her current leadership of the AAP and her public service as U.S. Register of Copyrights from 2011–2016. “Your work in the private sector and public sector has made a lasting mark in the intellectual property field,” they wrote.
Since January 17, 2017, Pallante has served as president and CEO of AAP. The AAP is the leading advocate for book and journal publishers in the United States, representing nearly 400 publishers of fiction, nonfiction, textbooks, and educational products as well as scientific, technical and medical journals on legal, policy, and related business issues. In June 2017, Pallante was named a trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA by its membership.
As Register, Pallante worked closely with congressional leaders to assess and resolve complex policy questions during an active period of copyright review; supported trade, treaty, and litigation efforts across the U.S. government; and administered a complex system of copyright laws, regulations, and practices. Under her leadership, the Copyright Office produced the first comprehensive revision of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices for the digital era (2014). She also conducted dozens of regulatory proceedings and produced important public studies on complex subjects such as the implementation of the “making available right” under U.S. law, the music marketplace, statutory licenses, and copyright small claims.
Pallante delivered numerous published lectures during her government service including the 2012 and 2013 David Nelson Memorial Keynote Addresses at Berkeley School of Law, Orphan Works & Mass Digitization: Obstacles & Opportunities; and The Curious Case of Copyright Formalities; and the 2016 Roger L. Shidler Lecture at the University of Washington School of Law, From Monkey Selfies to Open Source: The Essential Interplay of Creative Culture, Technology, Copyright Office Practice and the Law. Her lecture at Columbia Law School in 2013, The Next Great Copyright Act, spurred the most comprehensive process of Congressional hearings on copyright law in decades.
Prior to her government service, Pallante was named a New York Super Lawyer during her eight-year tenure with the worldwide Guggenheim Museums, where she advised on issues involving the commission and collection of contemporary art and developed a signature trademark program involving the Guggenheim’s iconic brands and architecture. Early in her career, she handled transactions and litigation for members of the Authors Guild and National Writers Union. Pallante is a graduate of The George Washington University School of Law.
The D.C. Bar’s reception is an annual event for the area legal community, bringing together practitioners, judges, government staff, and other distinguished guests from the IP field. The Honorable F. Scott Kieff of the United States International Trade Commission will deliver keynote remarks. Reception information is available here.
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