BIO IP Amicus Subcommittee

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Guidelines

Membership:

The IP Amicus Subcommittee ("Subcommittee") will consist of not more than 16 members, at least 12 of which will be corporate members. The Director for Intellectual Property for BIO will appoint members to the Subcommittee and membership appointments will be designed to reflect a diversity of areas of IP specialization. There will be a chair and a co-chair of the Subcommittee, with both the chair and co-chair having extensive experience in IP matters. The members of the Subcommittee will serve for one-year terms, and at the discretion of the director a member may serve consecutive one year terms. All briefs must be approved by BIO's General Counsel before they are filed. Members will be asked for financial contributions for filing of any briefs.

Purpose:

The Amicus Subcommittee will:

1. identify judicial and contested administrative matters where BIO should participate as amicus;
2. review requests from BIO members and the public, to determine whether BIO might participate as amicus;
3. notify the BIO Executive Committee of judicial matters where the Amicus Subcommittee recommends that BIO should participate as amicus;
4. develop and approve the submissions to be made as amicus;
5. notify the BIO Executive Committee of the positions that BIO should take as amicus;
6. when appropriate at the discretion of the chair or Director for Intellectual Property, seek approval of the BIO Board of Directors on amicus submissions developed and approved by the Subcommittee; and
7. secure the submission on behalf of BIO of approved amicus submissions.

Committee Procedures:

1. No member of the Subcommittee may participate in any matter before the Subcommittee where the member has a direct interest in the underlying matter before the Subcommittee. Members of the Committee who are or represent a party with a direct interest in any matter are required to affirmatively recuse themselves from Subcommittee deliberations.
2. A request to the Subcommittee (or by a member of the Subcommittee) to determine whether BIO might act as amicus in a controversy must be submitted to the chair via email. The submission must include, copies of relevant pleadings, motions, decisions, or other papers to reflect the nature of the controversy, the nature of the issue or issues of possible amicus interest, and the underlying positions of the litigants. The Director or the chair will attempt to obtain all relevant information for determination of BIO's interest as amicus.
3. Where a request is made that meets the requirements above, the chair will forward the materials received from the requestor to the members of the Amicus Subcommittee and the Intellectual Property Committee ("committee") via email and indicate a deadline for Amicus Subcommittee members to vote. IP committee members are responsible for contacting the individual Amicus Subcommittee members to provide input as necessary. The vote will represent an initial determination of whether BIO participation as amicus might be warranted.
4. If at least a majority of the members of the Subcommittee do not vote in support of further discussion of BIO amicus participation in a matter, then the Subcommittee will report to both the IP committee and the requester of the Subcommittee's lack of interest in amicus participation and the Subcommittee will undertake no further deliberations with respect to the request.
5. If at least a majority of the members of the Subcommittee do vote in support of further discussion of BIO amicus participation in a matter, the chair will conduct further deliberations concerning BIO participation as amicus and shall schedule a teleconference to discuss the issues and BIO's positions. The Subcommittee will undertake a final vote concerning a recommendation with respect to the amicus request. The Subcommittee will not recommend the participation of BIO as an amicus except upon a two-third's vote of the membership of the Subcommittee.
6. Where the Subcommittee recommends that BIO participate as amicus in a matter (and when the Board of Directors authorization is required, after such authorization has been obtained), the chair shall appoint one or more members of the Subcommittee to serve as a drafting Subcommittee for any submissions that the BIO as amicus might make in connection with the matter. The draft submission will be circulated by the drafting Committee to the remaining members of the Committee and, as finalized and approved by the Subcommittee, be submitted to the Director of Intellectual Property for approval to submit.
7. Upon authorization, the drafting Subcommittee shall finalize the submission, have it signed by the President of BIO or BIO's General Counsel, and submit it to the court on behalf of BIO.

BIO Interest as Amicus:

The Subcommittee shall determine BIO's interest as amicus in a matter by determining whether the matter in issue raises a significant intellectual property issue, including the ability of owners of intellectual property rights to effectively and efficiently obtain redress for infringements or threatened infringements of intellectual property rights.

BIO Board of Director Approval Procedures:

Where appropriate the matter of amicus participation can be submitted to the BIO Board of Directors for approval.

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