ABOUT
The Task Force was co-chaired by Katherine Simpson Allen and Matthew Kavanaugh, with David Fournier, John E. Murdock, and Elaine D. Ziff serving as vice chairs and Howard Darmstadter as editor.
The Task Force met jointly with the ABA Business Law Section Commercial Finance Committee’s Intellectual Property Financing Subcommittee at the ABA annual meetings from 2009 through 2013, the Business Law Section’s spring meetings in 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015, and the Business Law Section’s annual meetings in 2014 and 2015. Beginning in 2012, the Task Force also held monthly meetings by conference call.
Guided by John Murdock, the first few meetings in 2010 and 2011 focused on using a document assembly software program to construct a model agreement by collecting provisions in similar agreements available in the EDGAR database and analyzing their relative frequency of use. The initial 2012–2013 working drafts were based in large part on this system, but for various reasons the Task Force ultimately reverted to a more traditional drafting approach.
Co-chair Kathi Allen, vice chair Elaine Ziff, and editor Howard Darmstadter acted as a de facto drafting committee. Kathi prepared initial drafts, Elaine provided expert commentary on IP law and practice, and Howard edited each draft to streamline and simplify the language.
Revised drafts of the agreement and/or the accompanying report were distributed to the Task Force, and posted on the Task Force website, a few days before each Task Force meeting (whether held in person or by telephone), and the new drafts were discussed at the meeting. Based on the issues raised and discussed at the meeting, the process of revision, distribution, and discussion was repeated for the following meeting.
In addition to its co-chairs, co-vice chairs, and drafting committee, the Task Force was supported in its work by members of the Task Force and members of the Commercial Finance Committee’s IP Financing Subcommittee. (Lists of members are available on the respective website home pages for the Task Force and Subcommittee.) The following members of both groups provided especially critical support by attending meetings frequently, reviewing drafts, sending comments, correcting errors, drafting sections, explaining legal technicalities, updating practice tips, offering solutions to drafting problems, and resolving occasional differences of opinion:
- Warren E. Agin
- Leianne S. Crittenden
- Patrick A. Guida
- Kiriakoula Hatzikiriakos
- Marilyn C. Maloney
- Pamela J. Martinson
- Peter S. Munoz
- Stephen L. Sepinuck
- Pauline M. Stevens
- Stephen T. Whelan
The Task Force also enjoyed the support of successive chairs of its sponsoring Committees: Lynn A. Soukup, James Schulwolf, and Neal J. Kling of the Commercial Finance Committee, and Penelope L Christophorou, Norman M. Powell, and Kristen David Adams of the U.C.C. Committee.
