On the morning of March 17, 2022, Catholic Law Professor Elizabeth Winston spoke to over 100 judges from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the Roundtable Series for the Judiciary on IP and Case Management — a program organized by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Global Intellectual Property Academy and the ASEAN Secretariat. Winston’s presentation focused on the issues with technology that is outpacing our patent system including NFTs and Kickstarter campaigns.

Winston commented, “Intangible innovations are eroding geographic boundaries and defying categorization. Adequate protection is not currently provided for intangible innovations — particularly those involving business methods and data. This lack of protection has wide-ranging implications, especially now as data processing is increasingly migrating to ‘the cloud,’ geographic boundaries are eroding, and intangible technology is advancing in importance. Technology has no borders, but our laws do.”