In the technology world, lawyers and businesspeople ignore each other at their peril. From intellectual property rules to to communications regulation, law and technology evolve in response to one another. The most successful companies appreciate the importance of legal issues, just as the best lawyers understand their clients’ business needs.

This year at Supernova, we are offering an integrated track of law-oriented sessions. This “conference within a conference” will provide attendees with valuable Continuing Legal Education content, as well as the opportunity to attend other sessions and networking events at the conference. We are applying for six hours of CLE credit in California and New York.

To register, use the conference Registration Page, with the Priority Code “CLE”.

Supernova is uniquely positioned to offer educational content and networking opportunities to technology lawyers, whether in-house or at firms. Organized by a Legal Studies professor at a top business school, Supernova’s hallmarks are the high intellectual caliber of its sessions and the diversity of its participants. The track is co-hosted by the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University Law School, a leading center on technology law.

The legal track will be of interest to attorneys focusing on intellectual property or technology, telecommunications, and government relations, as well as businesspeople who wish to stay abreast of the latest tech law developments in a stimulating, interactive environment. For no additional fee, legal track participants can attend all sessions at Supernova, including networking events with top-level technology entrepreneurs and executives.

The legal track is spread across two days of Supernova 2009, giving attendees maximum flexibility. Prior to the general sessions at the Mission Bay Conference Center on Tuesday, December 1, there will be a morning of legal content, followed by a legal networking lunch. On Wednesday, December 2, one track of Challenge Sessions at Wharton | SF will address legal issues, along with business topics. Planned sessions are listed below:

Pre-Conference Legal Track (December 1)

Social Networking in the Workplace
(Sponsored by Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe)
The meteoric rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as social communications tools such as Twitter, pose a series of new legal questions. Can employers take action for content their employees post on their own time? What are applicable legal standards of privacy when searching an employee’s work computer? Is IM ever appropriate for the workplace? Can executives make forward-looking statements on Twitter? What are best practices for electronic use policies? What services will lawyers need to think about next year?

Updating Copyright: A Fair (Use) Fight?
(Sponsored Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher)
Web 2.0 is a classic case of technology evolving more rapidly than the law. The statutory fair use defense in the United States was codified in 1976, and even the DMCA, passed over 10 years ago, did not anticipate the proliferation of microblogs, mashups, wikis, and other social networking tools. Are these technologies and developments such as Google’s Book Search, Creative Commons, and peer-to-peer file pushing the envelope for copyright too far? Are there ways to address the explosion of user generated content within existing intellectual property law… or is a major overhaul needed? And what practical steps should companies take in the interim?

Trademarks and Intermediaries
(Sponsored WilmerHale)
How can a company protect its valuable marks and goodwill online, given the uncertain legal environment? The long-term trademark implications of the EBay luxury good cases, the recent Rescuecom v. Google keyword decision, and Facebook’s decision to sell “vanity URLs” on a first-come, first-served basis are still to be determined. More generally, the role of intermediaries such as eBay and Google, and the legal safe harbors that protect them from liability, are significant legal battlegrounds. Could judicial decisions undermine the foundations for electronic commerce? Are legislative changes necessary to protect rights holders?

Legal-Oriented Challenge Sessions (December 2)

Mobile and Location-Based Services: Can you see me now?
(Sponsored by Latham & Watkins)
The Internet is rapidly going mobile. How well will the business models and practices for the wired world translate to a wireless environment of location-based services and handheld devices? And what will it mean to have individuals’ location and movements potentally recorded and used by network operators and content providers? Are there ways to design systems and offerings that meet the needs of both users and service providers?

Privacy and the Social Web
(Sponsored by Davis Wright Tremaine)
The ease with which personal information can be collected, shared, and used in a networked digital environment creates a host of privacy questions. Lack of social consensus makes these questions more difficult to address. Should there be limits on behavioral targeting for online advertising? Are social networks public spaces, private, or something in between? What data retention obligations do such sites owe their users? When should individuals’ right to anonymously comment online be outweighed by public policy concerns? And should individuals be able to waive their privacy rights by implication through their online conduct? Is “privacy” even the right concept any more?

Broaderband: What Comes After Universal Connectivity?
(Sponsored by Wiley Rein)
The most important questions for communications networks concern not speed but functionality. What kinds of new services and activities will be possible with next-generation infrastructure? What are the drivers to ensure these networks reach their full potential? What are the key issues in the broadband stimulus grant program, and the FCC’s national broadband strategy proceeding? How will legal decisions on policy questions such as network neutrality shape the broadband ecosystem?

Government’s New Deal
(Sponsored Patton Boggs)
Connected information technology will be the platform supporting innovation in health care, the environment, transportation, education, economic development, and other fields, not just computing and telecommunications. Newly active governments will play major roles as both policy-makers and participants in markets. How will the Obama Administration’s policy initiatives in areas such as open government, antitrust, diplomacy, and other areas after the legal and business environment for innovation?