2026 AI Patent Symposium Agenda
Presented by NCPP and NAPP · All times Eastern
CLE Session 1 · Governance
The Rules of the Road for AI and Patent Practice
Patent professionals are already confronting questions about confidentiality, privilege, accuracy, disclosure, client communication, supervision, and professional responsibility. This session focuses on the governance decisions that affect AI-assisted patent preparation and prosecution.
Timothy Snowden, CPP, CLP
Confirmed
AI Issues: Present Pressures and Future Possibilities
Dan Smith, CPP
Coulter Henry, Esq., CPP
AIPLA representative*
This panel will address regulation, confidentiality, accuracy, attribution, client communication, disclosure, supervision, professional responsibility, and the future direction of the profession.
0.5 CLE
Governing the Patent Workflow: AI from Intake to Prosecution
Joycelyn Brown
This topic will examine permitted AI use cases, human review, confidentiality protections, documentation, output validation, and responsibility for final patent work product.
0.5 CLE
Risk Management, Ethics, and Confidentiality
Tammy Pennington Rhodes
This topic will address client confidentiality and privilege, tool selection, anonymization, use limits, data retention, vendor access, inaccurate outputs, and practical safeguards for AI-assisted patent work.
0.5 CLE
The Human Judgment Requirement: Ethics in an AI-Assisted Practice
Kimberly C. Kelleher*
This topic will address competence, supervision, diligence, candor, confidentiality, client disclosure, vendor oversight, and independent professional judgment.
0.5 CLE
CLE Session 2 · Operations
From AI Experiment to Repeatable Advantage
The challenge is deciding which work should be automated, how people should use the tool, how outputs should be reviewed, and how AI can improve patent operations without creating rework or new risk.
Operating at the Edge: A Keynote on AI in Legal Work
Ann McCrackin
This keynote will examine how AI is changing patent preparation, prosecution, legal-service delivery, staffing, training, workflow design, and the economics of professional work.
0.5 CLE
Build It Into the Workflow: Deploying AI with Control
Ian Schick, Ph.D., J.D., Esq.*
This topic will address process mapping, task selection, review points, exception handling, documentation, and the difference between AI-assisted work and unsupervised output.
0.5 CLE
Beyond the Headlines: WIPO and the Global AI Conversation
WIPO representative*
This topic will address international AI and intellectual-property developments and their practical relevance to patent preparation, prosecution, disclosure, and global strategy.
0.5 CLE
Making It Work in a Firm: From Pilot Program to Practice
Lestin L. Kenton, Jr.*
This topic will address stakeholder alignment, training, adoption, practice-group differences, client expectations, governance ownership, and scaling AI without compromising quality.
0.5 CLE
CLE Session 3 · AI in the Wild
The Real World of Patent Practice
AI adoption looks different in every patent practice. This session uses four panels to compare large law, small law, in-house, and technology-tool perspectives.
Large Law: Scaling AI Without Losing Control
Kean J. DeCarlo*
Jessica Schulze, Ph.D., J.D.*
Phil Harris, H&H*
Large firms must implement AI across practices, offices, attorneys, staff, workflows, and clients. This panel will address adoption, training, workflow consistency, quality control, security, and client expectations.
0.5 CLE
Small Law: Doing More Without Adding More
Yau H. Chan, Founder and Principal, YHC Intellectual Property
Lisa Schreihart, BSEE, MSEE, MBA, J.D., CPP
Small firms and solo practitioners need AI solutions that fit limited time, staffing, budgets, and infrastructure. This panel will address practical adoption, tool selection, confidentiality, supervision, quality control, client communication, and incremental implementation.
0.5 CLE
In-House: AI Under Business Pressure
Braxton Davis*
Additional in-house panelists — to be announced
In-house teams must connect AI adoption to business priorities while managing data governance, internal policies, risk tolerance, security, outside counsel, and accountability.
0.5 CLE
Technology Tools: AI in Patent Practice: Tools That Do the Work
Technology-provider panelists — to be announced
This panel will examine how AI tools are used in patent drafting, prosecution, prior-art analysis, claim review, portfolio work, and client service. The discussion will emphasize actual patent-practice use cases, demonstrations or representative matters, failure modes, output verification, and practical criteria for choosing tools that fit a specific practice.
0.5 CLE
This Symposium is expected to qualify for 6 hours of MCLE credit. NACLE will try to accommodate requests for CLE credit in your state. Attorneys may be eligible to receive CLE credit through reciprocity or attorney self-submission in other states.