Carr & Ferrell LLP Trademark Attorney to Moderate Panel at International Trademark Association Conference
Joi White, trademark attorney and partner at Carr & Ferrell LLP, will be moderating a panel and speaking on “Security and Surveillance” issues facing brand owners at the International Trademark Association (INTA) Conference in San Francisco on September 19, 2014. The conference, entitled Internet, Innovation and ICANN: The Evolving Landscape of the Net, brings together distinguished leaders of the trademark community, Internet experts, and high-level government officials to speak on a wide range of topics affecting the Internet community.
Members of the Security and Surveillance panel will explore the issues facing brand owners in the wake of recent data breaches at large trusted retailers, and in the light of disturbing revelations about government surveillance and back-door access to customer data. The panel will discuss current polices and practice, and legal reforms on the horizon. White will lead the discussion among panelists representing perspectives from the vantage points of a former U.S. law enforcement official, privacy advocates and policy-makers, and the private sector. Topics of discussion will cover, among others:
- Government request for access in criminal cases and in cases of national security.
- What brands can do to ensure their own security and to re-establish trust with their consumers.
- Corporate responses to government demands for consumer data in the post-Snowden era.
- Offensive and defensive brand attacks.
- Consumer-focused data collection and protection.
“Right now, the media’s eye is keenly focused on data collection and protection and the shocking numbers surrounding massive leaks of personal and financial information from trusted brands," says White. "Faced with an endless stream of reports of data breaches, and bulk access to ‘big data’ in national security investigations, consumers are nervous and looking to trusted private sector businesses to protect their information. Brands, in turn, are faced with difficult choices: no security system is perfect, so what risk is acceptable and ‘reasonable’ within FTC standards? Comply with government demands for consumer data or fight them? Close the back doors to the government and risk harboring terrorist or organized crime activity? All the while, trust, reputation and revenue are at stake.”
Most recently White penned an opinion piece for the San Francisco Daily Journal titled, “Keep Calm and Click On,” on the U.S. government’s decision to accelerate its withdrawal from certain stewardship functions relating to the DNS or the “backbone” of the Internet. The U.S. decision was announced earlier this year, in the shadow of growing global concern over the scope of its security surveillance operations, and its remaining role in core functions of the operation of the Internet.
About Joi White
Joi White is a partner in the Intellectual Property Group of Silicon Valley based law firm, Carr & Ferrell LLP. Specializing in trademark selection, protection and enforcement, both online and in cyberspace, Ms. White counsels clients in a range of high tech fields, including computer security software, e-commerce, and consumer electronics.
In addition to maintaining an active trademark practice for nearly fifteen years, she has also enjoyed contributing to the development of domain name governance policies, both through her work on the INTA Internet Committee where she previously served as Chair of the Domain Disputes & Whois Subcommittee, and in her contributions to various ICANN working groups in areas such as WHOIS reform, domain name dispute resolution policies, and the regulation of domain name registrant privacy and proxy services.