The Microsoft case, Clinton administration policy and intellectual property rights all will be discussed at a Cornell Law School symposium Saturday, April 10, titled "Antitrust Meets Intellectual Property." The forum, which will be at the Weiss faculty lounge, Myron Taylor Hall, Cornell Law School, is free and open to the public. It was organized by the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy (JLPP), a student-run journal.

Among the participants are David Boies, the lead trial lawyer for the U.S. government in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., and Stephen Houck, who heads New York state's antitrust bureau.

U.S. antitrust laws were enacted to protect consumers from the problems caused by monopolies of products and services. Intellectual property laws were passed to protect the rights of those who develop unique products and services; the goal was to encourage innovation. Those two very different sets of regulations have gone head to head in the courts recently. The conflict has been aggravated by the arrival of the Information Age, the explosive growth of the technological marketplace and recent litigation in these areas.

Among the issues that will be addressed by symposium participants are the Microsoft case -- the ongoing litigation between the U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft over allegations of antitrust violations. as well as the Clinton administration's antitrust policy and conflicts between antitrust enforcement and the exercise of intellectual property rights.

"We chose this topic as an area of focus because of the rising tensions between these increasingly significant areas of the law," said Andrew Levy, editor in chief of the JLPP. "The way these conflicts are resolved has a dramatic effect on how people live their lives, do business and get access to and use information."

Each year, the JLPP hosts a forum on significant policy interests that draws academicians and practitioners from around the world. Papers presented at the symposium are published in a special issue of the journal.

The agenda and panelists for the April 10 forum are as follows:

10-11:30 a.m.

"United States v. Microsoft":

• David Balto, Federal Trade Commission
• Professor George Bittlingmayer, University of California at Davis Graduate School of Management
• David Boies, lead trial lawyer for the United States in U.S. v. Microsoft
• Don Boudreaux, Foundation for Economic Education
• Professor Thomas Hazlett, University of California at Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics; American Enterprise Institute associate

12:30 p.m.

• Presentation by Stephen Houck, New York state assistant attorney general, chief of New York State Antitrust Bureau

2-3:15 p.m.

"Clinton Administration Antitrust Policy":

• David Balto, Federal Trade Commission
• Professor Zorina Khan, Bowdoin College Department of Economics
• Professor William Kovacic, George Mason University School of Law, visiting professor at George Washington University School of Law

3:30-4:45 p.m.

"Antitrust and the Intellectual Property Monopoly":

• Dennis Karjala, University of Arizona School of Law
• Marina Lao, Seton Hall University School of Law
• Lauren McCollester, Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner