Now that our Copyright and Technology conference is over, I’d like to draw your attention to a public meeting at the United States Patent and Trademark Office next Thursday, January 25th, called Developing the Digital Marketplace for Copyrighted Works. This is a follow-on to a similarly-titled workshop that the USPTO held a year ago. The location is the USPTO’s main offices in Alexandria, VA, just outside Washington, DC, and very close to Washington National Airport.

The intent is to facilitate cross-industry dialog about steps that need to be taken to grease the wheels of commerce in digital content, and to discover the role that government (such as the USPTO, which sits within the Commerce Department) could most usefully play. It’s not widely known, but the USPTO deals with copyright issues for the Executive Branch of U.S. government (whereas the Copyright Office sits within the Legislative Branch).

I’ll be giving a keynote talk, which will frame the issues and set the stage for panel discussions on topics such as metadata, registries, content identification, licensing automation, and the global landscape. Several industry luminaries, stakeholders, and representatives from exciting startups are confirmed on the agenda. Registration is free and encouraged. Last year’s public meeting was a great success and I’m looking forward to this one.