LES Chapter Cup Awards 2018

LES Chapter Award winners: Presenter Louise Levien, VP of Local Chapters (left), Ray Van Dyke, Washington D.C.; Jonathan Hance, Houston; Ron Laurie, Silicon Valley; Stephen Kabakoff, Atlanta; Tanya Moore, Seattle; Justin Lewis, San Francisco; and Joshua Slavit, Philadelphia.

Chapter Awards­—Presented to the chapters each year at the annual meeting (based on the performance of the chapters over the past year—September 1-August 31)

1. Most Creative Chapter Event—Houston—Chair: Chris Johnson and Past-Chair: D.C. Toedt
2. Excellence in Chapter Leadership—Atlanta—Chair: Stephen Kabakoff
3. Highest Attendance at Chapter Event—Montreal who had 85 attendees—Nicholas Betram and Martin Couillard (Past Chairs- Veronique Bougie and Christine Martens)
4. Most Chapter Events—Silicon Valley with 10 events—Ron Laurie and Lawrence Udell
5. Chapter Cup (Large Chapter)—highest number of new members by a chapter with at least 100 members—18 new members Washington D.C.—Chair: Raymond Van Dyke
6. Chapter Cup (Small Chapter)—highest number of new members by a chapter with less than 100 members—14 new members Seattle—Chairs: Tanya Moore and Tandi Collisson

Awards 1 and 2 are based on nominations submitted in advance. The nominees are reviewed by a committee made up of the current and incoming East and West Chapter Directors on the Board of Trustees.

Special Recognition was made for chapters who have relaunched in 2018:                 

LES Philadelphia Chapter              
LES San Diego Chapter                 
LES San Francisco Chapter            
LES New Jersey Chapter   
LES Orange County Chapter          

LES Philly Relaunches Chapter

LES Philly Chapter is back! After a three-year hiatus, LES Philly held a Relaunch Networking Mixer on September 27 at the Harvest Radnor. Over 45 attendees reconnected, and heard about LES past, present, and future programs from CEO Kim Chotkowski. They also learned about LES Philly's plans for 2018-2019. There was a short program that covered local initiatives with Philly Startup Leaders, biotech sector, and Philly Tech Week. 

The board of committee for the LES Philly Chapter consists of Harry Vartanian, Senior Patent Agent at Volpe and Koenig, Simone Temporal, Ph.D., Licensing Associate, Office of Technology Transfer at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Shival Virmani, at Western Digital*. There is more to come! LES Philly's next event on December 4th will feature speakers from Osage University Partners and Rittenhouse Ventures, two local venture capital firms, who will highlight their 2018 deals, as well as their forecast for 2019.

LES Washington D.C. Chapter Event

by Raymond Van Dyke, Greater Washington, D.C. and Virginia Chapter Chair

   The Greater Washington D.C. chapter of the Licensing Executives Society had its 2018 Patent Damages Symposium, which featured a distinguished panel of experts for a discussion on patent issues, with a particular focus on recent Supreme Court and Federal Circuit rulings that impact the method and process of assessing patent infringement damages. The panel shared their views and experiences on the changing nature of patent litigation and the direction infringement damages will take in future cases. Topics included extraterritorial damages, apportioning lost profits, the entire market rule, surveys, citation analysis, regression and relevant case law. The panelists included:

  Steve Crenshaw, Cooley LLP; Stephen Holzen, Stout Risius Ross; John Jarosz, Analysis Group; Jeff Stec, Berkeley Research Group; Jennifer Vanderhart, Analytics Research Group.

  Afterwards, the Chapter had a cocktail reception, and then a featured speaker.

  The evening speaker, Frank Cullen, Vice President for U.S. Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center, a director of the GIPC's domestic IP policy advocacy and research programs, provided an overview of GIPC and the broader Chamber's IP principles and policy priorities. He also discussed the many issues of interest to IP stakeholders across industry sectors. With nearly 20 years of service as a senior congressional staffer, combined with extensive private sector experience, Cullen has a unique perspective on how today's IP policy debates are playing out and the potential impacts changes to IP policy may have for the creative and innovative industries that depend on a strong IP system to flourish in the global economy in the digital age.

Read LES Viewpoints December 2018 Edition here