Local Chapters

Silicon Valley Chapter Finishes 2018 With A Bang

Thanks largely to the tireless efforts of Larry Udell, chapter chair, and Martha Casey, event coordinator, the LES Silicon Valley Chapter's annual "IP Year in Review" was a resounding success. Eighty-seven people attended the panel discussion and networking lunch, on Wednesday, December 12 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto. Rouse International sponsored the gathering, a festive occasion to review the year's key decisions affecting licensing law and practice and to enjoy the company of friends and colleagues.

Serving as moderator was Suzanne Harrison, of Percipience LLC. The panelists were Joe Yang, of PatentEsque Law Group, LLP; Kent Richardson, of Richardson Olivier; Jeremiah Chan, Director and Associate General Counsel, Head of Patents, Facebook; John Cabeca, of the USPTO, Silicon Valley; and Chris Bailey, of Rouse International.  

Pleasantly surprised by the excellent turnout, SV Chapter Chair Larry Udell commented, "The event was well attended—and only two weeks before Christmas! All the comments rated the panel as 'terrific.'" The SV chapter is already planning events for 2019, which will be its 19th year. On the horizon is a one-day meeting on May 14, it features the new Leading Edge Series at the Silicon Valley USPTO office. For more information visit: www.lesusacanada.org/page/leadingedge

LES NYC End-Of-Year Celebration!

By T. Alexander Puutio, LES NYC Chapter Chair

LES members and leadership gathered at Fox Rothschild's 101 Park offices on December 13 to wrap up 2018. They celebrated with seasonal catering, general merriment and delightful conversations. The night was an overall success with many members taking part that had not otherwise spent time with LES during the year. Several new volunteers offered to help set up new events in 2019 and they look forward to arranging the next event in February 2019. Thanks goes out to former Chapter Chair Janet MacLeod who hosted us for the event.

LES Chicago Holiday Networking Luncheon

By Mark Hankins, LES Chicago Chapter Chair

LES Chicago Chapter held their annual Holiday Networking event at Maggiano's in downtown Chicago where 20 attendees enjoyed their famous Italian food. This year in addition to networking, the attendees were asked to assist the Chicago Chapter Leadership team by sharing their preferences and ideas for Chapter events. All the attendees introduced themselves to the group and discussed what they were most looking for from LES generally and the Chicago Chapter in particular.  

The Leadership team was able to get some great feedback on the type of events that the Chapter would like to see—educational and social both with opportunities for members to network. Best times to hold meetings and suggestions for new meeting locations were also discussed. LES Chicago has a unique challenge in that we have two membership hubs; downtown (attorneys, valuation firms, accounting, etc.) and the North Shore (diagnostics, hospital supplies, pharmaceuticals etc.), so having new locations to meet is important to our Chapter.  Finally, a number of specific events: licensing in the movies, trademarks, and artificial intelligence were discussed.

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 LES held a Symposium on Patenting in 2019 on January 23, 2019.  Chapter Chair Ray Van Dyke was pleased to have as a key speaker Laura A. Peter, the new Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent & Trademark Office.  Ms. Peter spoke at length about the initiatives within the USPTO to increase certainty when dealing with patents—whether during prosecution, litigation, post grant or licensing. She spoke about the USPTO's new Guidelines on Subject Matter Eligibility, Post Grant Procedure now using the Phillips standard of review, new tools for use in prosecuting patents, and tales of current entrepreneurs and innovators.

Ray Van Dyke, the moderator for the event, also spoke on the above Guidelines on Subject Matter Eligibility and recent Guidelines on Section 112, along with the historical treatment of software-type innovations. In general, the view is that Directors Iancu and Peter are making significant improvement to the patent process and system, undoing the damage inflicted over the past decade or so. As per Ray, an inflection point has occurred and the patent system is on an upswing.

LES President Bob Held gave a summary of LES initiatives, and discussed the advantages of LES in various technological and economic sectors where LES offers a unique perspective with its Standards Initiative.

Silicon Valley tech guru Sanjay Prasad and Washington State deal wizard Everardo Ruiz gave presentations on the current state of startups and valuations, where patents figure prominently. Indeed, 84% of the assets of most startups are intangible in nature, e.g., patents and other intellectual properties.

Prof. Ken Porter, a Director of Technology Commercialization at the University of Maryland spoke about his experiences. Ken is currently on the Board of Directors for AUTM.

After a lively catered reception, the LES (Liquor Enjoyment Society) continued with a presentation by Ray Van Dyke on the importance of technology, innovation and patents through history, illustrating numerous important inventors, such as Morse, Bell, Edison, Tesla, the Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs, and more, with tales about their exploits. 

LES Montreal Hosts Wine Event

By Martin Couillard, LES Montreal Chapter Co-Chair

On December 5, 2018, the LES Montreal Chapter organized, together with the Montreal chapters of Women In Bio and the Canadian Healthcare Licensing Association, its traditional Holiday cocktail event. This event was generously sponsored by Fasken and held in its downtown Montreal office. We had more than 100 participants that had the chance to discover wines from Spain and Germany from barbuVINS who also sponsored the event.

The LES Montreal Chapter is already planning major events in 2019. Importantly, for a second year in a row, the LES Montreal Chapter and the LES Quebec City Chapter will be proud supporters of the "Symposium on Licensing in Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences" (www.licensingai.com).

The first edition held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal on May 17, 2018, attracted more than 450 participants. This event was also co-organized by HEC Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal, Université de Montréal, Univalor and IVADO.

This symposium aimed to promote IP licensing in artificial intelligence and data sciences. The participants learned about best strategies for data sharing, IP protection, licensing and collaboration (open source, patents, data licensing, copyright, trade secrets). Worth mentioning, presentations on licensing strategies and approaches used at different universities were given, including an inspiring keynote given by Daniel Dardani from the MIT Technology Licensing Office.

Building on this success, a second edition will be organized on May 1, 2019. The goal will now be to promote the sharing of knowledge and of best practices pertaining to IP and open innovation. In other words, we will explore how IP and open innovation can go hand in hand to help businesses and research collaboration.
Therefore, to enrich reflection, this second edition of the Symposium will be co-organized with the International Forum of Intellectual Property Québec (FORPIQ), on the following theme: "Navigating in an era where open innovation and intellectual property intertwine." Visit www.forpiq.com and www.licensingai.com.