1 October 2011Patents

CIPA Congress 6-7 October, London

One of the key difficulties facing businesses of any size in the current climate is keeping costs under control. And where intellectual property is concerned, those difficulties can be exacerbated all too easily by expensive litigation. But in the UK, the Patents County Court is proving an excellent attempt to address the problem. At the CIPA Congress, Judge Colin Birss will speak about the progress of the court, and how it is tackling the problem of over-costly litigation.

Giving the keynote address will be Margot Froehlinger, of the European Commission’s DG Markt. As someone who has been heavily involved in proposals for a European Patent and a European Patent Court, she can give an insider’s perspective on the European situation.

The two-day conference also features a range of interesting panel sessions. Former CIPA president Alasdair Poore will chair a discussion of the challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises in protecting and exploiting their intellectual property, while other sessions will deal with topics ranging from anti-counterfeiting to the Patent Prosecution Highway.

Interestingly, one panel will look at what happens to intellectual property assets during corporate repositioning, mergers, disposals and acquisitions, with reference to panel members’ own experiences. Chaired by Gregory Corcoran of AMSL Netherlands, it will take in the challenges of corporate rebranding, due diligence, and the assignment and licensing of IP in transaction agreements.

Dr Michael Jewess is vice president of the IP Federation and former intellectual property counsel for several companies, including latterly, BAE Systems. He has experienced several corporate rebrandings, as a result of transactions and corporate decisions, in his intellectual property career.

He will talk about the various types of activity that can result in rebrandings, whether the acquisition of one company by another, or an internal reorganisation involving assets being moved between companies in a group with no change of overall ownership.

Karl Barnfather of Withers & Rogers and Jonathan Ball of Norton Rose LLP will also speak about the nuts and bolts of managing transition when companies change hands or rebrand.

The final keynote speech will be delivered by Roha Ghafele of Oxford University, who has researched crowdsourcing as a means of enhancing the quality of patent examination.

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