ROBIC’s Conference on Patents: A Success

Aimed at innovative entreprises involved in the patent field, this half-day conference brought together over 100 people in downtown Montreal. Given the enthusiasm for this event among participants, the location of the event had to be changed twice to accommodate a greater number of guests.

Topics covered were directed towards the American business community. As master of ceremony, Dario Pietrantonio, Partner, introduced the first speaker, Isabelle Girard, Partner. Ms Girard started the day with a conference on the patent reform taking place in the United States. She presented concisely the changes brought in particular by President Obama on the American Invents Act.

Then, Bob Sotiriadis, Partner, covered patent litigation in the United States in terms of strategies to reduce risk and better manage them.

François Painchaud, Partner, followed with a presentation on licensing as a business model. With historical and statistical background on the licensing business model, Mr Painchaud discussed the commercialization of technology and its strategic implications for business.

Finally, Michael Lasinski, partner at 284 Partners in Michigan, was the guest speaker at lunch time. Mr. Lasinski specializes in determining the commercial value and royalties from intellectual property. He acted in the transaction of the Nortel patents sale to Apple, Ericsson, Microsoft, Sony and EMC, which attained $ 4.5 billion. He finished the day’s program with a presentation on his involvement in intellectual property transactions that have been well-publicized lately.

Given the success of this event, ROBIC plans to hold further intellectual property and business law of IP conference sessions in the coming months. This conference will be held again in Spring 2012 in Quebec City. The picture album is available here.