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“Enforcing IP in the Exo-Economy” online on November 10, while LES Switzerland and LES Germany bring colleagues together in Basel on November 12 to examine development and license agreements in life sciences. It’s a good reminder of the range of industries—and business challenges—connected through our global community.
On November 13, the LESI YMC Pan-European Conference in Amsterdam is this year’s 2nd regional YMC gathering (next up Santiago in December!). These meetings offer valuable opportunities to build relationships across borders and connect with the next generation of licensing leaders. Then, join us online November 17 for les Nouvelles LIVE, bringing the September edition’s ideas into conversation with our community.
Looking further ahead, LES South Africa’s Annual General Meeting in Stellenbosch on November 26 offers another opportunity to reconnect and help shape the Society’s direction. Explore the calendar below, register for a session, and make time to connect with your LES colleagues!
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LES USA-Canada
"Enforcing IP in the Exo-Economy (Licensing in Space)"
Tuesday, 10 November 2026
4:00pm - 5:30pm (EST)
ONLINE
Strategies for Ownership, Jurisdiction, and Assertive Licensing in Space Operations
As the commercial space sector expands into a thriving off-world market, asserting and enforcing intellectual property beyond Earth presents unprecedented legal, jurisdictional, and operational hurdles.
"Enforcing IP in the Exo-Economy (Licensing in Space)" brings together leading experts from legal academia, civil space, national research facilities, and commercial NewSpace pioneers to explore how organizations can secure freedom-to-operate, enforce patents in orbit, and execute assertive licensing strategies across international boundaries.
Featuring perspectives from NASA Johnson Space Center, the Ole Miss Center for Air and Space Law, Relativity Space, former SpaceX counsel, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, this session will offer critical insights for protecting baseline space technology, managing jurisdictional ambiguity, and safeguarding off-world innovation as space operations scale.
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LES Switzerland & LES Germany
"Development and License Agreements in Life Sciences"
Thursday, 12 November 2026
8:30am - 6:00pm (CET)
BASEL, SWITZERLAND
Join on 12 November 2026 in Basel for a seminar dedicated to designing robust development and license agreements and managing risks across the lifecycle of life sciences collaborations.
The seminar is organized by LES Switzerland in cooperation with LES Germany.
Bringing together senior in-house legal counsel from global pharmaceutical innovators, a member of the Swiss Competition Commission, and leading practitioners, the program explores both strategic deal making and practical risk allocation.
Sessions address key challenges across the collaboration lifecycle, including:
- Structuring deal architecture and long-term governance;
- Drafting dispute-proof financial clauses (upfronts, milestones, royalties, etc.);
- Allocating ownership and access rights to IP, improvements and data;
- Navigating termination and exit rights, post-termination mechanics, and party insolvency;
- Reviewing Swiss and EU competition law trends;
- Resolving complex disputes arising out of license and development agreements.
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LES USA-Canada
"Unfettered Invention-How the X Patents Sparked America's Technology"
Thursday, 12 November 2026
12:00pm - 1:00pm (EST)
ONLINE
Dr. Julie Burke, PhD. (Founder, IP Quality Pro, and former USPTO Patent Examiner) in her new book 'Unfettered Invention, How the X Patents Sparked Early American Technology' reveals hundreds of lost 19th-century patent records and uncovers the original downfall of the original U.S. Patent Office: severe underfunding, fixed fees, and a refusal to adopt modern tools.
Today, the USPTO faces these same administrative traps as it struggles under a massive backlog. Instead of fixing its fragile, legacy IT systems, agency leadership is rushing to layer automated search engines on top of a broken foundation. Bound by an applicant-fee model, the agency lacks the direct funding that other federal branches use to rebuild basic infrastructure. By ignoring the historical lessons of 1836, the USPTO risks replacing a physical disaster with a modern, digital failure.
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LES USA-Canada
"When Everyone Has AI, What Sets Your Company Apart?"
Thursday, 12 November 2026
11:00am - 2:00pm (PST)
MENLO PARK, CA, USA
AI is changing how new technology gets developed, from software and chip design to drug discovery and materials. That raises new questions about what is worth patenting, how to protect it, and what makes a patent portfolio commercially valuable.
Join the LES USA-Canada Silicon Valley Chapter for a panel on how patent strategy should evolve with AI-driven innovation. Panelists include executives from Google and other AI and IP leaders. The panel will look at how AI is reshaping patent search, drafting, and prosecution, and address the larger question: how do you turn faster innovation into lasting competitive advantage?
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LES USA-Canada
"Licensing & Valuation in Action:
From Deal to Dispute - Navigating IP Resolution and Litigation Damages"
Thursday, 12 November 2026
6:00pm - 8:00pm (EST)
NEW YORK, NY, USA
Building on the previous session focused on structuring agreements to avoid disputes, this next installment explores the realities of what happens when deal negotiations break down and parties must navigate deadlocks, dispute resolution, or full-scale litigation.
Panelists will share practical strategies for alternative dispute resolution, including the use of neutral intermediaries to find low-cost ways out of complex valuation disagreements. The panel will also explore IP litigation damages, sharing case studies on how valuation models must sharpen to hold up under evidentiary standards like Daubert. Guidance will be provided on how to translate these litigation methodologies into practical valuation insights for every day, out-of-court deal-making and licensing.
Speakers:
- Candice Cornelius, Managing Director, Stout
- Steve Holzen, Managing Director, Stout
- David Yurkewish, Senior Managing Director, Ankura
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LESI Young Members Congress (YMC)
"YMC 2026 Pan-European Conference"
Friday, 13 November 2026
9:00am - 6:00pm (CET)
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
UNBOUND MINDS: BREWED FOR CHANGE
(De)regulation, enforcement & business-minded IP strategy
LES Benelux YMC, together with the support of its board and LESI, is delighted to organise the 13th Pan European LESI Young Members Congress Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on November 13, 2026.
In the city of the free spirit, they will explore a timely question: is “(de)regulation” to foster European competitiveness enforceable or desirable for both hard IP and soft IP?
Topics that will be discussed include:
- Updates on EU competition rules for technology licensing: practical implications
- The EU Pharma Package – Incentives and Access
- Knowledge Dissemination, Transparency Obligations & Trade Secrets
- UPC & PMAC
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LES USA-Canada
"Limitations and Purpose of IP Valuation and License Grant"
Monday, 16 November 2026
10:30am - 2:00pm (CST)
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA, USA
Co-hosted by the LES USA-Canada Iowa Chapter & the Minnesota NCMA.
The topics will explore IP contractual impacts of Value and the Grant.
Morning Session: Value Driving IP Terms in the License
Afternoon Panel: Dissecting and Understanding License Grant Verbiage
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LES International
"les Nouvelles LIVE: Spotlight on the September 2026 Edition"
Tuesday, 17 November 2026
9:00am - 10:00am (EST)
ONLINE
Join LESI for the next Nouvelles LIVE! online event to hear the “making-of” stories from the authors of articles in the September 2026 edition.
The September 2026 issue of LESI’s les Nouvelles is something to behold! This edition reflects on the interaction between AI and copyright law in numerous jurisdictions throughout the world. There are also summaries and deeper dives on several relevant aspects that were revealed during the survey of the various jurisdictions. If you have questions about how AI has impacted the treatment of copyrights, this is your issue!
Speakers:
David Drews, LESI Editor
George Hwang, Project Director and General Issue Editor
Althaf Marsoof, Survey & Country Reports Editor
Liu JingWen, Survey & Country Reports Editor
Dana Robert Colarulli, LESI Executive Director
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LES USA-Canada
"IP Valuation from Theory to Practice Part 2:
How Do Experts Determine IP Value - The Mechanics of IP Valuation"
Tuesday, 17 November 2026
12:00pm - 1:00pm (EST)
ONLINE
This 50-minute webinar (hosted by LES USA-Canada's High Technology Sector) will provide a practical overview of how valuation professionals determine the economic value of intellectual property (“IP”) and the professional judgment involved in that process.
The program will begin with the critical first step of defining the valuation problem, including the IP being valued, the standard and premise of value, the valuation date, and the purpose of the analysis. The presenters will then examine the three traditional valuation approaches—income, market, and cost—and commonly used methodologies. The discussion will highlight the strengths and limitations of each approach and why different circumstances may call for different methodologies. The webinar will also explore the key qualitative factors that can drive IP value.
Throughout the program, the presenters will emphasize that IP valuation is not simply a mechanical calculation, but an exercise that requires the integration of financial analysis, market evidence, IP-specific considerations, and professional judgment to develop a supportable conclusion of value.
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LES USA-Canada
"Brand Expansion & Licensing Part 9: Own-able – Transcending Commodity Status"
Wednesday, 18 November 2026
12:00pm - 1:00pm (EST)
ONLINE
What does it actually take for a brand to stop being just another option on the shelf and become something people feel they own a piece of?
In this session, Pete Canalichio (Founder and Managing Partner, Brandalive) will dig into the LASSO Framework's Own-ability pillar — the legal, emotional, territorial, and monetary claims that separate a defensible brand from a commodity — through real cases like Apple's decade-long IP strategy (and its billion-dollar showdown with Samsung), Coca-Cola's $5,000 jewel-encrusted collector cans, and CrossFit's meteoric rise from 13 gyms to a $4 billion global movement built on a radically simple licensing model.
He'll also look at how nonprofit giants like Sesame Workshop and the Girl Scouts have built licensing programs worth hundreds of millions by owning something far more powerful than a product — an idea people want to belong to.
Whether you're protecting what you've already built or figuring out how far you can extend it, you'll leave with a sharper set of questions for deciding what your brand truly owns — and what that's worth.
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LES Benelux
"Topic Day: Open-Source Licenses"
Wednesday, 25 November 2026
9:00am - 5:15pm (CET)
ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Join LES Benelux for a closer look at open-source licences. After an introduction to software, intellectual property and open-source in general – the session will examine specific clauses of open-source licences, as well as the compatibility of different open-source licences with one another.
Program at a glance
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Software and intellectual property: Bert Gravendeel, Partner at Fruytier Lawyers in Business, Amsterdam
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Introduction to Open-Source Software licenses: Merlijn Bazuine, IP manager at TU Delft/Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Complex clauses of open-source licenses: Maurits Westerik, Attorney at law at Coupry, The Hague
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License compatibility, a matter of due diligence: Walter van Holst, Principal Consultant, Hooghiemstra + Partners, Rotterdam
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Open-Source and AI: Christina Boca, IP Business Specialist at Imec, Leuven
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Free as in Freedom, not as in Free Beer (The Realities and Pitfalls of Monetizing Open Source): Emiel Brok, Global Sovereignty Ambassador at SUSE & active advocate within DOSBA
- A Soft-skill session: International, Cultural and Regional Negotiation Habits, with contributions of Menno Treffers, Treffers Alliance Management, Eindhoven; Laura Lapienyte, Business Developer Manager at VIB Innovation & Business, Brussels and Carmen Correa Martin, TTO Legal Counsel, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam
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LES Czech Republic-Slovakia
"2026 Annual Conference"
Thursday, 26 November 2026
9:30am - 3:30pm (CET)
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
Join LES ČRS for their 2026 Annual Conference: INNOVATION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND STARTUPS IN THE ERA OF AI
A day full of current topics including:
- Technology transfer and commercialization of research
- European support for innovation
- Digital and AI start-ups
- Valuation of intangible assets and IP
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LESI Global Technology Impact Forum (GTIF) Committee
"What If IP Could Change the World? From Knowledge to Social Impact"
Thursday, 26 November 2026
8:00am - 9:30am (EST)
ONLINE
What connects traditional knowledge, technology transfer and AI used to tackle gender-based violence? This session (hosted by LESI's GTIF Committee) explores how IP can unlock the value of knowledge by enabling its protection, transfer and real world application. Through radically different use cases, we will ask how IP can help transform knowledge into innovation, scale and meaningful social impact.
Speakers:
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LES South Africa
"2026 Annual Conference"
Friday, 27 November 2026
8:00am - 5:00pm (SAST)
STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA
HEALTH INNOVATION WITHOUT LOSING THE IP
Cross-border research, ownership, data, licensing and commercialisation
South African health research and innovation have enormous potential to deliver both local impact and global value. But how do we build successful international collaborations while protecting intellectual property, retaining appropriate commercialisation rights and ensuring meaningful benefits for South Africa?
LES South Africa's 2026 Annual Conference will explore these questions through expert presentations, panel discussions, practical case studies and an interactive negotiation session.
The programme will feature discussions on:
- Ownership of IP in internationally funded research collaborations.
- Licensing health innovations without giving away the commercial upside.
- Health data, genomics, biological materials and responsible commercialisation.
- Structuring research agreements, data rights and IP ownership before scientific collaboration begins.
- Moving health innovations from laboratory discoveries to investment, licensing and market access.
The conference will conclude with a forward-looking discussion on building a South African Health-IP Action Agenda, bringing together perspectives from funders, investors, innovators and IP specialists.
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LES Italy
"Design Protection and Enforcement via Copyright"
Monday, 30 November 2026
2:00pm - 5:30pm (CET)
MILAN, ITALY
On 30 November, LES Italia will bring one of the most topical and widely debated issues in intellectual property law to the table: the protection of designs through copyright, in light of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s recent ruling in the Mio/Konektra case and the recast of the EU Design Directive.
The programme promises a high-level discussion, beginning with an overview of the applicable legal framework and case law by Eleonora Rosati (Stockholm University) and Michael Ritscher (MLL Legal Ltd), followed by a comparative perspective on Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, with contributions from Giovanni Guglielmetti (BonelliErede), Tobias Cohen Jeoram (De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek) and Henning Hartwig (Bardehle Pagenberg). The event will conclude with a panel featuring representatives from the business community — Flos, Prada and Fiam — exploring how these issues translate into practice in the lighting, furniture and luxury fashion industries.
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LESI Americas Committee, LESI Young Members Congress & LES Chile
"LESI Americas & YMC 2026 Annual Conference"
Wednesday-Saturday, 2-5 December 2026
SANTIAGO, CHILE
On behalf of the LESI Americas & YMC Committees, you are invited to join in beautiful Santiago, Chile at their conference from December 2 to 5, 2026.
Hosted by the LES Chile and LES Americas Committees, this event will feature keynote sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities with industry leaders.
The conference will bring together the licensing, technology transfer, and intellectual property communities of Latin America, the Caribbean, and USA/Canada under the theme “Licensing the Future: Turning Technology into Value and Impact in LatAm.”
Conference: December 2-5, 2026
Pre-Conference Educational Licensing Training: December 2, 2026
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LES USA-Canada
"Holiday Happy Hour"
Wednesday, 9 December 2026
5:00pm - 7:00pm (PST)
SAN DIEGO, CA, USA
‘Tis the season to celebrate! Join LES USA-Canada's San Diego Chapter for a holiday happy hour on December 9 at Gravity Heights in Sorrento Valley.
Enjoy festive drinks, great conversation, and an opportunity to connect with fellow licensing and intellectual property professionals as they toast to the holiday season.
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LES USA-Canada
"A Fly in the Ointment? What AI-Generated Code Means for Licensing"
Thursday, 10 December 2026
12:00pm - 1:00pm (EST)
ONLINE
AI coding tools are moving far beyond autocomplete. Today, they can generate features, run tests, and help push software toward production with limited human involvement. For anyone who licenses software in or out, that shift raises a basic question: what exactly is being licensed when much of the code was written by a machine? Unsettled questions around copyright protection for AI-generated code, open source and copyleft obligations, and security can undercut the ownership representations, warranties, and indemnities that licensing deals have long taken for granted.
Join Stas Zakharenko and Tony Decicco, Principals at GTC Law Group, as they explore how AI-driven software development is changing risk for licensors and licensees alike, and what policies, technical controls, and contract terms can help licensing professionals.
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To get the most out of the Licensing Executives Society International, active participation in the activities and events of the Licensing Executives Society International is a must. And what better way to do that than to join a Committee and to participate in its events and activities.
The LESI Industry, Professional and Regional Committees are open to any LES member worldwide and the Committees are always looking for new talent to support and drive forward the objectives of the Licensing Executives Society International.
Join an LESI Committee
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If you have any questions about the events or joining a committee,
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