Welcome to September LES friends! Hopefully refreshed from time with family or traveling to exotic locations near and far, we now resume – with vigor! – our many LES conversations around the world to advance the commercialization of intellectual assets to bring creativity and innovation to the market – AND improve lives everywhere. That’s our mission: and, of course, it takes some time and focus. So, for your part, plan to devote some “LES” time during the next couple months to learn from and contribute to the conversation! 

Here’s your suggested LES to do list:

• See people, in-person. Make your plans to join your fellow LESers in person: LES China will host its Annual Conference in Beijing on September 12 (more info here). LES USA & Canada will host their Annual Meeting in New Orleans, October 20-23 (www.les2024.org). LESI will host its Annual Global Conference in Singapore next April (call for proposals open now; registration opens in November, www.lesi2025.org).
• Connect, engage and learn online. The next EPO-LESI HTB Forum takes place on September 16 – the topic is Open Innovation. The first 2024-2025 LESI Woman in Licensing Alliance (WILA) Speaker Series takes place on September 17. The topic is Building Trust and Managing Teams.
• Join conversations focused on the VALUE of IP. There are a number of online sessions below this month highlighted below. One highlight: September 30, our LESI IP LESI IP & Finance Task Force will hold a first session in a series titled: "IP & Finance 2.0 Quarterly Series - Making Worlds Collide.” This session involves valuation experts in industry and from WIPO (and will be held twice to accommodate multiple time zones). (more info and register here)

More great programs below! The LESI event flyer will now resume its weekly schedule. If you have something for us to add, contact Esha at: NNE@lesi.org. Have a great week, all!

• September 12 - "Co-ownership of IP rights: quo vadis?" (LES Italy) ONLINE
• September 12 - "IP Commercialization Drives Sustainable Innovation" (LES China) BEIJING
• September 12 - "Navigating the US Manufacturing Requirement of the Bayh-Dole Act: Practice, Policy, and Pitfalls" (LES USA-Canada) POTOMAC
• September 16 - "HTB Forum: Open Innovation" (LESI & EPO) ONLINE
• September 16 - "Chapter Meet and Greet" (LES USA-Canada) OTTAWA
• September 17 - "IT Continuity Issues: Escrow as a cure-all?" (LES Benelux) ONLINE
• September 17-October 3 - "Mechanics of a License" (LES USA-Canada) ONLINE
• September 17 - "Speaker Series - Building Trust and Managing Teams" (LESI WILA Committee) ONLINE
• September 23 - "Opportunities and Challenges for Academia/Industry Licensing" (LES USA-Canada) CORALVILLE
• September 25 - "Challenges with Structuring Technology and Life Science Deals" (LES USA-Canada) NEW YORK
• September 30 - "Making Worlds Collide [Quarterly Series - 1st Session: Setting the Scene]" (LESI IP & Finance Task Force) ONLINE



Details on these events are posted below and on connect.lesi.org.

See the full list of upcoming events on the LESI website.

View information on previous LES events.

To get more involved in LESI, consider joining a committee.

LES Italy

"Co-ownership of IP rights: quo vadis?"

Thursday, 12 September 2024

5:00pm - 6:30pm (CET)

ONLINE



On September 12, the LES Italy Young Members Congress (YMC) is organizing a webinar on co-ownership of intellectual property rights.

The meeting will begin with a lectio magistralis given by Dr. Umberto Scotti, President Supreme Court of Cassation - First Civil Section. This will be followed by Lawyer Mariagrazia Berardo, FVA Law, and Lawyer Giacomo Garbagnati, Garbagnati Law Firm, who will analyze the critical profiles of co-ownership and possible solutions in the light of national, foreign and European legislation. In conclusion, Eng. Lorenzo Rossi, Italian Institute of Technology, will present the experience of an international profile research center in patent co-ownership.

The webinar will be moderated by Lawyer Emanuela Bianco, Chair of the LES Italy YMC and will be in Italian.

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LES China

"IP Commercialization Drives Sustainable Innovation"

Thursday, 12 September 2024

8:30am - 6:00pm (CST)

BEIJING, CHINA



LES China are proud to host their 2024 Annual Conference in Beijing, China with the theme "IP Commercialization Drives Sustainable Innovation" on September 12, 2024.

The conference will include:

• Catching the latest trends of global innovation,
• Benefiting from the valuable insights of the policymakers and industry leaders on IP licensing practice,
• Networking with representatives of leading tech-companies and licensing professionals from home and abroad to have a better view of IP commercialization landscape in China, and
• Enjoying the splendid natural and cultural charm of an ancient city that blends tradition with modernity.

An exciting journey starts here…… Don’t miss it!

This event is FREE to LES members.

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LES USA-Canada

"Navigating the US Manufacturing Requirement of the Bayh-Dole Act: Practice, Policy, and Pitfalls"

Thursday, 12 September 2024

7:30am - 9:00am (EDT)

POTOMAC, MARYLAND



The Bayh-Dole Act marked a watershed in licensing technology in the United States. The Act, however, has a variety of requirements that must be satisfied, one of which is the manufacturing requirement, meaning manufacturing must be done in the United States. But what are the contours of this requirement? What are the problem areas?

Speakers:

Gillian Fenton, LST Strategies, LLC

Raymond Van Dyke, Attorney, Van Dyke Intellectual Property Law

This event is FREE to participants.

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LES International & European Patent Office

"HTB Forum: Open Innovation"

Monday, 16 September 2024

5:00pm - 7:00pm (CET)

ONLINE



The HTB forums are live online events designed for business decision makers. They are concise one-hour live case-study based sessions with optional one-hour meet-the-speakers sessions. The practical key messages are derived from a global panel of experts, adding the European, North American and Asian perspective. This forum focuses on Open innovation as growing technology convergence and speed to market are driving the need for a broader set of accessible technologies and IP. To remain competitive, technology driven businesses must move from a closed approach to innovation to an open one if they are to succeed in maximising the value of high-growth technology.

Open innovation is a strategic IP management approach that allows firms to have a sophisticated understanding of their future innovation needs based on an integrated approach that combines business, technology and IP strategy.

This event is FREE to participants.

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LES USA-Canada

"Ottawa Chapter Meet and Greet"

Monday, 16 September 2024

5:00pm - 7:00pm (EDT)

OTTAWA, ONTARIO



Please join for an Ottawa Chapter meet and greet and help re-launch the LES Ottawa Chapter!

This event is FREE to participants.

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LES Benelux

"IT Continuity Issues: Escrow as a cure-all?"

Tuesday, 17 September 2024

11:00am - 12:40pm (CET)

ONLINE



The LES Benelux Young Members Committee is thrilled to invite you to our upcoming webinar on 17 September 2024 at 11:00 AM (CET). Whether you are navigating the complexities of IT contracts or exploring solutions for operational resilience, this session is for you!

Agenda:

• Setting the Scene: IT Contracts, Continuity Issues & Operational Resilience
• What is Escrow?
• Key Issues to Consider with Escrow
• Exploring Alternative Solutions
• Concluding Remarks / Q&A

This event is FREE to LES members.

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LES USA-Canada

"Mechanics of a License"

Tuesday, 17 September 2024 - Thursday, 3 October 2024

11:00am - 12:00pm (EDT)

ONLINE



This course provides an in-depth exploration of key licensing agreement clauses. Participants will learn practical strategies for negotiating and drafting effective license agreements, using real-world examples to address both licensor and licensee perspectives. The course is designed for professionals seeking to enhance their understanding of complex licensing issues and improve their ability to execute successful agreements.

Modules:

• Grant Clauses (September 17)
• Royalty Clauses (September 19)
• Indemnification (September 24)
• Land Mines (September 26)
• Boilerplate Clauses (October 1)
• Representations and Warranties (October 3)

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LESI Women in Licensing Alliance (WILA)

"Speaker Series - Building Trust and Managing Teams"

Tuesday, 17 September 2024

8:00am - 9:00am (CDT)

ONLINE



Speaker: Regine Corrado of Regine Corrado Coaching

Regine is an attorney, retiring from a 30+ legal career at the global law firm Baker McKenzie in June of 2020. Her legal practice focused on international corporate transactions and advising US multinationals on doing business internationally.

The last three years of her legal career she served as Managing Partner of their Chicago office. She started a coaching practice to help business executives and leaders develop and become more effective and fulfilled versions of themselves. She is enrolled in Northwestern University's Organizational and Leadership Coaching Certificate program to become certified as an executive coach.

This event is FREE to participants.

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LES USA-Canada

"Opportunities and Challenges for Academia/Industry Licensing"

Monday, 23 September 2024

10:00am - 2:00pm (CDT)

CORALVILLE, IOWA



Please join LES USA-Canada's Iowa Chapter for a session to discuss the intricacies in how Academia and Industry collaborate on technology licensing.

Session 1: Identification of industry technology needs and finding potential academia solutions:

The morning session will be devoted to how Industry identifies gaps in technology and how academia markets their technology. Industry representatives will discuss how they identify technology gaps and academia will discuss how they market technologies. A moderated panel will answer questions about how they typically approach this collaboration with participants from local industry and universities. 

Session 2: Tips and tactics for successful academia/industry negotiations:

The afternoon session will be devoted to discussing best practices in these licensing transactions. A moderated panel will discuss potential showstoppers in language and how to address them. Items that could help negotiation go more smoothly between the parties. 

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LES USA-Canada

"Challenges with Structuring Technology and Life Science Deals"

Wednesday, 25 September 2024

6:00pm - 8:00pm (EDT)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK



Panel discussion on the common challenges and hurdles that emerge when negotiating and executing IP based deals across technology and life sciences. Panel members will draw from real-life experience based on executed deals and cover a range of topics including:

• Bridging valuation gaps
• What’s critical to address in early term sheets/discussions to avoid lengthy renegotiations, i.e. “I thought we had a deal”, including
• License scope and retained rights of the licensor, i.e. “I didn’t mean to give that away”
• Uncertainty associated with performance milestones and measures
• Negotiation strategies and building in “room to give”
• Cross border issues

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LESI IP & Finance Task Force

"IP & Finance 2.0 Quarterly Series - Making Worlds Collide

[1st Session: Setting the Scene]"

Monday, 30 September 2024

10:00am - 11:0am (CET) AND 3:00pm - 4:30pm (CET)

ONLINE



In today’s knowledge-driven economy, it is not a surprise that intangible assets play a crucial role in the performance of companies. Among the latter, IP is one of the most recognized in balance sheets, even if that recognition is most generally not representative of the real IP assets of a given enterprise. Lenders and investors’ interest in IP (where licensing plays a crucial role) are starting to look at it differently than in the past, thus triggering a lot of interest of the worldwide IP community, and the worlds of IP and Finance finally start to collide.

Agenda:

• Introduction - Audrey Yap and André Gorius (LESI IP & Finance Task Force)
• "IP & Finance - EU Community Findings" - Prof. Stefano Zambon (WICI Italy)
• “IP Value Realisation – Unlocking the value of IP through IP-backed lending?” - Sunneth Lawrence (AON IP Solutions)
• "Bridging the Gap – WIPO’s Initiatives on IP Finance and Valuation" - Michael Kos (WIPO)
• Conclusions and next steps - Michel Dewolfs (WICI Belgium)

This event is FREE to participants and will be repeated to cover different time zones.