Corporate Patent Seminar 2012

The 47th annual Corporate Patent Seminar will take place March 4-6, 2012

CPS is an ad hoc non-profit association of senior corporate patent professionals dedicated to the effective and healthy exchange of ideas and experiences in the area of intellectual property law and corporate practice. In addition to having a series of talks on topics of interest for in-house IP counsel, our meetings include roundtable discussions of best practices. We specifically limit the number of outside counsel in attendance as well as the number of vendors to avoid having to deal with marketing pitches.

Program topics (subject to change) include:

• Several ways that the America Invents Act affects patent applicants
• Why you should use the new ePCT system and how to use it
• The top ten ways to get patents faster from USPTO
• Training your client: tips for obtaining complete invention disclosures
• Strategic use of product-by-property claims
• Successful examiner interview strategies
• Efficient use of non-lawyer staff
• Roundtable discussion on challenges, best-practices, new-practices of the in-house attorney
• Strategies for maintaining non-commercialized patents

Note: If you would like to hear more about the Seminar, drop an email to .

Who are we? The Corporate Patent Seminar (‘CPS’) is an informal group of attorneys passionate about learning and sharing everything to do with the practice and business of patent law. All work done is totally voluntary, without sponsorship, to ensure a fair and honest perspective of the challenges and solutions to the patent practitioner.

Who should attend? The Corporate Patent Seminar is for corporate patent professionals. If you are a corporate patent professional, then you are encouraged and welcomed to attend. Here are comments from past attendees:

• “This seminar absolutely provides the most bang for the buck. Just compare the costs.”
• “I have heard several design patent speakers before and this was the best by far.”
• “The smaller size really provides an opportunity to build new contacts and the addition of international attendees/speakers is a real plus.”

Past and likely future attendees include patent counsel from such companies as S. C. Johnson, Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble.

Our program tends to be the most beneficial to senior corporate patent counsel. Many have commented that our meetings of peers present great value by sharing ideas and exploring relevant issues with leaders of other corporate patent departments. In this informal atmosphere, concerns arising in the shop of one counsel can be addressed by the experiences of others. All attendees find the opportunities to offer and receive help and have other high-minded interactions, such as conduct benchmarking for current in-house practices, among other exchanges, particularly helpful.

To facilitate the open and frank discussions that are the heart and strength of the Corporate Patent Seminar, all attendees tacitly agree by their participation that all comments and views of other attendees will be held in confidence.

Recommended Attire: Dress for all meetings is business casual. Dress for both dinners is casual elegant (shirts with collars, jackets for the gentlemen).

How to register: To register, go to the registration page.

Location:

Public Chicago
An Ian Schrager Hotel
1301 North State Parkway 
Chicago, IL 60610
www.publichotels.com

A block of "Standard King" rooms has been established at a special rate for this meeting. To book a guest room, call the hotel's reservation department at 312-229-6760 and ask for the “Corporate Patent Seminar” rate. This discounted rate ($145 per day plus tax for a Standard King room) will be available through February 2, 2012.