Reporting Live from Day Two at AIPLA Annual Meeting

Today is day two of the AIPLA conference at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington, DC. There are numerous people attending the conference this year, and topics of discussion and presentation are ranging from intellectual property procurement and enforcement in East Asia,to ethics, to multi-defendant patent litigation strategies, to best practices to mitigate trade secret litigation risks that arise from employee mobility and commercial dealings.

Earlier in the day I spent some time in the Exhibit Hall where a reception was well under way and what looked like hundreds of registrants were enjoying an afternoon cocktail, myself included. I was going to attend the luncheon to hear the Honorable Arthur J.Garjarsa of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit speak on intellectual property topics, but like the Kappos lunch meeting yesterday it was sold out. A colleague of mine offered me his ticket, but I forgot to ask him for it when we met up this morning. So here I sit in the area sipping wine and blogging about my day.

Being one person, I was not able to clone myself and be in more than one place at a time. I spent the gist of the morning exploring each of the 40 booth exhibitors that are here today. I met a lot of very interesting people such as Nicholas House of Intellectual Property Magazine and Chris Flagg of Patent Express. I asked Nicholas and Chris to go on the record with me and tell me what they thought of this years AIPLA Conference.  This is what they had to say:

Nicholas House, Legal Publishing Manager
Intellectual Property Magazine, London

This is my first time to the AIPLA and this is the first time that IP magazine has been here although we have been here in our previous incarnation, which was Patent World . The conference has been quite successful for us we feel. I have made lots of good contacts. There are lots of import exhibitors that have come here and patent attorneys have taken a very keen interest in the magazine so were are really excited about that.

Chris Flagg, President
Express Patent, Inc., Springfield VA

The mood of the event is far more up beat than it has been in previous years. This year every one is excited to be here. They are busy looking for help and a lot of them have found new opportunities where they did not expect them. Several people have come by and said ” I just went out on my own and we need research. I had someone to do this for me before but now that I am out on my own I have to find someone to do all of this research for me.” In previous years, well 2 years ago, everyone was worried if they were going to have their jobs, and last year everyone was holding tight to what they had making sure that everything was going to at least continue in a stable mode. This year it’s a lot more up beat.

I also spoke with a few individuals who are attendees at the conference and asked them what they thought of the AIPLA Annual Meeting and if there was anything particular that stood out to them.

Juan M. Gisone, Business Development Manager and Sr. Analyst
Technology, Patents and Licensing, Inc in Doyelstown PA

We are a consulting company. I am a first timer; new member. People are very friendly and from the sessions, it seems like there is a lot of information that is readily usable back at the office. I’ve been to other conferences where the talk is more high level and it’s seems that the information is right there at your fingertips to be used. For example, in one session the speakers were giving parts of agreements that you could use right away for your own agreements, and the scotch party was good too!

Christohpher Nunley, JD Candidate
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN

This is my first time here and as a student it is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to current attorneys network. It is also a great opportunity to see how the area of law is evolving and how attorneys practice in an area of law that you are interested in. I am most interested in trademarks.

Raymond van Dike, Attorney
Washington DC

I think the event here is a blast and I think that it is very well attended and it is very well informed. The speakers are great.  Yesterdays program with David Kappos was well attended and very informative. So in that sense I think that the programs are great.

That’s all for now.  I am heading over to the panel discussion of the Patent Troll Tracker case and the IPWatchdog case, which should be rather interesting indeed.