AIPF 2011 Annual Meeting: A Recap of the Event

Renee Quinn at the AIPF Annual Meeting

Last week the Association for Intellectual Property Firms (AIPF) held its 2011 Annual Meeting at the W Chicago City Center Hotel. The theme for this years event was “Enhancing IP Rights in a Time of Erosion.” The program covered topics and featured and a variety of professionals from across the IP spectrum and beyond, including Philip S Johnson, Chief IP Counsel for Johnson & Johnson, Kirk Goodwin, Senior Counsel for Whirlpool, Bruce Hendricks, Associate GC for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and of course, yours truly, The Social Media Diva of IPWatchdog.com. You could say the program technically started Sunday evening when the Board of Directors and Speakers got together at Mike Ditka’s in Chicago. The food and service were amazing, the company was friendly and conversations were stimulating. The only thing that could have made the night better was being able to stay and watch some football after the meeting. It was, after all, a sports bar. But I digress.

The organization was formally known as Association for Patent Law Firms or APLF. You can read more about the change of identity in Renee Quinn Presenting at AIPF Annual Meeting Sept. 20. However, after dinner at Ditka’s, I caught up with AIPF President Todd Van Thomme, a partner at Price Heneveld LLP of Grand Rapids Michigan and asked him what was behind the decision to change the identity of the organization after so many years. Todd explained to me that the overall organization of the brand was being misinterpreted.

People would look at the name, Association for Patent Law Firms and think we were associated only with patents. We wanted people to know that the organization was more than that and covered all areas of intellectual property including trademarks and copyrights.

Even though I am not an attorney, I found the topics that were covered to be very informative, interesting, timely, in depth and dare I say it, fun at times because the speakers chosen to present this year were interesting, knowledgeable, thorough and were all quite personable. Following is a picture diary and recap of some of the speakers and their topics at this year’s event.

AIPF President Todd Van Thomme addresses the attendees at the opening of the AIPF Annual Meeting. Feike Van Rein is at the podium getting the PP presentations ready!

Philip S Johnson of J & J spoke on Maintaining Your Brand Excellence. Stated that if you remember nothing else, remember W.G.A.C.A "What Goes Around Comes Around."

Kirk Goodwin of Whirlpool talks Ethical Issues in IP Practice. Kirk even makes "Ethics" interesting even for the non IP professional of the bunch! Thanks Kirk

Richard Granat of Granet Group LLC is speaking about ELawyering as part of the Brand of Excellence Program at the AIPF Annual Meeting.

This panel was on Keyword Advertising and trademark rights and discussed how the the US Court of Appeals will issue a decision on whether Google's Keyword advertising regime violated Rosetta Stone's trademark. The panel was Moderated by Timothy Bourne (Rideout & Naybee) and featured Michael Tkins (Graham & Dunn) and Jonathan Bloom (Weil, Gotshal & Manges) as speakers.

Cliff Green, Kurt Van Thomme and Vince Egolf discuss Corporate Trends in Light of the Recession. Panel was Moderated by Todd Van Thomme.

Renee C. Quinn Renee C. Quinn is the Chief Operating Officer of IPWatchdog, Inc. Working with IPWatchdog since April of 2006, Renée is a key member of the executive management team, overseeing all [...see more]

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