LES of Silicon Valley FREE Webinar on Corporate Finance and IP Management

One of the “positives” of Covid-19 is that many organizations are offering fantastic content online and even for free.  Here’s another great opportunity with an excellent organization and chapter of the Licensing Executives Society (LES).  The Silicon Valley Chapter of the LES and the Financial Executives International are offering a FREE webinar titled, “Intellectual Capital.  Connecting the Financial and IP Communities,” on Thursday, September 24, 2020 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time).  The registration link is below.  Here are the details from their email notice:

REGISTER Registration Fee is complimentary. A webinar link will be sent after your registration. The Silicon Valley Chapters of the Financial Executives International and the Licensing Executives Society USA/Canada invite you to participate in a groundbreaking interactive webinar on the integration of Corporate Finance and IP Management. PROGRAM: A panel of seasoned professionals will discuss a number of Intellectual Capital (IC) intersection areas including: Identifying the relevant categories of IC for a particular company Getting board-level and C-Suite support for establishing a corporate IC strategy Developing IC management business processes, such as:   o    IC Valuation o    IC Accounting o    IC Financial Reporting o    IC Transactional Issues o    IC Tax Considerations PANEL: Mary Adams, Founder, Smarter Companies Bill Elkington, Founder, Mind IC Petra Loer, Managing Director, Valuation Services, Andersen Moderator: Ron Laurie, Executive Chairman and CIPO, InventionShare PANEL BIOS: Mary Adams, Founder, Smarter Companies Mary is a consultant, speaker and practitioner of intangible capitalism which focuses on the long-term pursuit of both profits and prosperity.  Her current work is focused in three communities that she helped create:  The Exit Planning Exchange that brings long-term thinking to the private company market.  The Integrated Reporting U.S. Community that brings long-term thinking to public companies. And Smarter-Companies, a specialty consulting community that provides methodologies and tools to support intangible capitalism. Mary is the co-author of Intangible Capital: Putting Knowledge to Work in the 21st Century Organization. Prior to starting her consulting firm in 1999, she spent 14 years as a high-risk lender in the U.S. and Latin America at Citicorp and Sanwa Business Credit. Bill Elkington, Founder, Mind IC Bill’s career in three Fortune 500 companies, a startup, and now in his consulting firm—Mind IC LLC—has been in the field of intellectual capital management. His focus has been on uncovering, creating, protecting, and extracting the value of companies’ intellectual capital assets. His expertise is in various areas of intellectual capital management: business cadre leadership, rights valuation, rights strategy, public policy, enterprise policy and process, transactions, patent protection, and change management and communication across the enterprise. Ron Laurie, Chair, LES Silicon Valley Chapter Ron has worked in Silicon Valley since before it had that name, initially as a systems engineer and then as an IP lawyer and patent strategist.  He was a founding partner of the Silicon Valley offices of Irell & Manella, Weil Gotshal and Skadden Arps and has taught IP strategy courses at Stanford and Berkeley law schools.  Ron is Executive Chairman and CIPO at InventionShare, a new kind of early-stage fund that transforms breakthrough inventions into broadly patented platform technologies which can be productized by global companies across a broad range of applications and markets.  He sits on four other boards, including the oldest and most successful publicly-traded patent licensing company. Petra Loer, Managing Director, Valuation Services, Andersen Petra is a member of the Valuation Services Group at Andersen, a global tax and financial advisory firm. Her experience includes the valuation of closely-held businesses, business interests, intangible assets, intellectual property, debt instruments, and derivatives. These engagements span a variety of purposes, including financial reporting, tax planning and reporting, mergers and acquisitions, litigation support, strategic planning, and restructuring. Petra’s client basis ranges from small closely held businesses to multi-billion-dollar multinational public companies, in industries as diverse as manufacturing to technology.

Management of IP in knowledge transfer activities

IP Finance is grateful to guest blogger Professor Ruth Soetendorp for the following piece:

"The European Commission's recent Recommendation on the Management of IP in knowledge transfer activities combines a Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations a set of practices for public authorities, universities and research organisations to facilitate IP management. It recognises the role IP management plays in achieving the goals of the Lisbon Strategy: circulation of use of ideas in a dynamic knowledge society and enhancing competitiveness and welfare, through converting knowledge into socio-economic benefits. Proper IP management should lead to the growth of 'an entrepreneurial culture and development of associated skills.

While not binding on Member States, a recommendation carries political weight (Wikipedia describes recommendations as instruments of indirect action aiming at preparation of legislation in Member States).

So what's recommended? Institutions should establish and publicise policies and procedures for IP management, raise the IP awareness and skills of students, sort out ownership issues to facilitate crossborder collaborations and knowledge transfer. Member States should designate a national contact point to coordinate KT between research organisations and the private sector, and should ensure widest possible implementation of the Code of Practice, ensuring equitable and fair treatment of all participants in international research projects, particularly re ownership of and access to IPR.

It covers IP policy (and publication/dissemination policy), clear rules for staff and students, incentives, IP portfolios, setting up patent/IP pools, awareness and training to promote IP identification, protection and exploitation. The recommendation (Annex II) also identifies practices to facilitate the implementation of the Code. Member States are expected to inform the Commission by 15 July 2010 and every two years thereafter of measures taken on the basis of this Recommendations, as well as their impact.

The Recommendation is a welcome endorsement of IP education for students, together with enhanced institutional IP management awareness and competence".