TechInsights' First Intellectual Property Symposium Attracted More Than 250 Technology, Legal and Business Thought Leaders and Practitioners

TechInsights (http://www.techinsights.com/) today announced the success of its inaugural Intellectual Property Symposium (http://www.eetimes.semiconductor.com/), a joint effort of EE Times, Semiconductor Insights and Portelligent, which took place on April 15-16, 2008 at the San Jose Fairmont and was co-located with ESC (http://www.cmp-egevents.com/web/esv/home) Silicon Valley. The event attracted more than 250 thought leaders and practitioners from the technology, legal and business communities.

The Intellectual Property Symposium is the first and only event to bring together the foremost engineering, legal, business and government minds to discuss the importance and logistics of properly protecting, managing and leveraging intellectual property. Conference sessions focused on practical issues associated with developing and monetizing IP and were chaired by leading practitioners from industry and academia.

The opening day keynote, presented by Peter Detkin, Co-founder, Managing Director, Intellectual Ventures and former Director, Intellectual Property, Intel and Mike Meurer, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law, provided a comprehensive overview of the intellectual property market, with a specific focus on technology issues and how inefficiencies in the market offer opportunities for new players in the space. The second day's keynote, "Today's Trends and Tomorrow's Realities in Intellectual Property," was presented by Jon Dudas, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. His address focused on recent Supreme Court decisions regarding intellectual property, proposed patent modernization legislation and trends in intellectual property protection and enforcement around the world, including China.

The symposium program mixed a number of panel discussions with presentations by business and legal experts on important topics of the day. The following sessions are representative of the program:

  -- Hot Topics in Supreme Court and Federal Law: Implications on IP
     Litigation
  -- Tackling Essential Issues for Successful IP Deployment and Integration
     in the SoC Environment
  -- Monetizing Patents
  -- IP Risks in Open Source Software
  -- Counterfeiting in Electronics -- A Growing Problem
  -- Managing IP Portfolios in Mergers and Acquisitions
  -- IP Management Best Practices within a Globally Integrated Economy

Among the internationally known group of speakers and presenters were: Joe Beyers, VP of Intellectual Property, Hewlett-Packard; Jim Markwith, Open Source Software Licensing Counsel, Microsoft Corporation; Jason Wacha, General Counsel, Monavista Software; Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, Linux Foundation; Mark Gisi, Sr. Intellectual Property Manager, Wind River Systems; Dick Thurston, General Counsel, TSMC, Taiwan; Russell Boltwood, VP, Licensing & Intellectual Property, UTStarcom, Inc.; and Jun Gong, Partner, Jun He Law.

"With each passing year the importance of intellectual property as a corporate asset grows," said Mike McLean, Vice President of Professional Services at TechInsights' Semiconductor Insights Division and one of the symposium founders and organizers. "The complexity of the issues companies face -- legally, technologically, and from a business perspective -- can be quite daunting. We conceived of this symposium as a way to bring some of the best minds in the world together for a few days to help participants understand the landscape and to get practical advice on how to tackle the issues from the experts that deal with these challenges every day. The positive feedback from attendees has been tremendous and tells me we accomplished what we set out to do."

Feedback from symposium attendees was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the growing importance of IP strategies, especially for start-up. Said Kush Gulati, Co-Founder, President and CEO, Cambridge Analog Technologies (CAT), Inc., "The symposium provided a really perfect setting for a wide range of IP interests to come together and enabled excellent networking opportunity amongst IP providers, IP seekers, and IP enablers. For a new company as ours, sometimes it's hard to know what we are missing until one is exposed to it. A symposium of this type provided us with excellent exposure to the entire gamut of business issues connected to IP -- from trends to business methods to legal. The latter is something I found particularly illuminating. Some of the legal nuances related to semiconductor IP presented in crystal clear fashion by legal experts dealt directly with the key issues facing semiconductor IP companies today. This sort of information is critical for us or any IP company. I believe a conference of this type will contribute greatly to the growth of this business model."

Andrew Parolin, Vice President, Wireless Technologies, Wilan added, "I enjoyed the first day topics and panels and felt it was really well organized. The panel discussion on the recent Supreme Court decision is one of the best ones I've seen to date. The people on the panels did a good job describing the ruling and how it affects us on a day to day basis. It was good to see other people in my industry and hear how they were applying new rules to their jobs."

With the success of this event and very positive feedback from the attendees as to its value, TechInsights will expand the symposium into other regions and other venues. Dates and locations are already in discussion for Japan, Europe, additional sites in North America, and eventually, China. For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Sean Raman, Group Event Sales Director at sraman@techinsights.com or 415.947.6622.

"The solid turn out and positive response to this first-time event shows there is a genuine hunger for a high-level intellectual property event that is focused on the needs of the electronics industry and brings together technology, legal and corporate management," added Rick Merritt, Editor-at-Large, EE Times and another of the founders of the event.

About TechInsights (http://www.techinsights.com/)

TechInsights is the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics industry's decision makers -- the Creators of Technology -- that define, develop, and bring to market the electronic products that improve our lives. With global market leading brands such as EE Times, Semiconductor Insights, TechOnline, Embedded Systems Conferences and Portelligent, TechInsights is the leading dedicated information and services business serving the worldwide electronics market. For more information, please visit http://www.techinsights.com/. TechInsights is a division of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

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