Consisting of two days of high-level, practical discussion and real-time IP monetisation in action, the IP Business Congress 2008 is an event unlike any other in the IP calendar.

Bringing together IP leaders from around the world, the Congress will demonstrate why more and more people describe intellectual property as the pivotal business asset of the 21st century. No one who has an interest in the management and monetisation of IP rights will want to miss this groundbreaking event.

The Congress will be held in Amsterdam on June 25th & 26th 2008, in the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, and comprises a one and a half day CIPO Summit, organised by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine, and the second European Live IP Auction hosted by Ocean Tomo LLC.

The IAM CIPO Summit

The Background

Traditionally seen as nothing more than a legal right and so best managed from the legal department, intellectual property is now increasingly being viewed as a business asset and an issue of concern for the boardroom and C-suite officers.

As senior executives begin to understand the potential there is in their companies' intangible assets to generate revenue, increase profits and enhance shareholder value, so they are beginning to create new strategies to develop, build and exploit these rights to maximum effect. This is where the chief intellectual property officer (CIPO) comes in.

Creating the CIPO role is about taking intellectual property out of the legal department and giving one senior individual overall responsibility for all aspects of IP management within a company.

CIPOs sit in early when M&A is being discussed, when tax plans are being put together, when corporate finance is an issue; they are responsible for developing procurement strategies, monetisation programmes and managing litigation plans.

Put simply, if IP is an issue for a company in any way, the CIPO will have a direct impact on the direction a company decides to take. As a consequence, the CIPO will have full access to the company's board and other senior officers.

Some companies have already appointed CIPOs; many others are developing plans to do the same; those that have yet to consider the role in any detail will be forced to do so over the coming years.

The Summit

The IAM CIPO Summit is a unique conference aimed specifically at chief intellectual property officers, individuals who hold similar titles, such as vice-president of IP or head of IP, as well as CEOs, CFOs and general counsel who are looking to create such a role within their companies – basically, anyone who has an interest in understanding more about what will become, over the coming years, one of the key C-suite job titles.

The Summit is designed to do three things:

1. Explain the roles and the responsibilities of the CIPO – essentially, to write the job spec.
2. Identify the regulatory and business challenges facing today's CIPOs, and explore the opportunities and dangers these present.
3. Understand how the CIPO role and the world in which CIPOs operate will develop over the coming years.

Using IAM magazine's world-class corporate, legal and financial contacts, developed over five years as the business world's pre-eminent IP magazine, a faculty of speakers is being assembled to discuss a number of vital issues covered by these three broad areas. It will feature individuals in charge of IP at some of the world's most forward-thinking companies, global IP thought-leaders and senior policy makers from North America, Europe and Asia.

Their unique insights and experiences, presented in both plenary and break-out sessions, will provide delegates with a thorough understanding of the principles that lie behind the chief intellectual property officer position, as well as the challenges – actual and future – that CIPOs face.

Why you should attend

The IAM CIPO Summit is:

• Unique, because its focus is solely on IP as a business asset and how best it can be managed to extract maximum value.
• Unmissable, because IAM magazine is exceptionally placed to assemble an outstanding set of speakers and delegates who will bring experience, knowledge and insight to the issues that truly matter to IP-owning businesses and the people who manage their corporate IP portfolios.

If you want to join the world's leading thinkers in IP in writing the blueprint for what will undoubtedly become a crucial senior role within the corporate structure, and help guide the development of the IP system in the early part of the 21st century, then you cannot afford to miss this event. We look forward to welcoming you to Amsterdam.

One of the central roles of the chief intellectual property officer is the monetisation of IP rights. This can be done in a number of ways. On the afternoon of the second day, IAM will hand over to its partner, Ocean Tomo, to give a valuable, direct and practical demonstration of the power and value of intellectual assets in the business world today, via their second European IP Auction.

Ocean Tomo European Live IP Auction

The first Ocean Tomo Live Intellectual Property Auction was held in San Francisco in April 2006. It featured 78 lots of patents and resulted in transactions both on and off the auction floor. The follow-on events, held in New York in October 2006, Chicago in April and October 2007, and London in June 2007, have offered the intellectual property market lots diversified between IP assets, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and music-related properties, and domain names. Each auction has resulted in an increased level of bidding activity and has welcomed new sellers.

Sellers of intellectual property offered in past auctions include large multinational companies, small to mid-sized companies, professional inventors and others.

To date, the Ocean Tomo Live Intellectual Property Auctions have raised over $50 million for sellers. The London auction in June 2007 established a world record for a single piece of IP sold at auction when an internet shopping patent, invented by a native of New Zealand and mother of three, was sold for $4,895,550 (€3,650,873). The Amsterdam auction, which will follow the IAM CIPO Summit, will feature lots covering a range of technologies, as well as different types of intellectual property right.