Latest update

Over 370 delegates attended the second IP Business Congress (IPBC) held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago, from 21st to 23rd June 2009, including IP professionals from world-class companies such as Alstom, ARM Ltd, Clarke Modet & Co, Drinker Biddle & Reath, European Patent Office, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner, France Telecom, GE, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Kilpatrick Stockton, Kimberly-Clark, Marks & Clerk, Mars Incorporated, Microsoft, Nestle, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Oblon Spivak McClelland Maier & Neustadt, Perkins Coie, Philips International, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Procter & Gamble, Ropes & Gray, Shell International, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Siemens, Smart & Biggar, Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox, Sun Microsystems, The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Thomson Reuters Scientific, Townsend and Townsend and Crew, Verizon and Yahoo!

The next IPBC will be held in Munich, Germany from 20th to 22nd June 2010. Further information will be posted online soon. If you would like to be added to the mailing list for this event please contact Alan Mowat at amowat@theipmediagroup.com.

Speakers' papers, presentations and audio recordings of plenary sessions are available for delegates to view here.

IPBC related interviews are available to view here.

IP Hall of Fame roll call

On 22nd June the IP Business Congress Hall of Fame Gala dinner will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago. The event will honour the following inductees to the IP Hall of Fame:

		Jane Ginsburg A highly influential academic and teacher who has written some of the most important IP-related books of modern times.
		Francis Gurry The Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization and a key figure in the development of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre.
		Dolores Hanna The first female president of the International Trademark Association and a highly influential figure in the development of trademark law and practice across the world.
		Michael Kirk The former Executive Director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and an outstanding advocate for IP both in the US and internationally.
		Niels Reimers A former director of Stanford University's Office of Technology Licensing who developed the "marketing model", the predominant strategy used by US academic technology transfer enterprises.

The IP Business Congress

Attendees: over 350 attendees already confirmed

Speakers: over 70 speakers confirmed, including Microsoft's Horacio Gutierrez, Sherry Knowles of GlaxoSmithKline, Pat Toole of IBM and Ruud Peters of Philips IP & Standards - click here to view the full list of speakers

Date: 21 - 23 June 2009

Venue: Four Season Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

Programme: Final programme is available to view here

The first IP Business Congress was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in June 2008. It was an event unlike any other in the IP calendar and brought together over 400 IP thought leaders from around the world. A full report of the conference can be accessed here.

Testimonials from the IP Business Congress 2008 (click here to view all testimonials)

"An astonishingly high participation of IP practitioners. In one event, a global IP who's who."
Ciarán McGinley
Head of the Controlling Office
European Patent Office

"The Congress provided a lively meeting and discussion forum for IP thought leaders; an excellent event."
Peter Spours
Head of IP Strategy & Transactions
TomTom