NAPP eNews™/APR/2017 |
NAPP eNews™ for April 2017 Dear NAPP Members and followers, I hope this find you well, and your practices are thriving. If you are reading this as a new member, or are simply new to the patent profession, my goal is to provide updates on current patent issues important to patent practitioners. Retention of Members At our board strategy meeting March 22-23, we discuss this issue at length. In addition to the already–reported fact that our Member Benefits Committee is beta testing new platforms, and plans to make a formal recommendation to the NAPP board at our April 13 board meeting, we formulated an action plan to follow-up with new members as well as former members. Who will do that? was the main question. We realized that NAPP needs a Member Engagement Committee, and so I will be making a motion to form such a committee. As president it is my responsibility to staff committees, although the committee chair decides who is and who is not a member of their committee, subject to board oversight. If you have ideas or personal experience with other organizations, especially if they have had this problem and improved this metric, we would appreciate your thoughts and volunteer time on this new committee. If you are interested in chairing the Member Engagement Committee, please let me or another board member, or our ED John Meidl know. Committee work is the preferred route to board membership. Professional Development Committee Thanks to Jim Thompson, VP of Capitol Hill Management Services, for facilitating our board strategy meetings and guidance on strategic issues, and John Meidl our ED for his help and guidance. Board Elections Atlanta Patent Practice Professionals (P3) Social Event The best part, however, was the interest in NAPP expressed to me by walk-ups. Many agents are considering opening their own practice and/or partnering with attorneys. This is still a controversial area, despite the Sperry v. Florida decision of the US Sup. Court in 1963! There are those, especially attorneys that still raise ethics and legal questions. There have also been some excellent discussions on the Patent Practice Forum, and I thank all members that have shared their experiences and research, such as Keegan Caldwell. Annual Meeting and Conference If you have non-member or former member friends, we offer a 1-day option for $295. This is meant for new practitioners to try-out NAPP, and for former members to renew interest in NAPP. This includes all meals and social activities held that day. Member students and faculty members pay $75 for the full conference, while non-member students and faculty may register for $95. For full details, including hotel, airports, cancellation policy, and more, click here: http://www.napp.org/AMCSanJose. If you have interest in being an Annual Meeting & Conference Sponsor/Exhibitor, please go to AMC San Jose Exhibitor site. Employment Opportunity “I’m a legal recruiter in the DC area and I’m working with a national law firm that is seeking registered patent agents with a EE or other types of engineering background. The firm that I’m representing has offices throughout the US and the patent agents can essentially work in any of their US offices. They also have a Patent Agent to Patent Attorney program where they offer to pay a patent agent’s entire law school tuition in the event that they want to transition from being a Patent Agent to a Patent Prosecution Attorney. I look forward to hearing from you.” Kevin M. Kramer On this date in history…. On April 24, 1917, US Patent 1,223,359 for a “TOOL FOR TREATING STONE, CONCRETE, AND OTHER MATERIALS” was issued to John O. Berg of New York City. Of course, the above drawing would not be acceptable today, because lower case letter are not allowed! We hope you enjoy this and future editions of NAPP eNews! If you have content you would like share, such as interesting patents, inventors, and other matters of general interest, especially patenting tips, please forward them to our Executive Director John Meidl at [email protected], or the board at [email protected]. Respectfully, Jeffrey L. Wendt
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