New York City Chapter April 8th Event

Samson Vermont Slides and Support Information for April 8th, 2003 presentation on "Patent Risk & Reward - Some Surprising Statistics"
PowerPoint Presentation | Presentation Notes and Sources

From left to right:
1. Samson Vermont, Esq., Associate, Hunton & Williams,(The Speaker),
2. John Kidd, Esq., Partner, Clifford Chance, and NYC LES Co-Chair
3. Kathleen A. Denis, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Technology Transfer, Rockefeller University and LES President-Elect, and
4. Harry Dounchis, Ph.D., VP & Sr Partner, Quid Technologies, and NYC LES Co-Chair.

SUMMARY OF MEETING:

On April 8th, 2003, NYC LES successfully re-launched its local chapter which had been dormant for two years. Over forty members and non-members turned out for the inaugural meeting held at The Sky Club atop the MetLife building. The NYC skyline provided an impressive backdrop to the proceedings.

Kathleen Denis, our LES President-elect, gave a short presentation supporting the growth of local chapters. John Kidd and Harry Dounchis, the Co-Chairs, shared their vision for the chapter.

Samson Vermont's presentation on "Patent Risk & Reward - Some Surprising Statistics" was apparently quite topical, as it elicited 137 questions from what can only be characterized as a humble and reserved audience, typical of any NYC gathering. One of the goals for the next meeting is to increase audience participation during Q&A.

A lot of networking occurred. Membership applications for LES were provided to several prospects. Vinny the bartender was convinced that he should become an LES member, and he was unanimously seconded by all attendees. Rumor is Vinny engaged one of the major New York IP law firms to represent him in a trade secret case involving his unique Dry Martini formulation.

Special thanks go out to Clifford Chance for underwriting part of the cost of the meeting.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Samson Vermont, Associate, Litigation
Intellectual Property & Antitrust, Hunton & Williams

Mr. Vermont founded the monthly periodical Patent Strategy & Management (published by American Lawyer Media). He also writes a column entitled "Patent Portfolio Management" for another monthly periodical, The Patent Journal (published by Aspen). In addition to numerous articles and papers about patent law, he authored a book chapter entitled Business Risk Analysis: The Economics of Patent Litigation, which appeared in From Ideas to Assets: Investing Wisely in Intellectual Property (Wiley 2002). As a registered patent attorney, his practice specialties include patent portfolio counseling and prosecuting and defending chemical and biotech interferences.

Mr. Vermont received a J.D. from the University of Georgia and a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Rhodes College. He also performed graduate work in chemistry at Georgia State University.

PRESENTATION:
"Patent Risk & Reward - Some Surprising Statistics"

Avoid patent application socialism, says Vermont, because aggregate patent value is skewed towards a tiny number of patents. One study, for example, suggests that the top 1% of patents accounts for 44% of aggregate patent value, whereas the bottom 75% of patents accounts for only 6-12% of aggregate patent value. Findings like these, and other findings about a variety of patent topics, form the basis of Vermont's presentation. Among other things, he reports data about trends in application filings, indirect costs of litigation, the relation between patent characteristics and their likelihood of being enforced, costs of delaying patent issuance due to depreciation and the time value of money, and the advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives to litigating patents in district court.