In This Issue Power Networking: A Strong Success With Key Lessons Learned Spring Meeting + LES International President's Message: Sector Spotlight: Health Care Sector Received A Charge Of Patent Infringement? What To Do Next Local Chapters Celebrate The Holidays LES International Americas Connect With New Collaboration Markets For Technology: Challenges and Opportunities Foundation Focus |
President's Message
By Tom Picone, President and Phil Barnett, VP Education
Dear Members and Friends of LES (USA & Canada): Welcome again to our exciting 2007-2008 year focusing on Global Excellence in Licensing and Acquisition Through Certification. I hope this finds you refreshed and energized after a great Annual Meeting in Vancouver, but also anticipating new and useful knowledge, collaboration, and networking at one of our several Chapter, Committee, Society and Education level offerings this year. 2qq1 ` A number of creative and committed teams are in leadership at these levels, seeking always to offer you the latest in licensing, communities of interest, and foundational learning. I would like to take this opportunity to thank these teams for their work and to encourage you to get involved with your favorite initiative team, and help LES have an even greater impact on all members and external licensing professional colleagues. The networking paybacks in learning, current awareness, alliance and transaction partners, as well as genuine friendships are massive. As you’ve read before, over the past two years our Board of Trustees has worked hard to refine and commission a small number of new strategic goals for our Society. These were directed to significantly enhance our value to members and the profession of licensing. Launching the profession’s first certification program at our Annual Meeting in Vancouver was one of those initiatives. I’m very pleased to share with you the amazing response we’ve had regarding the Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) program. We’re receiving affirmations for this initiative from a multitude of sources, including related associations, employers and international interests. As we move to steady-state CLP operations, the CLP Design Team is transitioning their program office to a highly qualified CLP Board of Governors, an external program support service provider and our capable administrative staff. Our inaugural class of Certified Licensing Professionals may well exceed 500 accomplished individuals! The CLP Board is functioning in a well-organized calendar with frequent sessions, and guiding the development of standards, admission process, and CLP operations for this great program. Beginning in 2008, interested professionals from all aspects of licensing will start the admission process through application, which includes disclosure of credentials, validation through testing, and board awarded certificates of proficiency. The CLP program is already giving us new visibility and collaboration/partnering opportunities with other important intellectual property related professional associations and societies. We believe this program will have a high impact on our profession in terms of clear standards of quality, performance, and trust for employers, as well as clear value recognition and marketability for certified professionals. Notably, these are excellent aspirations for a profession as important as licensing is to innovation, intellectual property development, robust technology transfer, commercial development, and global competitiveness. I especially want to thank our Board of Trustees for their support and hard work, and the work of many dedicated members that have helped make this strategic goal a reality. While he’s already been deeply involved in the CLP Design Team as Standards Workstream Leader, we again welcome Michael Lee as our first Trustee for Certification. In addition to our strategic goals, I’ve called each Society Trustee this year to set clear, organization-building goals for their leadership areas. For example, under Trustee Mitch Charness, Membership is aiming for a short-term increase of 10%, and a longer-term increase of 20%. Each one of us needs to get behind Mitch and his growth plan to make this a reality. I feel confident that LES people and our vibrant network can drive outreach and value in our offerings to make this happen. Another goal closely correlated with Membership is in Sponsorship. This growth plan will be led by Trustee Ross Epstein. While we already enjoy significant recognition by very generous sponsors, we want to continue making LES events and offerings available and “worth it” for sponsors and the role they play in LES delivery of value and quality services to our members. Think about the opportunity of Chapter events and the clear touch points they provide between LES people and their local professional communities! Trustees Catherine Vorwald and Peter Ross have set exciting goals for enriching the attractiveness, relevance and convenience of LES events and topics with a new “Web 2.0” approach to member/new-member collaboration. This initiative involves electronic interfacing and promotion of CLP, Webinar re-broadcasting of Chapter hot topic discussions, and capture/promotion of “Best Practice Chapters” in our two regions. Finally, Trustee Gwen Melincoff has taken on the important goal of guiding our Marketing effort, especially those aspects directed to CLP brand building. These are only a few strategic goal examples; there are several more in each of the remaining areas of our operations. Now I call on you, our members and friends to reach out to your Trustees, your Sector and Committee Chairs, your Chapter leadership teams, or others in LES. Ask about our goals and how you can get more involved, to learn, to share, to mentor, and to help LES achieve its goal of global excellence and professional service to Licensing. |
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| Copyright© 2008 Licensing
Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc. |
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