Law Office of Alicia Porter

Frequently employers assume that when an invention is created on company time, it belongs to the company. There was a really nicely written article on the Graham and Dunn website that illustrates the problem regarding employer assumptions and employee’s rights with regards to who owns the patent.

Recently held it’s mid winter institute, and it was a great opportunity to get updated on the most recent intellectual property law issues.  It was also lovely and warm, given that Arizona was 60 degrees or so, compared to -40 here in Fairbanks.  For those that may ever be considering attending an AIPLA meeting, I would highly recommend it.

There are some good intellectual property conferences that are coming up in the near future. Although the majority of the conferences are geared towards practicing attorneys, some of them are tailored also to law students and the general public.

The big one in Washington DC in December is the PTO day that the Intellectual Property Owners and Education Foundation. This year it’s on December 3, 2007.

The American Intellectual Property Law Mid Winter Institute starts around January 22 in Phoenix Arizona. They vary from year to year with regards to location, but it’s a nice opportunity to get away when it’s -40 in Alaska.

The American Bar Association puts on a solid conference in Washington D.C. in April.

And, for the individual inventors who want to get information straight from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, they offer traveling road shows throughout the year, but the big one is Inventor’s Day in September.

Also from an inventor’s perspective, the Hardware Show in Las Vegas is in May. This is a worthwhile opportunity for inventor’s to market their ideas to vendors and manufacturers.

For more information on any of them, please click on the links on the Blogroll.

Is a fantastic link that I’ve put on the side bar – it is a fantastic resource which gives a patent attorney or agent some good insights as to what actually goes on in the USPTO and how to respond accordingly.