IP Awards 2015

INTELLECTUAL property Best IP Valuation Firm in Asia We are thrilled to be recognised as the leading IP valuation firm in Asia. We have worked hard to deliver high quality services to clients and it is a testament to our people that we have achieved this award.

- Brett Shadbolt, Censere

Best in Medical Laser IP - USA It is a distinct honor to have been named Best in Medical Laser IP – USA. We owe this success to the array of opportunities presented by our extraordinarily loyal clients!

- David G. Rosenbaum, Rosenbaum IP, P.C.

Best Patent Services Firm - Canada To be given this award is decidedly gratifying. The recognition from AI Awards is very much appreciated. Any time a client takes time out of their day to place a vote, it should be taken as a high compliment. We feel privileged each time a new client file is initiated, and we strive to be successful for all clients.

- Jai Chatterjee, PatentAxis Inc.

3086_NLS advert 05-15_Layout 1 08/05/2015 13:23 Page 1

Nottingham Law School

Excellence in professional legal education Planning to develop your career? Thinking about the next steps? You can broaden your knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of specialist areas at Nottingham Law School. For practitioners who want to specialise in intellectual property we offer: • Professional Certificate in Trade Mark Practice • IP Litigation and Advocacy Courses

• IP Basic Litigation Skills Course (Trade Mark Attorney) • IP Basic Litigation Skills Course (Patent Attorney)

For more information please call +44 (0)115 848 4460 or email nls.enquiries@ntu.ac.uk

www.ntu.ac.uk/IP 3086/05/15

foreword Welcome to the 2015 Intellectual Property Awards

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, and with businesses continuing to transcend traditional boundaries at a frightening pace, the need to safeguard and protect their intellectual property and rights becomes of paramount importance.

As coordinators of the prestigious 2015 Intellectual Property Awards, we fully understand the burgeoning significance of intellectual property practitioners across all areas, including the well-established trademark, copyright, patent and litigation practices. Through these awards, we seek to honour the professionals who perform to consistently high levels in what is a highly complex industry, setting new standards for the levels of innovation and expertise required to be successful and have a hand in shaping the sector.

Identifying the key players in this industry is the result of months of research from our dedicated awards team. They ensure that the awards are based on 100% merit and only recognise those professionals who have performed outstandingly well and achieved stellar results over the past 12 months.

With this in mind, all winners can take great pride in their achievements and we hope these awards will spur them on to an exciting and even more successful second half of 2015 and beyond.

So to find out more about the leading lights in the intellectual property industry, read on…

Censere

Dreyfus

PatentAxis Inc.

Rosenbaum IP, PC

Best IP Valuation Firm in Asia / Page 4

Best IT Intellectual Property Firm - France / Page 6

Best Patent Services Firm - Canada / Page 8

Best in Medical Laser IP - USA / Page 10

Allbright Law offices

Fraserburgh

KETNER

Krishna & Saurastri Associates

Sustained Excellence in Patent Infringement Litigation - China / Page 12

Best for IP-Focused Business Strategy / Page 14

Best for IP Law - Slovenia / Page 16

IP Law Firm of the Year – India / Page 17

LANDL & partner gmbh

Patentanwalt Koelliker GmbH

RYUKA IP Law Firm

Sena & Berton Moreno

Best Patent Agency – Austria / Page 18

Best for Invention Protection / Page 20

IP Law Firm of the Year – Japan / Page 22

Overall IP Law Firm of the Year - Argentina / Page 23

TLIP Ltd

Goryachko, Niadzvetski & partners

Hill & Schumacher

Marlow IP Recruitment

2015 IP Innovation Award: Freedom To Operate Advice / Page 24

The Future of Intellectual Property / Page 25

Best for High Technology Patent Applications / Page 26

Client Choice Award: Best-in-Class European IP Recruiter / Page 28

anovIP

Brunet & Co.

King Guard IP Law Firm

Nottingham Trent University

Patent Portfolio Expert of the Year – India / Page 30

Best IP Portfolio Manager - Canada / Page 32

Best-in-Class Patent Prosecution - China / Page 34

Award for Excellence in IP Education / Page 36

Venner Shipley

WijnstraWise

2015 IP Innovation Award: Cleantech IP / Page 38

Best Patent Protection Firm – Europe / Page 40

Intellectual Property Awards 2015 / 3

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IP Valuation Firm in Asia

Censere Censere is an Asia Pacific based firm with 15 offices across USA and Asia. Their objective is to provide consistently high standards of service across their network as most clients operate in multiple territories. We spoke to them about their company as well as the challenges and opportunities facing them in their region.

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Working across different territories is particularly challenging in Asia as it is an extremely fragmented region, with both highly developed markets, newly opened markets and everything in between. Development, registration, licensing and enforcement of IP across Asia is both necessary and complicated. Censere tries to make it a little easier for our clients by at least providing consistent valuation and quantification services. In addition, we provide IP portfolio management services, IP infringement investigation, licensing compliance services and royalty rate studies. We are the link between owners and buyers of IP and the legal profession.

The key challenge for Asia is identifying and verifying transaction and licensing data for use in developing our valuation models. To this end we obviously subscribe to existing commercial databases, but we have also made significant efforts to gather Asia specific transaction data as part of our inhouse database. The breadth of our footprint and 13 years in the market means we have considerable data and past cases to draw on.

Company: Censere Name: Brett Shadbolt Email: info@censere.com Web Address: www.censere.com

We have seen the continued trend of growth in IP led investment across Asia. Where historically cross-border investment was primarily in tangible assets (land, buildings machinery, equipment, inventory, etc), more and more transactions are either led by IP or solely related to IP. Licensing of brands to enter new markets, partnering with peers to drive patent value, acquiring a business to gain ownership of the underlying technology, etc. This is happening in ever greater numbers, and in new markets across Asia.

For us, the key is providing objective advice. We are used as a mirror for IP transactions and as such we need to be independent and knowledgeable.

When distinguishing ourselves in such a competitive industry, our footprint is certainly a differentiating factor, but that alone is not sufficient. The single team structure across the whole of our footprint is unique amongst our peers. It means we sacrifice the ability to track performance across each office, but it does mean that our people are focused on helping our clients wherever they are doing business.

We actively seek to foster a culture within the group of sharing and joint achievements. We celebrate individual performance up to a point, but place more emphasis on group performance. Moreover, in measuring performance, financial returns are not the sole focus. We actively focus on client retention, introductions from existing clients, staff attitude both within the office, the group and in front of clients. Our staff work across our network, thus providing both knowledge exchange and cultural exchange opportunities; for instance we do not have a 15 teams across our network, we have a single Censere team and staff get to participate in a wide range of engagements.

As for the award, we are thrilled to be recognised as the leading IP valuation firm in Asia. We have worked hard to deliver high quality services to clients and it is a testament to our people that we have achieved this award. We hope to maintain the momentum and continue to grow our business into new markets and service areas.

Given the fragmented nature of the IP markets in Asia, it is often difficult to identify good service providers, and while we win most of our business by word of mouth, awards and other public recognition certainly help to differentiate the players.

Moving further into 2015 and beyond, we foresee an even greater emphasis on evolving transfer pricing and tax initiatives, transparency of transactions and greater emphasis on where business is taking place – particularly for online businesses. These are going to present both obstacles and opportunities. At the very least, we live in interesting times.

Intellectual Property Awards 2015 / 5

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best IT Intellectual Property Firm - France

Dreyfus Dreyfus is a law firm specialized in the management, defence and valorisation of IP rights, when confronting problems associated with their intellectual property titles (trademarks, designs, copyrights, domain names and patents) in the business realm and on the internet. We spoke to them to find out more.

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Company: Dreyfus Name: Nathalie Dreyfus Email: contact@dreyfus.fr Web Address: www.dreyfus.fr Address: 78 avenue Raymond Poincaré, 75116 Paris (France) Telephone: +33 (0)1 44 70 07 04

Listening to the ever-changing needs of legal professionals and executives, the firm has implemented an Internet platform Dreyfus IPweb including a monitoring service that monitors domain names, social networks, apps and Google Adwords. Dreyfus advises companies regarding the acquisition, the valorisation and the defence of their trademark rights in France or worldwide. Clients can then benefit fully from their ability to anticipate amicable settlements or litigations.

Dreyfus also intervenes in the form of legal consultation, advising clients on particular aspects of intellectual property, such as, for example, registrability and prior rights searches in France, in the European Union and worldwide. Dreyfus assists in the fight against counterfeit especially on the Internet.

The firm was created in 2004 as the Internet boom reached businesses as well as the general population.

At that time, domain name registrations exploded and so did cybersquatting. Nathalie Dreyfus, founder of Dreyfus told us: “I had a feeling that IT would be become an important part of Intellectual Property Law”, so Dreyfus was developed in that area. Dreyfus focused on how to defend a trademark on the Internet at a time when nobody truly realized the impact of the Internet on trademark protection. The firm’s success can also be attributed to the responsiveness of our attorneys as well as their work to always keep up to speed with new developments.

Furthermore, Dreyfus cooperates with a wide network of agents around the world to address its clients’ increasingly international needs. Indeed, it is essential to work with trustworthy and efficient worldwide associates and this is why Dreyfus believes these relationships should be fostered.

Building a law firm from the ground up is mainly subject to finding clients and gaining their trust. It is also a matter of having new ideas and to provide a different service with excellence. Dreyfus has overcome this obstacle through a timely process of rigorous work, a new kind of expertise and a diverse team of lawyers and IT experts whose skills complete each other’s.

The key words to define Dreyfus work for clients are thoroughness and responsiveness. Dreyfus permanently aim for efficiency and expertise as well as being very reactive to it’s clients’ requests and needs.

After more than 10 years of experience, Dreyfus is one of the few intellectual property firms with expertise in the digital economy. This unique understanding of issues specific to the constant evolution of the economy allows the Dreyfus team to manage the uniqueness of your situation. Whatever the mission entrusted, the commitment of Dreyfus is to find solutions that correspond to their clients’ economic imperatives, with the skills and services that the firm has to offer.

Dreyfus believes it is vital to truly comprehend its clients’ needs and also give the best advise to them.

Design protection and copyright, similarly to any other IP right, requires expertise for the counselling of the strategies to adopt and to defend them, thoroughness in the management of portfolio and cases and responsiveness when dealing with emergencies. Clients should therefore seek these qualities in a law firm..

Dreyfus aim to facilitate the understanding of each case for its clients, to best protect their interests and rights. The evolution of the Dreyfus law firm occurred simultaneously to that of the Internet. The Dreyfus team is constantly learning and adapting to be and stay experts in its areas of practice. Also, Dreyfus encourages its clients’ to take part in the management of each case, and follow its work closely. For that, Dreyfus uses an online platform called Dreyfus IPweb. This platform is a collaborative work station where both attorneys and clients can follow and update the case files. Dreyfus IPweb is also a key tool in a trademark portfolio management. It was conceived to help manage official deadlines and renewal dates for example. That way, Dreyfus clients have a permanent access to the real-time status of their trademarks. Finally, Dreyfus strives to constantly provide expert advice as soon as its clients need it.

At the present moment in time, the ICANN’s New gTLDs program has been at the centre of our business during the past year. Nathalie Dreyfus explains: “we have worked with our clients on the elaboration of new naming charters to include the registration of domain name with new gTLDs. This protection strategy was aimed to shield our clients’ trademark rights for cybersquatting on the internet thanks to proactive actions. We have also worked on the defence strategies and mechanism implementations to act against abusive domain name registrations reproducing or imitating our clients’ trademarks. Though both of these strategies existed before the new gTLD program, they have now acquired a prominent place in our clients’ IP rights protection.

Still on the Internet front, we note that social networks continue to grow in popularity and it becomes more and more important for our clients’ to protect and defend themselves there too. Globally, we notice that as marketing strategies shift towards the Internet, so does the business of IP rights’ protection.

An important change in our industry is the easiness to access information on the Internet. From this was derived our firm’s strength and work policy. Thanks to our online IP management platform, our work is done online and in complete transparency for our clients.

We are very proud of having been named Best IT Intellectual Property Firm in France. We continuously aim to excel in our business area to best satisfy our business partners and this award is proof that our hard work is being valued both by our clients and by our peers”.

At the firm’s level, such awards create added value for the firm and our services. This rewards our efforts and encourages us to continue to evolve. At the industry’s level, these awards are a quality label. They enable law firms to choose business partners in foreign countries with the insurance of them being trustworthy and qualified experts in their field. It is a valued appreciation of the firm’s work.

Intellectual Property Awards 2015 / 7

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best Patent Services Firm - Canada

PatentAxis Inc. is a Canadian patent services firm located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The firm provides its clients with both Canadian and international patent protection strategies and solutions, and access to the firm’s established connections with foreign patent law firms and registered patent professionals such as patent agents, patent attorneys, and patent lawyers. We spoke to their Director, Jaidip Chatterjee, to find out more.

Songquan Deng / Shutterstock.com

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Personally, I place a tremendous value on client relationships. From the enthusiasm and energy of local small and medium sized businesses to the sophistication and collegiality of patent professionals amongst international clients, it’s the existing relationship that motivates the sometimes intense effort needed to obtain patents.

Company: PatentAxis Inc. Name: Jai Chatterjee Email: mail@patentaxis.com Web Address: www.patentaxis.com Address: 365 Bay Street, suite 500, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2V1 Canada Telephone: +1-416-556-2999

I feel fortunate to have been rewarded with a client roster of professional relationships that include a personal connection. This is a likely reflection of a PatentAxis Inc’s founding principle of treating every client as a premium client, with an emphasis on client communications and client satisfaction. Regardless of the size of the client a concerted effort is made to provide clear and practical advice at each decision point, and whenever relevant set out options with benefits and risks of each option. Ultimately, clear communication, particularly when reciprocated from a client, allows PatentAxis Inc. to align patent services and patent strategy to each client’s goals. The core service is patent filing, analysis and prosecution, but there are so many parallel options that can arise during filing and prosecution that selection and execution of the appropriate option really does benefit from a thorough understanding of client goals.

For our business, client communication is paramount. Answer calls/emails promptly. ‘I’m too busy’ is not accepted as an excuse for not answering a client promptly. Underlying all communication is an attempt to provide clear and practical advice to set out decision points and available options so that clients can make informed and educated choices. I’m a firm believer that time invested in educating clients pays off with clients providing accurate instructions, making better decisions and improving relevancy of their patents.

What separates us from our competitors is that we provide a fixed fee option for all types of patent agency work products in Canada. Historically, our clients when presented with a choice between hourly rates and fixed fees have overwhelmingly chosen fixed fees. So, over the years fixed fee options have been expanded to all Canadian work products. Another distinguishing feature is communication and accessibility, particularly for telephone calls – a professional to answer communications promptly if not immediately is not common. Finally, PatentAxis places a heavy emphasis on telephone interviews with Examiners. Whenever suitable, Examiner interviews are conducted to help expedite patent prosecution and reduce patent prosecution costs.

Cost and time efficiencies are also a constant focus of ours. Overhead and human resource costs are always examined for relevance and impact. In terms of professional fees, the idiom ‘time is money’ literally applies, and we actively stay abreast of software advances to achieve time efficiencies, including staying current on all electronic or online filing procedures. Every software development comes with benefits and risks. Full review of new software to take advantage of benefits and mitigate risks is standard practice at PatentAxis.

An ongoing challenge is to remain current with new developments with patent procedures and laws in countries other than Canada. This is part of a larger challenge to maintain and foster our international relationships.

With local clients a lunch at a restaurant or a client site visit can easily be set to discuss new developments.

Clearly, setting such meetings with international contacts is not nearly as feasible. Fortunately, our international contacts include patent professionals that can summarize developments very efficiently by email or phone.

Attending international patent conferences for opportunities to meet in person also helps.

When looking for firms in our industry, the primary qualification is experience in filing, analysing and prosecuting patent applications. Less obvious but sometimes equally important, clients should look to receive practical advice that marries patent strategy to business goals and commercialization plans. Also, the ability to assess and explain multiple strategies is crucial. PatentAxis tries to propose a patent strategy that is best suited for each client file and avoids a cookie cutter or one-size-fits all approach. The patenting process is complex and nuanced, and frequently a step in the process may have multiple options. The ability to explain multiple available options in the context of client goals is important.

To be given this award is decidedly gratifying. The recognition from AI Awards is very much appreciated.

Anytime a client takes time out of their day to place a vote, it should be taken as a high compliment. We feel privileged each time a new client file is initiated, and we strive to be successful for all clients. Hopefully, this award is an indication that our clients understand and appreciate our efforts on their behalf.

Awards such as these are very important. In fact, they may be one of the clearest indicators of overall client appreciation. PatentAxis Inc. has a strict internal confidentiality policy that prevents providing client testimonials or providing client referrals in discussions with potential new clients. Sometimes potential new clients will request a client name and phone number as a referral; we can’t accommodate that request, first because of confidentiality and second because we don’t want to impose on the client. Therefore, awards serve an undeniably useful purpose of pointing to a validation from existing clients without risking any appearance of an imposition or breach of confidentiality.

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What: We partner with high technology companies to assist in developing intellectual

property assets, formulating and executing strategic plans for achieving maximal value for our clients. Our clients have achieved over $1.6 Billion (USD) in market value, either through financing rounds, merger and acquisition, licensing or litigation awards. To achieve this success, we combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience. Or practice is devoted to supporting our client’s intellectual property asset development, commercialization and, when necessary, enforcement.

Planning: The focal point of an intellectual property plan is to secure maximum

value for intellectual property assets. This is achieved by first defining the business objectives to be achieved.

Strategy:

Once the IP plan has been identified, a management team, including business, technology and legal expertise, reviews the business objectives, considers the congruence between the plan and the objectives, then pressure tests the plan against identified opportunities to challenge that the intellectual property assets will achieve those objectives. Being dynamic, the plan will be consistently and constantly assessed, revised, and reassessed as new objectives are identified, new opportunities are presented or new challenges arise.

Who:

Members of the firm have scientific training and regularly work across a spectrum of technologies including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, therapeutics, diagnostics, nanotechnology, organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, materials science, agricultural chemicals, plant breeding, environmental protection systems, semiconductor processing, industrial and medical lasers, computer hardware and software, digital and analog electrical systems, water purification systems, evaporative cooling systems, skin care products, clothing, motor vehicle assemblies and systems, and general mechanical and electrical technologies.

“

We combine professional and technical skills with level-headed business principles and experience.

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Address: 1480 Techny Road Northbrook, Illinois 60062 Tel: 847-770-6000 Fax: 847-770-6006

info@RosenbaumIP.com www.rosenbaumip.com

Best in Medical Laser IP - USA

Rosenbaum IP, PC Founded in 1988, Rosenbaum IP, PC combines professional and technical skills to position IP portfolios for achieving our client’s business goals. While having particular expertise in the life sciences, they provide a full spectrum of intellectual property legal services in a wide array of fields from biotechnology to semiconductor processing. We spoke to them to find out more.

Our overarching philosophy is to partner with our clients to establish and maintain coherence between the client’s business objectives and the intellectual property strategy and its execution to build value in an IP portfolio.

We have a client-first culture. As the founder of the Firm, my philosophy is to ensure first, that all activities at the firm are client-centric, and, second, that I am consistently available to clients, attorneys and firm staff to support them in accomplishing their goals to better serve the client.

Our Firm brings big firm expertise, experience and capability to our clients while operating in a smaller firm environment. This allows us to serve earlier stage pre-revenue technology companies as well as established companies and grow with our clients throughout their life cycle.

Company: Rosenbaum IP, P.C. Name: David G. Rosenbaum Email: drosenbaum@rosenbaumIP.com Web Address: www.rosenbaumIP.com Address: 1480 Techny Road, Northbrook, IL 60062 USA Telephone: 1-847-770-6000

We have focused on developing skills required to effectively represent our clients in the Medical Laser field and have sustained and grown that skill set over many years and across many changes in this dynamic field.

Clients in our sector should look for a design protection law firm that communicates its understanding of the role of design protection in the overall IP portfolio and how to both creatively and effectively meld design pro-tection for a given product concept with other forms of IP protection available for that product concept. De-sign protection is a routine component of our IP scope analysis for our client’s products and product concepts.

In terms of the challenges we face, the pendulum has swung away from a broader effect of patents back to more incremental effect of patents. Patent rights are being judicially curtailed, both from a subject matter scope as well as from an enforcement scope. I expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. This places on a premium on ensuring an open dialog with our clients to ensure the coherence in business purpose and IP strategy and its execution.

The biggest impacts on our business are also the biggest opportunities and the biggest challenges. One is the highly fluid state of the definition of patent eligible subject matter. Another is the legislative and regulatory environment seeking to stem the exponential growth of patent infringement litigation and the effect that such initiatives are having on enforcement strategies.

It is a distinct honor to have been named Best in Medical Laser IP – USA. We owe this success to the array of opportunities presented by our extraordinarily loyal clients! Such awards acknowledge unique achieve-ments and serve as recognition of a reputation earned through diligence and persistence in a chosen area of expertise.

Intellectual Property Awards 2015 / 11

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

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Sustained Excellence in Patent Infringement Litigation - China

Allbright Law offices Allbright Law Offices are one of the leading full-service Chinese law firms in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), and the largest law firm based in Shanghai (and in the whole Eastern China region). As the only national law firm headquartered in Shanghai, they provide a comprehensive range of high-quality legal services to both domestic and international clients from our offices in Shanghai, and our branch offices in Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Taiyuan and Xiamen. We spoke to them to find out more.

Citigroup Tower, 14/F 33 Hua Yuan Shi Qiao Road, Shanghai, 200120 Tel: (86 21) 6105 9000 Fax: (86 21) 6105 9100 28th Floor, Hong Kong Plaza, No. 283 Huai Hai Middle Road, Shanghai, 200021 Tel: (86 21) 2326 1888 Fax: (86 21) 2326 1999 Email: glzb@allbrightlaw.com Website: www.allbrightlaw.com

We have more than 900 registered lawyers (including nearly 300 partners and senior consultants). Aside from our regular working language of Chinese (Mandarin and major dialects), many of our lawyers are also fluent in English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, and other major languages, and many are also admitted in international jurisdictions. Our partners and senior consultants came to the firm from diverse professional and personal backgrounds. Many transactional lawyers have practiced for years in top international law firms and/or in leading multinational companies. A number of our litigators once were judges and prosecutors, and many serve as active arbitrators. We also have access to a strong network of former government officials and legislators. Supported by a large team of translators and legal assistants, our professionals have undertaken many complex and high profile transactions, and have won many landmark cases.

Our lawyers have played critical roles in advising the government on, and actually drafting, many of the core Chinese laws and regulations involved in our daily practice today. Our practitioners possess a wealth of firsthand experience and legal expertise in providing effective solutions to the most complex of legal issues regarding the application of laws and regulations, governmental approvals and legal procedures.We are consistently recognized by various institutions (e.g., Asia Law and Practice, Asia Legal Business, Chambers and Partners, and Legal 500) as one of the top PRC law firms in major rankings.

Intellectual property is one of our firm’s core practice areas. We have extensive expertise in assisting clients to protect their intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and domain names. We represent our clients on a regular basis to protect their intellectual property rights through administrative, civil or criminal actions. Among the great number of court cases in which we have successfully represented our clients, three were selected by the Supreme Court of China as Top Ten Chinese Court Cases for IP Judicial Protection in 2010, 2011 and 2013.

Key areas of practice: Anti-trust and Competition; Banking and Finance; Corporate and Commercial; Dispute Resolution; Foreign Direct Investment; Foreign Exchange; Labor and Employment; Insurance; International Trade; Intellectual Property; Maritime; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity and Venture Capital; Real Estate and Construction; Securities and Capital Markets; and Taxation.

Intellectual Property Awards 2015 / 13

www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

RubinowaDama / Shutterstock.com

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Best for IP-Focused Business Strategy

Fraserburgh Fraserburgh Consulting was founded ten years ago with a mission to provide strategic business advice and support to entrepreneurial companies. The definition of entrepreneurial companies was deliberately vague, intended to go beyond start-ups and to encompass any company or business unit that has ambitious goals and an open mind as to how they achieve them. We spoke to them to find out more.

As people who have built growth businesses both inside multinationals as well as outside the big company tent as entrepreneurs, we believe that the critical needs of entrepreneurial companies are threefold: - - -

To gain external perspective, experience and insight To have access to strategic capital (human and financial) To learn and develop new approaches to generating operational leverage

Clients who can step back from the intensity of daily business affairs, taking a strategic look at their company and even looking beyond their immediate industry make better decisions. We help them do this. But perhaps more importantly we allow them to see their business through the lens of Intellectual Property, which reframes the picture for them and identifies undiscovered sources of competitive advantage, threats and opportunities.

Company: Fraserburgh Consulting Limited Name: Dr Chris Donegan Web: http://www.fraserburgh.uk.com/ Address: 84 Brook Street Mayfair, London W1K 5EH Telephone: +44 207 866 6177

The relevance of Intellectual Property to business is critical. No rational business strategy in 2015 can be formulated without understanding the IP that underpins the business and its comparative market position.

Clients frequently tell us “we don’t have any IP”. This is rarely true it’s just that they cannot see it. When we find it together it invariably generates significant added value for their business.

The availability and cost of capital in today’s financial market is increasingly influenced by the quality of IP. Those clients that understand and can articulate the value of their IP are able to fund more easily and at lower cost than they might otherwise. This is a bottom-line benefit.

When properly managed, IP can generate significant operational leverage for business. Properly executed licensing programs can create leverage of up to 20:1 depending on the cost structure of an organization. But there are other creative ways to optimize returns from IP, including its use as a currency in transactions.

Despite the power of IP, it remains poorly understood by company boards, investors and the business school alumni who staff the worlds leading consulting firms but trained in a different age. We help these constituencies better understand IP value.

The IP revolution is not confined to Technology companies. Looking at the Dow the companies that comprise this broad-based index are 3M, Apple, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco, Coca Cola, DuPont, ExxonMobil, AMEX, GE, Intel, IBM, J&J, McDonalds, Merck, Microsoft, Nike, Pfizer, P&G, United Technologies, Verizon, Visa, Disney, Goldman Sachs, United Health Group, JP Morgan Chase, Home Depot, Travelers and Wal-Mart.

Note: no Google, no Tesla, no Genentech, but never the less it is an index rich with IP heavy companies. The fact is that today, almost every company in 2015 is an IP company.

At Fraserburgh we combine traditional high-service consulting with a deep technical and industry expertise that is leavened by our hands on experience in building businesses. Our difference is in our approach and in our people.

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www.acquisition-intl.com/intellectual-property-awards

Best for IP Law - Slovenia

KETNER, Legal Consultancy, Representation and Protection, Ltd. KETNER are a Slovene legal office specialising exclusively in intellectual property. They focus on the protection of industrial property (registration of trademarks and service marks, industrial designs and patents) and provide representation in domain name disputes. We spoke to them to find out more.

Name: Meti Ketner Company: KETNER Ltd. E-mail: info@ketner.si Address: Tržaška cesta 134, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Telephone: +386 51 344 655

Under the leadership of Meti Ketner and in cooperation with other highly-qualified expert partners, we strive towards the enforcement, protection, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Our practice and experiences cover the world, representing clients in proceedings at national, European, and international levels.

We provide monitoring and searches (for trademarks, industrial designs, and patents), as well as legal advice and representation in acquisition processes of industrial property rights. Furthermore, we provide legal advice, prepare expert reports, and perform searches and monitoring and other specialist support in the field of industrial property rights and beyond.

We give representation in the processes of acquisition, registration, maintenance, and enforcement of industrial property rights. Moreover, we are official Trademark and Industrial Design Attorneys entered in the Register of Trademark and Industrial Design Attorneys at the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (No. 219) and the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (EU) (No. 36953).

Additionally, we provide representation in domain names disputes. We encourage the development of copyright, intellectual property and other rights deriving from the creative activities of human being.

Famous Dragon bridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia

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We are the owners of SIX IN ONE, TEMPELJ, ZEBRA, PROTECTION.SI, ZASCITA.SI and KLIK.TV trademarks, and the company founder, Meti Ketner, is the owner of KETNER and co-owner of VODA.SI trademark. We are ambitiously tackling everyday tasks. Our goal is to raise awareness about the importance of intellectual property and intellectual property protection.

IP Law Firm of the Year – India

Krishna & Saurastri Associates (KSA) is a full service Indian Intellectual Property (IP) law firm focused on providing cost efficient legal services. The firm was formed in the year 1992 and merged with a law practice set up in 1956, and has been effectively rendering comprehensive solutions ever since. The firm has offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad.

We spoke to them to find out more about their practice and the unique service they provide for their clients.

Company: Krishna and Saurastri Associates Name: Manish Saurastri Email: info@krishnaandsaurastri.com Web Address: www.krishnaandsaurastri.com Address: New Excelsior Building, 7th Floor, Wallace Street, A.K. Nayak Marg, Fort, Mumbai – 400001 INDIA Telephone: +91-22-22006322

KSA’s team includes senior IP lawyers and technical specialists who provide services to a large roster of do¬mestic and international clients. The firm’s clients include large corporates, startup companies, research institutions and individuals from all major industries and sectors.

KSA’s practice areas include intellectual property counseling, prosecution, dispute resolution and transactions.

This includes all forms of IP rights like patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, geographical indications, plant varieties, domain names and semiconductor IC layouts. The firm also provides legal services for regulatory, healthcare & medical law and media & entertainment laws.

KSA’s mission is to provide state of the art client service by following the fundamental principles of ethics, integrity, confidentiality and accountability. The firm’s recent focus has been on devising extensive conflict check mechanisms in order to maintain professional integrity and ethics, on leveraging technology to improve data protection, maintain privacy and confidentiality and safeguard clients’ information and on developing flexible service lines and payment models in order to personalize offerings to clients of all shapes and sizes.

KSA believes that development of its culture and subsequent appreciation by its existing clients are the result of the availability of a Partner (i.e. an advisor with >10 years of experience) at all times to address each and every client’s needs, small team of experts who provide domain specific solutions decreasing turn- around times and rendering focused expertise, inter-connectivity of offices for seamless communication between teams and individuals and electronic docketing platforms to improve knowledge sharing and data management.

KSA has been ranked among the top tier Indian IP law firms consistently by leading domestic and internation¬al legal publications.

It is always a pleasure to receive such awards and the recognition that accrues from it.

KSA believes that a top tier firm is built on both individual and collective capabilities. The firm’s team consists of individual lawyers, patent agents and paralegals who have garnered a wealth of experience by assisting clients of all sizes. The teams are headed by Partners who have a minimum experience of 10 years.

Awards like these help in gaining recognition for excellence in the field. Although, it is important to note that the most important benchmark of excellence is repeat client business, which is what KSA prides its practice on.

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Best Patent Agency – Austria

LANDL & partner gmbh LANDL&partner gmbh specialises in counselling the customer in their attempt to transform ideas into innovations.

Their 100-10-1 idea-invention-innovation ratio can be transformed into a 1on1 invention–innovation, and many of our inventors were able to start successful businesses through their mentoring. We spoke to them to find out more.

With IP-awareness trainings and our unique SPADE-method we are able to turn ideas into granted inventions to protect their innovation and accompanied with assistance in setting up their business plan we have a holistic approach to the relationship with our customers. Moreover, we also assist in the alternative approach - where a customer, achieving the market lead, can exert standardisation. Here we also provide standards management services which ensures the customers’ products and production be continually state-of-the-art and comply with international regulations.

Realising the importance of understanding IP-protection procedures in regards to making the right decisions in strategic planning, we offer seminars and workshops to our customers. As a special feature we offer innovation workshops and team-building trainings on yachts to improve communication within R&D-teams.

Team-building on a yacht is an unusual environment and physical activity combined with being part of a sailing crew enhances the creativity of the teams and produces insights seldom generated elsewhere.

Company: LANDL & partner gmbh Address: Lichtenberger Straße 3, 4201 Eidenberg Telephone: +43 7239 53000 E-Mail: office@landl-partner.com Web: www.landl-partner.com

We are focused on IP-solutions in combination with an economic outlook. The long experience made within international corporations makes it possible to take the whole picture into account in finding solutions, sometimes even out of the norm as well as being flexible to respond immediately to our customers’ needs and to solve their problems. We not only provide the IP-services but develop staged strategic plans which allows our customers to be pre-emptive and be prepared for the next decision in order to achieve to best result possible in a situation.

We believe in the necessity of thorough preparations prior to the attorney’s services. The concept to enable an idea to be patented is usually like a rough gem which needs to be polished and precision cut into the form of a brilliant diamond. Therefore we build a relationship on a personal basis with our customers to fully understand their specific needs.

Additionally our SPADE-method helps our customers in this process, our definitive research experience and cooperation with selected patent attorneys leads to a high percentage of patent applications being granted and thus protecting the products and/or procedures making it possible to generate profit by transforming our customers’ ideas into innovations. Using and fine tuning this method the past 5 years we have a track record close to 100% of patent applications being granted (the rest still in progress) and most of them before the 18 months period.

With our unique approach and considering that we only started 5 years ago, it is an honour to be nominated and recognised internationally for this award amongst the numerous agencies and patent attorneys.

Being nominated by an institution always means the company’s products and services are visibly recognised and even more importantly, that the company has achieved a level of quality being worth considered as “the best in the business”

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Best for Invention Protection

Patentanwalt Koelliker GmbH is a young and small firm established in 2013. They offer their clients the full range of IP services, including drafting of patent applications and oppositions, providing opinions, defining inventions, doing searches, R&D contracts, supporting licensing and selling off IP rights, establishing a strong IP strategy, as well as providing trainings on a need to basis. We spoke to them to find out more.

Intellectual Property is an essential aspect for each company with a multitude of facets. We want to support our clients in all of these areas whenever need arises. In doing so, we take the client’s requirements seriously and are frank with him about the various implications. And when it comes to invention protection, the target must be to provide a patent application with a high likelihood of grant and a high capability of surviving a potential opposition e.g. before the EPO. Our Founder Robert Koelliker has a record of 13 years working in R&D and is himself a multiple inventor.

Thereafter he trained to become European Patent Attorney. In parallel, he set up the IP function with a strategic focus for the business he was employed. And now he offers his vast experience to the clients.

Key areas we are focusing include more complex technical fields such as intricate chemical compositions.

Inventors observe a unique technical effect but it may be unclear what - in patent terms - the invention is. By trying to analyse and understand the system we have been capable a number of times to provide strong and broad protection.

Company: Patentanwalt Koelliker GmbH Name: Dr. Robert Koelliker Email: patentanwalt@koelliker.biz Web Address: www.koelliker.biz Address: Seehäusernstr. 15; CH-6208 Oberkirch; Switzerland Telephone: +41 79 770 66 80

With Switzerland currently being the biggest market for Patentanwalt Koelliker GmbH, one major development is the removal of the lower limit of the exchange rate of the Swiss Franc to the Euro in mid-January 2015. As a result, Swiss companies fight currently with about 20% higher selling prices in rest of Europe and many companies are being much more restrictive with IP expenditures in the short term. On the other side, the need for innovations with strong IP protection gets even more important. Thus our challenge is to be in due time at the right place.

It feels wonderful to be awarded and it is a great honour to us! Our slogan is “Your invention is in good hands with us”. Hence, the invention must become sustainable by the protection, which is key to help the innovation to become a business asset.

Awards point out businesses and bestow exceptional achievements. Hence, due to awards businesses become much more visible to a broad audience. Thus, they are very important and I am confident that this award will help to boost our business.

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IP Law Firm of the Year – Japan

RYUKA IP Law Firm RYUKA IP Law Firm is led by IP professionals with diverse backgrounds in many technical fields and expertise in a variety of jurisdictions. Our clients can always expect a prompt response, and we have always demonstrated professionalism to meet our clients’ needs and expectations. We spoke to them to find out more.

Ryuka provides our clients with proactive suggestions for obtaining more valuable rights. We work closely to our clients for patent, trademark, and design prosecutions, license negotiations, opinions, and IP litigations.

Our clients can always expect a prompt response, and we have always demonstrated professionalism to meet our clients’ needs and expectations. Ryuka’s visualization and consulting experts support inventors in the realization of their ideas.

We find that attention to the smallest task is vital in providing the best Intellectual Property services. At Ryuka, we aspire to create and encourage dreams and goals among our staff, and develop self-esteem and future vision.

Our key practice areas include patents, trademarks, copyrights, licensing, designs, utility models, and litigation, with areas of technical specialty in electronics, telecommunications, software, optics, mechanical engineering, semiconductors, electronic materials, chemicals, and biochemistry.

Company: RYUKA IP Law Firm Name: Aki Ryuka Email: info@ryuka.com Web Address: http://www.ryuka.com/en/ Address: Shinjuku L Tower 22nd Floor, 1-6-1 Nishi-Shinjuku,Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, 163-1522, JAPAN Telephone: +81-3-5322-6375

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It is our utmost pleasure and honour to receive such a prominent award. We would like to contribute our clients’ technical development that will prosper the world. 2015 Intellectual Property Award gives a tremendous impact to us and provides sufficient credits we can take an advantage of in our business. Also, it help to advocate what the intellectual property rights are in public.

Overall IP Law Firm of the Year - Argentina

Sena & Berton Moreno Sena & Berton Moreno was founded in 1937 by Alfredo Sena and Ernesto E. Berton Moreno as a Patent and Trademarks Agency with a stable staff of only four people. Since then, the Firm has grown to reach its current size of forty people, working at our offices located only two blocks away from the Government House and at the heart of the commercial and financial district of the city. We spoke to them to find out more.

Company: Sena & Berton Moreno Address: Rivadavia 611, 5th Floor C100AAE - City of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Email: law@sbm.com.ar Tel.: 4342-6809 / 5796 o 4331-7760 / 1192 / 7358 / 7316 / 4343-0794 Web: www.sbm.com.ar

S&BM traits throughout the years have been a progressive attitude and customized services to the clients rendered by a highly qualified staff of people willing to meet the clients’ needs. This way, the Firm has been able to grow and develop in different areas where our services are rendered.

Over the years, our Law firm has increased both its clients’ portfolio as well as the variety of services provided, to the extent of comprising about six thousand clients, including domestic and foreign firms in all fields of commerce. Currently, S&BM is one of the most prestigious Law Firms in Industrial Property in Argentina and enjoys an excellent reputation abroad. The Firm has correspondents worldwide in order to meet its clients’ need anywhere and at anytime necessary. So as to keep abreast of the constant changes, S&BM is always updated with the latest technological developments.

During the last decades, S&BM started developing legal advisory in different areas related to commercial law. S&BM attorneys work as a consolidated team to obtain the collaboration of specialists in different areas of the law. Thus, our Law Firm renders legal services in corporate issues in order to cover every aspect of its clients’ needs.

Furthermore Sena & Berton Moreno is a member of numerous national and international associations: AAAPI (Asociacion Argentina de Agentes de la Propiedad Industrial); ASIPI (Asociación Interamericana de la Propiedad Industrial); AIPPI (Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Industrielle); Colegio Público de Abogados de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Colegio Público de Abogados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires ; Colegio de Abogados de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Club de Abogados de Empresa; IBA ( International Bar Association); ABA (American Bar Association); INTA (International Trademark Association).

Among their services include the following: - Industrial Property - Intellectual Property - Corporate Law - Banking Law - Investments - Labor Law - Commercial Law - Advisory in Taxes matters - Advisory in Accounting Administrative matters - Auditing - International Commercial Law - Corporate Criminal Law

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2015 IP Innovation Award: Freedom To Operate Advice

TLIP are based in UK in three locations: Leeds, Manchester and Cambridge. Their clients are mostly international corporates with demanding in-house IP teams. They come to them for original patent drafting, patent filings and strategic competitor advice of which freedom to operate plays an important role. We spoke to them to find out more.

Company: TLIP Ltd Name: Alex Turnbull Email: mail@tlip.co.uk Web Address: www.tlip.co.uk

Our clients see us as part of their in-house team and so everything has to be transparent and work at least as fast and efficient as the client’s pace. In freedom to operate we have focussed on proportionality. That is, providing a search proportional to factors such as the clients risk, exposure, industry, market and budget.

When clients are seeking a patent firm, they need to check the technical background of the attorney matches their technology and that the attorney has experience within the client’s industry. TLIP only works in areas where we can provide this match. We have clients wanting to join us as attorneys and we have provided attorneys for our clients. Something must be working well.

In our industry, we find that attorneys seem to be getting busier as the patent filing rates increase and with increasing confidence from clients in the economy we are seeing bigger projects being started. Regulation is increasing and managing the unitary European patent will require some thought. We are seeing freedom to operate and original patent drafting being perceived by clients as a bespoke service capable of being provided effectively by only a handful of specialists rather than by any firm of patent attorneys whose mainstay of work might be foreign originating patent prosecution. For us this is an opportunity, because since our incorporation freedom to operate and original patent drafting has been core to our practice.

Winning this award feels great. It’s a reward for the careful work of our searchers and the commercially relevant follow-up advice from our attorneys. Clients tell us we spend longer than other suppliers in the preparation and understanding phases, which when factored over the duration of a freedom to operate project results in our clients seeing more relevant outcomes which can be immediately adopted by the company.

Most successful partnerships between clients and their attorneys are based on long standing personal relationships and so any award is unlikely to have much impact overall. That said, in some cases it helps clients differentiate between suppliers and existing clients have congratulated us.

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Goryachko, Niadzvetski & partners The Future of Intellectual Property winner

INTELLECTUAL property

The company was established in 1993 and is currently among the biggest and most famous companies to render patent services in the Republic of Belarus.

Patent Attorneys of the company render the whole scope of patent services in relation to both trademarks and patents, including consultancy before filing an application, legal support of the filed applications, dispute resolution, preparing agreements, representation of the client’s interests before the Court.

The company employees are entitled to represent the client’s interests both before the national authorities of the Republic of Belarus as well as before the Eurasian Patent Office.

We have an extensive experience of cooperation with the national clients as well as with the foreign ones. We are cooperating with major foreign patent agencies.

of.309, 18B Krasnozvezdnaya str., Minsk, 220034, Republic of Belarus

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Best for High Technology Patent Applications

Hill & Schumacher are patent and trademark agents in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They provide services as patent agents, including patent drafting, prosecution, patent searching, patentability opinions, freedom to operate opinions and infringement opinions. We got in touch with them about their company and the philosophy behind their success.

Tell us about Hill & Schumacher, your clients and the services you offer.

We have been in business since August of 1993, and are located in downtown Toronto. We have a diverse set of clients, including over a dozen universities from across Canada, the Canadian government, a Nobel Laureate, and hundreds of companies, from large multinational firms to high tech start-ups. Our primary focus is on preparing and filing originating patent applications, and managing the corresponding worldwide portfolios. In addition we also file foreign originating patent applications in Canada for foreign associates. Since our inception, we have drafted over a thousand originating patent applications and are prosecuting them worldwide.

We have prepared originating patent applications in a wide range of fields of science and technology. Our firm includes three registered patent agents, a trademark agent, a lawyer and five support staff. Two of our patent agents have PhD degrees in physics and chemistry and one of our patent/trademark agents is a Professional Engineer, lawyer and trademark agent.

How does it feel to have been named Best for High Technology Patent Applications and to what do you most owe this success?

We are very flattered and believe at least part of this success is due to the broad dynamic range we can offer clients for our size. We feel that our success is based on a combination of deep technical skill and knowledge, experience in commercializing new technologies, and a professional approach that is based on trusting and long-lasting client relationships.

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Company: Hill & Schumacher Email: h-s@hill-schumacher.com Web Address: www.hill-schumacher.com Address: 264 Avenue Road Toronto, Ontario Canada M4V 2G7 Telephone: 416 368 1097

How important do you believe awards like this to be, both to individual businesses like Hill & Schumacher and in your wider industry?

We believe that such awards are valuable in identifying and promoting professional excellence to the broader community, and for highlighting the achievements of firms of all sizes.

What areas have you focused on and what challenges have you overcome to be named Best for High Technology Patent Applications?

From its inception, a key focus of Hill and Schumacher has been on providing IP guidance that marries technical depth with cost-effective high-tech patent preparation and prosecution. Our agents embrace technical complexity and thoroughly enjoy the challenges that it presents in patent preparation and prosecution. We feel that our small size, and the deep technical knowledge of our agents, allows us to develop and maintain close relationships with high-tech inventors.

Tell us about Hill & Schumacher’s overriding philosophy when it comes to your clients. What do you see as the most vital areas to focus on when it comes to providing the best possible service?

Our basic philosophy is that we work for our clients. As patent agents our clients know that they can reach us whenever they need to. We have a large number of repeat clients who have been with us from the start. They appreciate our persistence whether it be scientifically trying to understand their inventions in order to get them the best protection possible or our support staff reminding them about the administrative documentation we require from them to perfect their patent/trademark applications.

What should clients be looking for when seeking a design protection law firm and how does Hill & Schumacher go about meeting these requirements?

Clients should look for a team that can understand the needs of the clients and the different options that are available for design protection. We have the ability to understand and a wide variety of inventions and how design protection can form part of an overall intellectual property portfolio.

Tell us about the culture within Hill & Schumacher and the things you do to maintain and develop it. How does it influence your interactions with and results achieved for your clients?

We have a very relaxed culture and atmosphere at our firm. Everyone is encouraged to engage in continuing education from our professionals to our support staff. We are small enough so that our work hours are flexible but when required the whole team is ready and available to meet the clients needs. The overriding theme is that the work gets done on a timely basis by each individual and that being the case the quid pro quo is flexibility.

What sets Hill & Schumacher apart from your competitors and peers and how do you use this differentiation to your advantage?

Many of our clients are universities and start-up companies that are pursuing complex technologies, and we feel that our ability to provide these clients with a unique combination of technical depth and strategic guidance sets us apart. A key attribute of the firm is our ability to provide practical guidance based on real-world commercialization experience that our agents have gained working within start-ups and universities in earlier stages of their careers.

We offer long term continuity to our clients, each patent agent develops a long lasting relationship with their clients, from start-ups to universities to multinationals. In our years in business we have not experienced significant turnover in staff which we believe is highly regarded by many of our clients. We do not have a “billable hour” quota in our firm, rather our focus is on timely delivery of services to each of our clients in a professionally and financially predictable manner.

What have been the most prevalent trends in your industry over the past 12 months?

We are very pleased to be witnessing the continued growth and maturity of several high-tech companies within Canada, and feel fortunate to be able to contribute to their evolution. For example, in Southern Ontario, the concentration of companies and the talent pool in medical device and imaging technologies has enjoyed a dramatic increase in the recent years. We feel that this trend, coupled with the increased recent interest in medical devices from the Venture Capital industry, will continue to help Canada to stand out as a leader in medical device innovation.

What developments or changes do you see having the biggest impact on your business and industry over the coming year and where do you think the biggest opportunities – and challenges – will lie?

A primary focus of our practice is effective and efficient prosecution of patent applications in the United States, which is a jurisdiction in which there has been significant IP developments over the recent years. We feel that these developments, particularly those pertaining to patentable subject matter and indefiniteness, have significantly raised the bar on patent preparation and prosecution. We see the challenges that these developments present as opportunities to further refine and differentiate our practice in effective patent preparation and prosecution.

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Client Choice Award: Best-in-Class European IP Recruiter

Being a specialist is Marlow IP’s virtue; but their thinking is never parochial, their knowledge is in-depth and their experience wide.

Because quite simply at Marlow IP they know intellectual property. We spoke to them to find out more.

Graham Marlow, Director, and Sophie Caygill, Head of Research

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Company: Marlow IP Recruitment Email: contact@marlowiprecruit.com Address: Marlow IP Recruitment Ltd 19 East Parade, Harrogate North Yorkshire, HG1 5LF Telephone: Harrogate - 01423 522 838 London - 0203 0512123

Our energies are devoted to servicing the needs of our clients who include world-leading multinational companies across engineering, food, bio-services, healthcare and FMCG. We also recruit for patent and trade mark firms as well as major legal practices with specialist interests in patent and trade mark law.

We are assiduous in getting the assignment brief correct. This process ensures that every detail has been fully understood and a complete grasp of the role, opportunity and clients’ requirements has been accumulated.

Only then can Marlow IP portray the client, company and the job specification with absolute honesty and accuracy to potential candidates. The continual challenge in recruiting successfully in a finite market is building an honest and trustworthy relationship with candidates. This attention to detail delivers favourable outcomes for both client and candidate.

At Marlow IP candidates are as important as our clients. We are not just a recruitment company but a vital part of our client’s management team, using our expertise and detailed knowledge to ensure that clients and candidates benefit from the ‘right fit’. Using our market knowledge and intelligence and by adopting a top-level management client service approach ensures we remain a sought after recruitment specialist by international and UK based organisations wanting exceptional IP personnel.

Our overriding philosophy is that, quite simply, we listen. We are painstaking in our attention to detail when receiving a recruitment brief, and this time spent delivers better results. We spend time with our clients to understand the culture of their employees and their organisations. We don’t shoe-horn candidates into positions to fulfil a brief, such short term measures are an anathema to our culture. Marlow IP is here not just for today’s brief but as a long-term partner, one who builds up an understanding of what really makes an organisation tick.

The Company places great emphasis in maintaining an open, professional and transparent dialogue with both staff and our clients. We invest in staff training externally; we bring in trainers and marketing professionals to regularly evaluate our internal communication procedures and advise on external strategy.

What separates us from our competitors is that we are smaller than some competitors and nimbler on our feet. Our clients receive gold-plated service from senior, highly experienced consultants who have a deep and long-standing knowledge of the market. As an example, we are adding to our board a senior consultant with an international background in industry to boost our trade mark attorney recruitment operations.

Working in an ever-evolving industry results in many developments and opportunities in our sector. The strengthening global economy and improving business confidence post the downturn has seen a growth in the need for patent attorneys in both industry and private practice. Trade mark attorney work has not recovered as fast and there is a marked swing towards solicitors’ carrying out work that previously was in the domain of qualified trade mark attorneys.

Furthermore, cost saving measures have resulted in HR departments taking over the role of specialist IP recruiters. There is an inherent danger in this trend as HR personnel are not always skilled enough to deal with the mind-set of attorneys; HR can be too reliant upon steering the recruitment criteria in the direction of corporate culture when intellectual rigor and experience are more important facets required in fulfilling very important, bottom-line influencing roles. In addition growth in social media channels like LinkedIn is a challenge that requires addressing head-on. Recruitment specialists have an ability to forensically screen and assess candidates (good and bad) and social media channels by-pass this scrutiny.

Marlow IP’s experience as IP recruitment specialists is an opportunity in itself. IP is such an influential financial driver of business it is not a matter to be taken lightly; the employment of key IP professionals affect the long term good health of businesses across the globe. They are an essential part of any senior management team where brands, technical innovation, inventiveness, engineering expertise and ideas flourish.

We are naturally delighted to receive this award particularly as it had been voted for by our clients. There is no higher accolade than client endorsement. Achievements of this nature arise from dedication, hard work and a deep understanding of both our client needs and those of the ever-changing market place.

Any positive publicity that is generated from an independent, third party source is valuable to any business with its horizons set on growth; it also sets a benchmark for our competitors.

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Patent Portfolio Expert of the Year – India

anovIP anovIP assist clients in creating, managing and monetizing intellectual wealth. Their clients range from self-funded innovators to Fortune 100 companies. We spoke to them about their company and the services they provide.

Name: anovIP Email: info@anovip.com Web: www.anovip.com Address: anovIP, Level 3, 45/1, Corner Market, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017, India Telephone: (+91) 1141 8355 50 FAX: (+91) 1141 8355 51

anovIP assist innovators in identifying, nurturing and cultivating ideas with potential of creating intellectual wealth. We understand that innovations demand focused and dedicated management thus our robust business engagement models let innovators focus on intellectual wealth creations, while we take care of management.

Intellectual assets make and break an organization, and we assist innovators in spotting right asset at right time for right opportunity, resulting in wealth creation. Our customized solutions results in intellectual value and wealth creation.

Our most popular services include the following: -Innovation Scouting & Cultivation -Innovation Novelty Assessment -Innovation Landscapes -Patent Application Filing -Patent Infringement Scoping & Screening -Patent Portfolio Marketing & Sales Material Preparation -Competitor Product Portfolio Analysis -Patent Application Scouting & Sourcing We are leaders in the protection of intellectual property and assist clients from across the globe in developing and implementing intellectual property strategies. We are also experts in providing high quality and customized intellectual property support services at an competitive cost to individual inventors, small and mid-size innovation companies, large corporate and law firms.

As for our region, we find that Asia houses the most promising economic markets which cannot be ignored for their potential in coming decade. We are currently assist clients in taking the silk route to success in markets like India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan etc.

Our core expertise is in the domains of communication, electronics, electrical, and consumer goods, medical devices, food processing, manufacturing, optics, nanotechnology, software, hardware, databases, internet, e-commerce, consumer electronics, green technology, enterprise systems, semiconductor and biotechnology.

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Best IP Portfolio Manager - Canada

Brunet & Co. specializes in patent and trademark filing and prosecution for domestic clients, foreign associate law firms, and IP Departments of foreign corporations. They are a boutique firm with a special focus on mechanical and chemical cases, especially in the agricultural, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. We spoke to them to find out more.

We focus on processes and systems, continuing training and education, and on-going client communication as the keys to our success and excellent on-going relationships. It has been a struggle to integrate work-fromhome options for our staff into our overall work, but through on-going investment in state of the art systems, the home office environment has now become an extension of our office infrastructure.

Openness and communication are the guiding philosophies for our client interactions. In addition, we strive to learn the business and commercial realities for our clients and their products so that we can tailor our strategic advice concerning their Canadian portfolio to their own specific circumstances. This collaborative approach provides better overall business value for the portfolio than can be attained by working in isolation.

Clients should always look for an associate that they feel comfortable working with, which is difficult to determine by merely glancing at a web page. I encourage clients to reach out by telephone and have a genuine personal interaction with me to determine if we are best suited to address their needs. This allows us to form the foundation of a real relationship, rather than just an electronic contact.

Company: Brunet & Co. Name: Robert Brunet Email: rob@brunetco.com Web Address: www.brunetco.com Address: 401 Bay St., Suite 1600, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5H 2Y4 Telephone: 519-474-0700

Looking towards the next year and beyond, significant changes to the Patent Act and Trademarks Act will come into effect in Canada. For patents, one significant change is a process for restoration of right of priority, which al-lows a priority claim to be re-established in the event of a missed Paris Convention filing date. For trademarks, Canada will now adopt the Nice classification system and adhere to the Madrid protocol.

As a boutique firm, we focus only on intellectual property filing and prosecution. This allows us to excel at the day to day requirements of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. In addition, by having a genuine interest in the client’s business objectives, we are set apart from other firms and are able to offer more focused strategic advice for achieving the best business outcomes for the client’s portfolio.

We are very honoured to be named Best IP Portfolio Manager in Canada and feel humbled to be selected from amongst the many worthy contenders for this coveted title. We form strong relationships with our clients, who are undoubtedly pleased with our efficiency, cost effectiveness and strategic insight in connecting the outcomes of Canadian and foreign prosecution.

Awards like this bring visibility to the hard work and dedication of people within our firm who work every day to provide the best client service possible. It is certainly a mark of recognition for their efforts. Also, an award such as this allows us to become more well-known to other potential clients that can rely on the testimony of others as to the quality of the work done by our firm.

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Sunset by the beautiful mountains (in Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, China) 34 / Intellectual Property Awards 2015

Best-in-Class Patent Prosecution - China

King Guard IP Law Firm King Guard IP Law Firm is an integrated law firm in all areas of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law. We spoke to them about their award and their work in intellectual property.

Company: King Guard Intellectual Property Law Firm Name: Kinghua PEI Email: pei@king-guard.cn Web Address: www.king-guard.cn Telephone: +86-13587254503

We hope our clients secure their investment in innovation through the procurement, enforcement and transfer of intellectual property rights. In addition to being experienced legal practitioners, our attorneys possess technical degrees and industry experience working for technology companies. This combination of legal and technical expertise allows us to understand our clients’ business objectives and provide focused legal advice for achieving them.

We work with a variety of clients domestic and overseas in many areas of technology including electrical, mechanical, software, internet, chemical, medicinal, etc. We have many experts on drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications in China and around the world for Chinese based and international corporations.

And we work with many firms from countries like the USA, EUďźŒAustralia, Korea, Italy and so on.

We are very glad to have been named Best-in-Class Patent Prosecution - China of 2015. We believe we owe this success to our clear focus on quality. Our number one focus is on providing high quality work product to our clients in a timely fashion which sets us apart from other law firms specializing in intellectual property.

To learn more about our team, please come visit us at www.king-guard.cn

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Award for Excellence in IP Education

Nottingham Trent University takes centre stage in a vibrant student city with the creative arts and innovation at its core. We spoke to them about their approach to teaching intellectual property, and their philosophy of being creative and doing things differently.

Nottingham Law School (NLS) is one of the leading Law schools in the country, combining an academic and practical approach to teaching intellectual property (IP) law to undergraduates, post graduates, practitioners, and a variety of non-law students across the University.

Our highly esteemed IP law programmes are the most extensive in the East Midlands and include: • Undergraduate LLB third year elective module on the F/T and D/L programmes • Postgraduate Diploma in Commercial Intellectual Property • LLM in Intellectual Property Law • LLM in Intellectual Property Litigation • Intellectual Property Litigation and Advocacy Professional Qualification • Professional Certificate in Trade Mark Practice.

• Staff also supervise MPhil and PhD students in the IP law field.

• Our staff are members of the European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network (EIPTN) and the Association of Teachers and Researchers in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) and work directly with regulators and professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA), the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) and the Intellectual Property Regulation Board ( IPReg).

Company: Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University Name: Janice Denoncourt, Senior Lecturer in Law Email: Janice.denoncourt@ntu.ac.uk Web Address: www.ntu.ac.uk/nls/ Address: Nottingham Law School Chaucer Building Nottingham Trent University Goldsmith Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU Telephone: +44(0) 115 941 8418

NLS has significant depth in the field of IP law education and research. Our Research Group focusses on: (1) IP law education; (2) IP law and practice; and (3) IP commercialisation.

It comprises staff engaged in refereed publications, conference presentations in the UK and overseas, interdisciplinary research and projects, as well as designing and teaching on programmes that span undergraduate, post graduate and professional IP education.

See www.ntu.ac.uk/ipresearch to read more about our work.

In 2014-2015, the ‘Nottingham Creative IP Team’ comprising Janice Denoncourt (Senior Lecturer), Jane Jarman (Reader) and Nicholas Johnson (Principal Lecturer) was successful in winning significant funding from the UK Intellectual Property Office in respect of two winning bids: • Fast Forward 2014 (£69,000) Nottingham Creative IP Project to equip those in the creative industries with a better understanding of how to identify, protect, manage and exploit the copyright, design, trademarks, patents and confidential information and how these legal rights impact on their creative work and projects.

• Nottingham Creative StudentshIP Enterprise project (£24,980) in which law students using the UKIPO’s IP Health Check tool will support their peers in the School of Art & Design to develop an understanding of their IP rights as they prepare for the Art & Design Degree Show (29 May-June 2015).

The Nottingham Intellectual Property Guide for Creatives book launch took place at the Law School on 27 May 2015. Copies of the book are available by emailing our Business Development Manager Estelle.paley@ntu.ac.uk We also offer pro bono IP law clinics through the Law School’s state of the art Legal Advice Clinic located in the Chaucer Building at the City campus which draws on the IP expertise of our law staff and our links with practitioners from local law firms specialising in soft and hard IP law.

When we received an email to say we had been shortlisted for the Award, we were absolutely thrilled so thanks to whoever nominated us! We are grateful for your support.

Nottingham Law School has been working steadily over the past two decades to arrive at where we are now – offering the full range of IP law educational opportunities. Thanks to our dedicated and forward-thinking staff, our IP graduates are highly sought after within the profession, IP policy development and research in the UK, EU and around the world.

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2015 IP Innovation Award: Cleantech IP

Venner Shipley is a leading firm of European patent and trade mark attorneys, headquartered in London, but with offices in Cambridge, Guildford and Manchester, as well as Munich. They are a modern and forward thinking firm with a long history and a vast amount of experience in all aspects of intellectual property. They represent a broad range of clients, from individual inventors to blue-chip corporations, for whom they draft and prosecute patent applications, as well as providing legal, commercial and strategic advice on exploiting and commercialising their inventions. We spoke to them to find out more.

Company: Venner Shipley LLP Name: Jan Walaski Email: jwalaski@vennershipley.co.uk Web Address: www.vennershipley.co.uk Address: 200 Aldersgate, London, EC1A 4HD Telephone: 020 7600 4212

It is no longer enough for patent attorneys to just file and prosecute applications. We have found that the best results are obtained by fully engaging with businesses, creating IP through invention harvesting, and then advising on strategies for protecting and then commercialising those inventions. We aim to be as integrally involved as possible and currently have secondees within the IP departments of two of our major clients, to the benefit of both parties.

As a firm, our biggest focus is on quality - employing and training the best people so that we can offer an outstanding service. We teach all of our attorneys to think creatively while applying their technical expertise to help our clients protect and exploit their ideas to full advantage. At the same time, we see ourselves as a bit different from our peers in the industry, injecting an element of fun into an otherwise serious profession. This is best illustrated by our recently launched website, for which a representative of jelly London, a London-based production agency, commented: “Jelly takes its hat off to Venner Shipley for being pioneers, bold enough to make a statement with illustration, and stand out amongst a sea of dull, dry corporate campaigns.�

We are delighted to have been given this award. We believe that it rewards our commitment to the cleantech sector and supports our reputation as a firm that is able to provide outstanding intellectual property solutions for our clients who work in this and other sectors.

Several years ago, in response to increasing interest in the cleantech sector, we took the decision to bring together attorneys from different technical areas to allow us to focus on and provide our services across the whole spectrum of cleantech technologies, from chemistry and biotechnology through to electronics and materials. Since then, we have advised on a corporate transaction in the biofuels sector, assessing the patent portfolio of the target company, and were heavily involved in the commercialisation of a bin for recyclable waste. We have also filed and prosecuted numerous patent applications covering a wide range of technologies, including lithium batteries for electric vehicles, solar cells, fuel cells and wind turbines, as well as smart plugs for measuring and controlling domestic energy usage.

With the G7 leading industrialised nations recently agreeing to phase out fossil fuel use by the end of the century, it is clear that the cleantech sector will continue to move rapidly from minority to mainstream; we plan to move with it, supporting business in this vital sector.

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40 / Intellectual Property Awards 2015

Best Patent Protection Firm – Europe

WijnstraWise This year’s winner of the prestigious award for Best Patent Protection Firm – Europe is WijnstraWise Patents B.V. WijnstraWise is a small firm, specialising in patents and the protection of know-how. It focusses on high-end services, such as freedom to operate advice and litigation. They further represent Dutch and international clients before the Dutch and European patent offices, and the Dutch patent court.

WijnstraWise is named after its founder and director Reinier Wijnstra. Reinier spoke to us about how proud he is to win this award: “WijnstraWise is a small player in the international IP field, so I didn’t expect to win this award. I am proud that the quality that WijnstraWise delivers has been recognised.”

The logo of WijnstraWise is inspired by the yin-yang symbol. Reinier explains: “WijnstraWise takes care of the well-being of their clients, by protecting their inventions and avoiding infringement conflicts. It is important to listen to them, and make sure exactly what their real needs are. All this is symbolised by the yin side of our logo.

However, it is as much important to fight in order to protect the client, either if a competitor violates their exclusive rights, of if they are accused of infringing. This strong and assertive attitude is represented by the yang side.”

These qualities are recognised by the clients of WijnstraWise. One of them is Zoontjens Beton, the innovative producer of rooftop paving systems. Paul Heerkens, their director, states: “We work with WijnstraWise because of the profound knowledge, strong commitment and reliability, but above all personal involvement!”

Reinier has worked for many years at a large patent attorney firm, before starting his own company. Reinier explained: “I wanted to focus on quality instead of quantity, and to use my experience to deliver high-end advice.

I have little overheads, so I am flexible and can offer my service how, when, and where the client needs it. This allowed us to work in our unique way, and I have named the company accordingly: WijnstraWise, the way of Wijnstra. I am glad that this has resulted in winning the award for Best Patent Protection Firm – Europe.”

The clients of WijnstraWise are mainly medium-sized innovative companies. One of these is Profextru, the innovative producer of the Prolock sheet piling™ and the Combiboard partition walls™. Profextru was the first to make plastic sheet pilings successful for bank protection, so Reinier filed a European patent application.

Up until last year, the resulting patent was respected for many years. Reinier added: “I had to send out several warning letters throughout Europe. All competitors yielded, without us having to go to court.”

Company: WijnstraWise Patents B.V. Name: Reinier Wijnstra Email: reinier@wijnstrawise.nl Telephone: +31 642 756 292 Web Address: www.wijnstrawise.nl Address: Amsterdam and The Hague, the Netherlands

At the same time, WijnstraWise investigated the patentability of new products. Bert Nijhuis, the director of Profextru commented: “The pragmatic approach of WijnstraWise is an excellent fit with the policy of Profextru.

It was fast switching in a competitive market where innovation is of vital importance. This collaboration has led to excellent results and will therefore certainly be continued!”

Furthermore, WijnstraWise has good contacts with law firms specialised in Intellectual Property, inside and outside of the Netherlands. “I have built an extensive network, by being an active member of professional organisations, such as Union-ip,” says Reinier. “I can choose the law firm that best suits a particular case and client. At the same time, they find their way to me when they have a court case involving patents, or the protection of a trade secret.”

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Our clients have spoken * Client Choice Award: Best in Class European IP Recruiter As voted by Acquisition International Magazine

Setting standards in IP recruitment Harrogate +44 (0)1423 522838 London +44 (0)20 30512123 M +44 (0)7970 016425 www.marlowiprecruit.com www.linkedin.com/in/grahammarlow

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