Wrapping up my goodbyes with colleagues at Northwestern Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law. I hope to meet with other colleagues I missed at these schools and DePaul University College of Law!
The IP community in Chicago is well-known for being very collegial and supportive – embodying the best of Midwestern charm. Over the years, they gamely spoke at our public lectures, seminars, and conferences, guest lectured our students, and invited me to do the same. In addition, these colleagues were my sounding board for article advice, colleague advice, and even career advice. I will miss having conversations with them in person.
Besides local partners, I also worked with partners from further afield. Detlef von Ahsen, whom I’ve collaborated with for several years, invited me for tea during his recent visit to Chicago.
The then-John Marshall Law School (now University of Illinois Chicago School of Law) offered an annual European patent practice seminar with his law firm, Kuhnen & Wacker, for over thirty years. Unfortunately, with declining numbers, we had to abandon what was comfortable and familiar to offer something relevant and attractive to attendees. So I reached out to another long-time partner of ours, Matthias Reischle from the World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO, who was also facing declining enrollment in the Patent Cooperation Treaty seminar it offered with John Marshall for decades.
It was not an easy negotiation. I had to build trust and confidence with all sides that this would be a viable product worth flying to Chicago for and investing considerable resources to co-organize and promote the event. Fortunately, the tripartite effort paid off. The redesigned event allowed us to combine both seminars into the International IP Practice Seminar, covering the major areas of IP and regions of the world. In four years, we increased enrollment to over 400 registrants worldwide. Today, the seminar continues to thrive. You can attend it virtually this fall on Friday, October 21.
John Lewis reminded us to “[g]et in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Progress and innovation may mean causing good trouble. So let’s not shrink from being good troublemakers when we need to!
Photos (clockwise): With Matthew Sag (Loyola Chicago, now Emory) and Stacey Dogan (Boston U, but honorary Chicagoan!), Dave Schwartz (Northwestern), Detlef von Ahsen (Kuhnen & Wacker), and Graeme Dinwoodie (Chicago-Kent)
Wrapping up my goodbyes with colleagues at Northwestern Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law. I hope to meet with other colleagues I missed at these schools and DePaul University College of Law!
The IP community in Chicago is well-known for being very collegial and supportive – embodying the best of Midwestern charm. Over the years, they gamely spoke at our public lectures, seminars, and conferences, guest lectured our students, and invited me to do the same. In addition, these colleagues were my sounding board for article advice, colleague advice, and even career advice. I will miss having conversations with them in person.
Besides local partners, I also worked with partners from further afield. Detlef von Ahsen, whom I’ve collaborated with for several years, invited me for tea during his recent visit to Chicago.
The then-John Marshall Law School (now University of Illinois Chicago School of Law) offered an annual European patent practice seminar with his law firm, Kuhnen & Wacker, for over thirty years. Unfortunately, with declining numbers, we had to abandon what was comfortable and familiar to offer something relevant and attractive to attendees. So I reached out to another long-time partner of ours, Matthias Reischle from the World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO, who was also facing declining enrollment in the Patent Cooperation Treaty seminar it offered with John Marshall for decades.
It was not an easy negotiation. I had to build trust and confidence with all sides that this would be a viable product worth flying to Chicago for and investing considerable resources to co-organize and promote the event. Fortunately, the tripartite effort paid off. The redesigned event allowed us to combine both seminars into the International IP Practice Seminar, covering the major areas of IP and regions of the world. In four years, we increased enrollment to over 400 registrants worldwide. Today, the seminar continues to thrive. You can attend it virtually this fall on Friday, October 21.
John Lewis reminded us to “[g]et in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Progress and innovation may mean causing good trouble. So let’s not shrink from being good troublemakers when we need to!
Photos (clockwise): With Matthew Sag (Loyola Chicago, now Emory) and Stacey Dogan (Boston U, but honorary Chicagoan!), Dave Schwartz (Northwestern), Detlef von Ahsen (Kuhnen & Wacker), and Graeme Dinwoodie (Chicago-Kent)