PRESS RELEASES

Washington, March 14 -- Microsoft's Vice President and Deputy General Council for Intellectual Property (IP), Marshall Phelps delivered a dramatic 'call to arms' urging members of the licensing community gathered for the 6th Annual LES Foundation Day, to make their voices heard in the current patent system reform process in an effort to preserve the creative process that spurs innovation.

"I urge you all to join the debate," said Phelps. "Around the world you get a lot of people who don't believe that IP should be owned by anyone. But frankly, it's probably the best private incentive program that has ever been developed by mankind, and we're at risk of losing it."

LES Foundation President, Dr. Richard Razgaitis, echoed Phelps sentiments. "Foundation Day provides an open forum for vigorous debate of key issues in the world of IP licensing, which is especially critical during this revolutionary time," he said. "The public must understand that this is not just about money and big business. It's about how change will impact innovation and the way we live. If we want to continue to enjoy the benefits of invention we must be very careful to preserve the process that brings those products to the marketplace and keeps the nation's creative engine rolling."

Phelps stressed the importance of open innovation in today's marketplace. "In the IT world every customer wants a 'heterogeneous environment'-- meaning that they want to use stuff from different vendors and they want it all to work together," he said. "You can imagine sitting down with Bill Gates and saying 'it's time to change'. It's a tough argument, but you make the argument for the customers," said Phelps.

Phelps pointed to the many struggles associated with attaining worldwide patents and advocated for harmonization of the system. "I would like to see the United States patent system become more closely aligned with the rest of the world," he said.

The Honorable Gerald Mossinghoff, former assistant secretary of commerce and commissioner of patents and trademarks, now senior counsel with Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, agreed, providing a comprehensive look at the current state of patent systems around the world. His presentation clearly illustrated the laboriousness, delays and expense that are making filing difficult for large companies and often out of reach for small ones. In fact, according to Mossinghoff, the 'Trilateral Offices' (made up of the Japanese, European and U.S. Patent offices) process 80% of the world's patent applications, including an estimated 210,000 duplications annually.

Mossinghoff, Phelps and Razgaitis joined a world-class, multidisciplinary panel, including Brian Barrett, associate general council for Eli Lilly, Wes Blakeslee, executive director of the Johns Hopkins' Office of Technology Transfer and Donald Ware, partner at Foley Hoag LLP, to discuss recent legal decisions and their effects on the overall IP landscape, as well as the prospects for international harmonization of patent protections and related polices. The panel showed broad-scale agreement on a move toward "first to file," as well as a streamlining of the system to allow a single patent investigation to suffice thereby reducing current duplicative efforts by the 'Trilateral Offices.'

The LES Foundation was established as a 501C3 public education service of LES (USA and Canada) to advance the understanding of IP licensing in fostering innovation for the development of a knowledge-based economy.

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For more information and to hear audio clips from LES Foundation Day speakers, please visit www.licensingfoundation.org or call LES (USA & Canada) offices at (703) 836-3106.