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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE


Dear ACPC Members,

Greetings! It is my honor and privilege to begin my term as ACPC President.  ACPC was established 56 years ago as a place for Chief Patent Counsel to meet and exchange best practices related to intellectual property management, operations and strategies.  The core mission of ACPC remains the same, even as the demands on our positions have evolved. I would like to thank Bernie Zidar for his incredible leadership as our ACPC President last year.  The wonderful in-person meeting in San Diego was a fitting positive close to his term and a challenging 2020-2021 ACPC year for all.  In 2021, ACPC flexed to continue to meet the needs of our members operating in virtual and in-person work environments.  We brought content to our members that was responsive to the challenges the pandemic posed to our practices.  We advanced our efforts in inclusion & diversity and support of our Next-Gen leaders in ACPC.  We also started our regional meet-ups to locally engage our members in small groups in Atlanta, Boston and Minneapolis.  In 2022, we will build on this with additional regional meet-ups and continue to advance offerings and programming that is important to our members. 
 
Last year ACPC accepted a Board seat at the Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL). At the Winter Meeting in San Diego, we had the pleasure to host three scholar law students, recommended by FADIPL, to experience an ACPC meeting and network with ACPC members.  The feedback on the pilot program has been very positive and this year we plan to further develop the engagement of ACPC with FADIPL scholars to provide more mentoring opportunities for the students with ACPC members – enabling ACPC to make a larger positive impact on the future of the profession that has been so good to us. As we look to the coming year, please note that we are an association committed to:

  • In-person meetings. We are targeting two meetings with strategic and relevant professional content in the next year, a Summer Meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay in June, and a Winter Meeting in January 2023 (location TBD);
  • Advancing our Digital Strategy by storing exciting program content in a virtual library, and adding functionality and capabilities to our website; and
  • Continuing to advance our initiatives on Inclusion & Diversity, and mentoring and growing our Membership  

You, our ACPC members, are what make this organization a success.  Over the last two years in particular, it has been a pleasure to experience our shared commitment to ACPC and our appreciation for the value we receive from the engagement. I thank you for the involvement, and look forward to working together for an exciting, lively and informative year!

Sincerely,
Glenn Edwards
President

 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE


Dear ACPC Members,

It’s been an incredible experience serving as ACPC’s President for the past year. It was a fitting close to host our first in-person ACPC meeting in two years, and to be reminded of the amazing community that is ACPC.

We had over 50 members in attendance at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado in San Deigo, including three new members and four prospective members. The professional program was outstanding, with presentations from the judiciary, leaders in the IP bar, and ACPC members. We had the honor of bestowing an Honorary ACPC Membership on Judge Kathleen O’Malley as she retires next month from the Federal Circuit.  And we spent lots of time renewing the special relationships we have formed as members of ACPC. Many more folks wished and intended to be in San Diego with us, but unfortunately were prevented by continuing pandemic challenges.  

Thanks again to the Executive Committee, the Program Committee, the Membership Committee, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the Next-Gen Committee, and to our speakers, sponsors, and staff.

Despite the challenges we faced this year, we accomplished a lot, and maintained the health and financial stability of the organization.  This year, we:

  • Held our Summer Meeting in June 2021 on the Remo remote conferencing platform;
  • Held our Winter Meeting in January 2022 in-person;
  • Contracted the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay for the in-person Summer Meeting in June 2022;
  • Held 3 in-person member meetups – in Boston, Minneapolis, and Atlanta;
  • Grew regular membership by an amazing 16%;
  • Established our ACPC Content Library, which now has over 20 recordings of ACPC presentations, webinars, and panel discussions;
  • Expanded access to the Content Library to our members’ colleagues and teams;
  • Pivoted our Benchmarking strategy to issue-based “flash surveys,” and administered a survey on Inventor Awards;
  • Extended our support for Inclusion & Diversity initiatives, including taking a Board seat at the Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in IP Law (FADIPL);
  • Established our Mentor Program with 10 Mentor-Mentee pairs;
  • Enhanced the ACPC Website with improved member directory and search capabilities; and
  • Maintained ACPC’s financial stability while providing financial support to our Summer and Winter Meeting experiences.

Thank you, to every leader, committee member, speaker, moderator, and staff member who contributed your time and talents to ACPC this year.  It was a year of new challenges, but this incredible organization continues to not just survive, but thrive.  

Finally, as I have said many times, ACPC is all about its members.  It’s gratifying to see firsthand how engaged you are as members, and how passionate you are about ACPC.  It has what makes ACPC special.  

I’m excited to continue supporting the ACPC leadership team, led this year by incoming President Glenn Edwards.  Thank you for the opportunity to serve ACPC, and I’ll see you in Chesapeake Bay in June.

Sincerely,
Bernie Zidar
President

 

NOTICE OF ACPC 2020 SUMMER MEETING CANCELLATION


Dear ACPC Member,

We hope you and your families are all well.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National State of Emergency, travel restrictions, limits on the numbers of people who can gather, and for the health and safety of our members, your ACPC Executive Committee has made the difficult but prudent decision to cancel the 2020 Summer Meeting scheduled for June 29-July 1, 2020 in Cambridge, MD.

Extraordinary times like these underscore the importance of collaboration and information sharing. Considering the cancellation of our upcoming meeting and to ensure ACPC continues to meet our members’ needs in this moment, we are launching an ACPC interactive webinar series “Corporate Patent Perspectives” for all members free of charge. We will offer several short sessions (around 1 hour each) beginning late spring through the summer on issues related to patent/IP practice that we are facing currently, as well as some originally planned content for the cancelled meeting. We expect to use Zoom for these sessions to provide members the opportunity to ask questions and share experiences.

The first three topics the Program Committee is developing for you are:

“Responding to Budget Directives Caused by COVID-19” April 30, 2020
“USPTO Developments in Response to COVID-19” May 21, 2020
“Post-COVID-19 Emerging IP Risks and Opportunities” June 11, 2020
Watch our website acpcnet.org and your email for additional information, including how to register. Please send us your ideas for webinar content. The Program Committee wants your input to produce the most valuable content possible. Please reach out to Mary Rogan at info@acpcnet.org or 952-646-2036 with your ideas for programming, questions or concerns.

Thank you for your support of ACPC. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank ACPC staff, the Executive Committee, and our committee members for their dedication and commitment to ACPC by responding quickly to ensure that the organization continues to operate successfully during these challenging times.

Be safe and be well.

Warm regards,
Krish Gupta
ACPC President

 

SAVE THE DATE


I hope you and your family are well.

Due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, limits on the number of people who can gather, and for the health and safety of our members, your ACPC Executive Committee has made the difficult, but prudent, decision to pivot the 2021 Winter Meeting scheduled for January 23 - 27, 2021 in St. Augustine, FL, to a virtual meeting.

Programs will be scheduled from January 25 through January 27, beginning at 12pm ET and spanning for a few hours each day, for a total of three days. The agenda for the meeting will consist of professional programming, networking sessions, and a few optional, virtual, social activities to bring together our ACPC community.

Watch our website acpcnet.org and your email for additional information about the 2021 Virtual Winter Meeting, including how to register.

Additionally, we would like your input to produce the most valuable content possible. If you have any suggestions, please reach out to ACPC Headquarters at: info@acpcnet.org or 952-646-2036 with your ideas for professional sessions, or any questions or concerns you may have. We would appreciate hearing from you by no later than Sunday, November 15.

Thank you for your ongoing support of ACPC. I also extend my sincere thanks to our committees and ACPC staff for their dedication and commitment to ACPC. Their response has been amazing and everyone has worked hard to ensure that ACPC continues to operate successfully during these challenging times.

I look forward to “seeing” all of you at our Virtual Winter Meeting in January 25-27, 2021.

Be safe and be well.

Warm regards,
Krish Gupta
ACPC President

 

ACPC MOURNS THE LOSS OF Q. TODD DICKINSON


Dear ACPC Members,

It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I share the news that Q. Todd Dickinson, a beloved Member Emeritus of ACPC, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, May 4th, at the age of 67.

Todd was a true giant in the intellectual property law field. In addition to his years in private practice, most recently as a partner with Polsinelli, Todd served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office under President Bill Clinton, and Executive Director of the American Intellectual Property Law Association. In 2012, Todd was inducted into the IP Hall of Fame.

Todd was a phenomenal supporter of ACPC for many years. He was a regular attendee and frequent speaker at our meetings, most recently in Austin in January. Todd was a strong contributor to our programming as a member of the Program Committee and a generous sponsor for ACPC meetings. He was also a friend, mentor and colleague to many and will be dearly missed.

Please join me in extending condolences to his husband Robert, his loved ones and many friends in the IP community.

Krish Gupta
President, ACPC

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