This new group wants to be a resource on intellectual property

The local chapter of Licensing Executives Society, USA & Canada, a 50-year-old nonprofit that bands together intellectual property, technology and business development professionals, is relaunching with a networking event in the suburbs next month.

In Philly, where local universities like Drexel and Penn churn out patents year-round, the Philly section of the group had remained dormant without a regular lineup of events. Recently, a patent agent at Center City intellectual property law firm Volpe & Koenig took over as chair of the local chapter, which looks to be a resource for the local community.

“I was inspired by Introduced, where some of the conversations had to do with intellectual property,” said patent agent Harry Vartanian. “I connected the dots and saw there was a need to have plain-language conversations about things like intellectual property and trade secrets.”

(BTW, Vartanian has an interesting story about selling a patent to Apple.)

The end goal, Vartanian said, is to lower the threshold for access to information around intellectual properties and connect rising tech leaders to people that can answer their IP questions.

(Local IP resources are also available by way of Penn’s Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic and Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.)

Another factor that helped reignite the local group was that early last year the Reston, Va.-based organization named a new CEO in South Jersey native Kim Chotkowski, who lives in Chester County.

On Sept. 27, the group will hold its relaunch event in Radnor — with sponsorship from Volpe & Koenig — but Vartanian said future gatherings will also happen in the city.

“IP professionals love talking about what they do,” said Vartanian. “I’m hoping this will be a wonderful resource for the whole Philly ecosystem.”