NAPP eNews™/DEC/2017

NAPP eNews™ for Dec 2017


Holiday Season

Holy moley, where did the year go!? The holiday season is now upon us! I know many of you will have to take that laptop with you when you visit family, but please remember to pause and appreciate friends, family, and the spirit of the season. Workaholics that they are, our management company will be open each business day except Dec 25 and Jan 1.

Recruiting Blog Volunteers

The Professional Development Committee is organizing a team of volunteers for authoring posts in a regular NAPP blog. It sounds like they may be taking a very interesting approach of assigning "themes" to different volunteers; e.g., case law summaries, digests of forum discussions, NAPP member bios, PTO news, etc., and having the blog posts cycle through the various themes. I'm excited and tempted to volunteer just so I can get a sneak peek at the upcoming topics! If you're interested in participating, contact PD Committee Chair Priya Cloutier directly or via our Executive Director (Brandi) at [email protected]

AMC2017 CLE Credit

At long last, we believe that all of the requested states have now accredited the annual conference for 2017 and all attendees who requested CLE should have received it by now. (Texas's prolonged efforts to modernize their CLE accreditation system win them the Last Place Prize for finally accrediting the conference in November.) If you are still waiting for your state to recognize or credit you for your attendance at AMC2017, please let us know ASAP!

Jamison Policy Renewals

In our last newsletter, we recommended that NAPP members having existing policies with Jamison specifically request the NAPP discount when renewing their policies. Jamison surprised us by indicating that the NAPP discount was not intended for their existing policy holders, a position that NAPP believes to be inconsistent with our contract language and the preceding discussions. NAPP is in discussions with Jamison to resolve the issue, but the outcome is unclear at this time. I apologize for the confusion, and encourage anybody who is unsatisfied (or particularly pleased) by their interactions with Jamison to let me know, as this is likely to be a factor in how we decide to proceed. I can be reached directly at [email protected]

Website Update

While the software platform upgrade won't be completed until January, our new Executive Director has taken the time to clean up the existing website, making it much easier to navigate and find what's there. Please take a moment to visit and let us know what you think. After the platform upgrade next month, we should be able to integrate a new forum service into the site, substantially improving the experience for everybody. I can't wait!! A sneak preview of the forum service can be found at https://help.memberclicks.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001268671 (forum "front end" discussion begins at 17:45).

Local Meetups

In addition to the Boulder, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta meetups, NAPP member Jonah Probell reminded me he organizes a regular meetup in Silicon Valley (https://www.meetup.com/Discussion-of-Patents/ ). It's not formally affiliated with NAPP, but it is open to all and NAPP members are most welcome to join in. For that matter, the meetups being organized by NAPP are not limited to NAPP members, but rather are open to all who are interested in patent prosecution.

LA meetup organizer Bill Campbell reports that the LA meetups will start early next year and will most likely be held at Hub101 (www.hub101.la ), a tech incubator and coworking space. If you're interested in organizing (or attending) a meetup in your area, reach out to me or Mike Carey. Mike's put together an optional set of guidelines that will make it easier to get a meetup started.

Meetup Flyers

Atlanta organizer Anne Fahrni has suggested that we put together a design for a flyer to be handed out to potential attendees. The PR committee will be discussing the suggestion this Thursday, so if you have any design suggestions, get them in ASAP!

Committee Calls

The board of directors regularly meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month, and consequently, the committee meetings typically occur during the preceding week. (For example, the PR Committee meeting is scheduled for Dec 7 at 4pm Eastern.) In addition to the opportunities to get involved with one of the existing committees, there are now two new NAPP task forces getting organized: The NAPP Mentorship Program Task Force (chaired by Gary Maze), and The NAPP Group Benefits Task Force (to be chaired by Joyce von Natzmer). If you're interested in joining in, please contact the chairs directly or via our new Executive Director (Brandi) at [email protected]

Review of NAPP Bylaws, Procedures, Policies, and Guidelines

The Governance committee is beginning an inventory and review of NAPP's various rules and guidelines this month to get everything organized and determine whether any updates are recommended. If you're interested in being part of the review & recommendation process, please reach out to Mavis Gallenson directly or via our Executive Director (Brandi) at [email protected]

BoD Meeting Invitations

One of the issues that the board is struggling with is the openness of the board meetings. For the past year or so, the board has invited interested committee chairs to attend the board meetings as a way to increase transparency and encourage potential candidates to run for a position on the board. However, it was recently pointed out that the NAPP bylaws mandate confidentiality of the board meetings with a few limited exceptions. (Importantly, one of the exceptions is the discretion of the president to publish information about the meetings, but it feels like a stretch for this exception to extend to invited attendance of non-directors.) Confidentiality is important because it enables directors to engage in frank discussions. The board is working to find a way to balance the need for confidentiality with the need for transparency and encouraging participation of potential future leaders for the organization.

Preliminary Budget

The directors and committee chairs have now compiled a preliminary budget for 2018. While it admittedly relies on conservative estimates regarding membership and annual meeting revenue, and further includes some aggressive estimates for new program spending, the budget is predicting a $45k loss for NAPP next year(!). This loss could admittedly be covered by our reserves, but we're going to work hard this coming year to drive up the membership numbers and meeting attendance numbers. One of the discussion topics for the upcoming board meeting will be whether we need to reexamine the spending proposals for next year.

Claim your Affiliation

I've recently observed several instances where our members recite their professional associations without mentioning NAPP! (I discovered I was guilty of this too! Is this an indication that we're not charging enough for dues?) Take a moment to check your resumes and website biographies, and make sure you're claiming your NAPP affiliation loudly and proudly! Our group is definitely something to be proud of.

Welcome to NAPP!
If you know or encounter any of the following new members on the forums or at a local event, please be sure to welcome them to NAPP. We’re glad to have them on board!

Justin Lesko (Scottsdale, AZ)

Michelle Lisa (Scottsdale, AZ)

Steve Lisa (Scottsdale, AZ)

Anton Skaugset (Portland, OR)

Tamsen Valoir (Houston, TX)

 

 

 

 

Officers (also serve as Directors)

 

Daniel J. Krueger, PhD

President/Director

Term 2017-2020

Lisa Adelson

Vice President/Director

Term 2016-2019

Dan Beinart

Secretary/Director

Term 2016-2019

Image result for William Richards patent

William Richards

Treasurer/Director

Term 2016-2019

Directors

 

Jeff Wendt

Director

Term 2015-2018

 

David Stein

Director

Term 2015-2018

 

 Alexander Pokot 

Director

Term 2017-2018 

 

Louis Hoffman

Board Chair/Director

Term 2017-2020

Priya Sinha Cloutier 

Director

Term 2017-2020

 

NAPP

VISION
To be the organization of choice for all patent prosecution professionals.

MISSION
To provide networking, education, collegial exchange, benefits, and a collective voice in the larger IP community on patent law and prosecution practice, so that patent practitioners can flourish and achieve the highest levels of competence and professionalism in their practice.