A 10th Anniversary With Energy, Great Content And Lively Networking For Young Members Of LES

Dear LES members, both young and experienced!

The YMC Committee has celebrated its 10th Anniversary this year, and it has truly been an amazing year for the young members of LES worldwide! Here are a few stats that speak for themselves:

• 300+ attendees at three regional YMC events held in Montreal, London and Seoul;

• 93 percent satisfaction rate on the quality of the events;

• 96 percent of attendees said they would recommend the YMC regional events to fellow young IP professionals, LES members or not;

• 90 percent of LES members said these events played a part in the renewal of their membership to LES.

But all of this success comes because of the help of many YMC volunteers and leaders around the globe, who have worked very hard in making the YMC Committee a symbol of energy, dedication and engagement within the big LESI family! You will find below a short summary of each regional event.

It has been a pleasure to serve as Chair of the YMC Committee for such a pivotal year. Now, rest assured that nothing will stop the YMC Committee from innovating, not even a global pandemic!

Stay tuned for our ideas on how to make the most of next year, even given these turbulent times, under the leadership of Georgina Busku, the YMC Chair for 2020-2021. Stay safe everyone!

Vincent Bergeron, 2019-2020 Chair of the YMC Committee

The 5th Pan-American LES YMC Event, held in Montreal, Quebec on July 12, 2019, was a great success, displaying both strong content and networking opportunities. The event was at full capacity with over 100 young licensing professionals from eight different countries attending, 33 percent of which were in-house counsel. The President of LES USA & Canada, Bob Held, and the President of LES International, Fiona Nicolson, both attended the event, as well as several Board Members of LES USA & Canada. The event was hosted by YMC Chair, Vincent Bergeron, and an organizing committee of LES members from Canada and the United States.

The event included panels on Data Licensing for AI and ML, Medtech Industry: Revolutionizing the Health Ecosystem—a Pan-American Perspective, and Licensing in the Entertainment Industry. The event's content ended on a lighter note with a Licensing Workshop on Cannabis Related IP.

attendees also had several opportunities to network in more relaxed settings, including an informal get-together the night before the event, an in-house counsel breakfast (exclusive for in-house counsel), lunch on a rooftop terrace, dinner on an evening boat cruise, and a casual get-together in a trendy nightclub near the old port in Montreal.

On the 13th of September, 2019, over 120 young and enthusiastic IP and licensing professionals descended on London for the 7th Pan European LES YMC Congress, again at full capacity. The event was co-chaired by Richard Pinckney and Cora Griffin.

Those attending represented 23 different countries and 22 different LES societies from as far afield as Australia, Japan and China as well, as Korea, Malaysia, the U.S.A., Canada, and everywhere in between.

What resulted was a diverse, thought-provoking, engaging and fun congress covering IP entrepreneurship, AI and robotics, and the interaction of IP and competition law, as well as dynamic sessions on how to lead a business and personal development through change. There were also unique in-house perspectives on licensing programs and a look inside the mind of in-house counsels to see what is really expected of external counsel.

The coffee breaks and lunch intervals provided an opportunity for attendees to meet each other and to compare experiences from around the world, as well as engaging directly with the speakers. As always, the event was indebted to the calibre of speakers and their depth of relevant experience and insight. Attendees heard from the head of licensing operations at a large telecommunications company and the Chief Executive Officers of a leading biotech company and power transmission company, as well the next generation stars in the field of AI and robotics, IP and competition law, and patent litigation in Europe.

These events are distinguished from many conferences in that there is a strong focus on enjoyment, participant interaction and engagement. Thus, one of the highlights of the day was the closing dinner and party which included a live band. It is a mark of not only the fun had by the attendees, but also the personality of the attendees, that everyone danced.

The 2nd Asia-Pacific LESI YMC conference successfully took place in Seoul, Korea, on November 28, 2019, with a record on attendance for this second edition. The event was cochaired by Sung-pil Hwang and David Swain.

It was an impressive event with over 100 licensing professionals from around the world. LESI YMC members who participated in the event discussed four interesting topics. The first theme was Beauty & Healthcare, led by Susanna Ruder of Hepp Wenger Ryffel AG. Healthcare is a recent issue that is in line with the 4th IndustrialRevolution. The traditional bio business and digitalization treatment was discussed. The second topic, IoT & Telecommunications, was hosted by Georgina Busku of AGIP. This is an important topic as 5G is commercialized and various leading-edge businesses (e.g., driverless cars) are becoming a reality. Brion Raffoul's Natalie Raffoul led discussions on the use of Big Data & AI. Finally, Sam Wiley and other experts gave various opinions on the topic of Entertainment & Copyright for properties that are being actively licensed.

Christopher Winter of Brightstar Partners, Ltd. in the UK attended the LESI YMC event as a special guest. Since he has invested in many start-ups in Europe, he gave is view on IP as a venture capitalist and expert in actual licensing that could be helpful in practice.

Furthermore, LESI YMC was invited by the Korean government. The Gyeonggi contents agency, a subsidiary of the Korean government, invited members of LESI YMC on November 27 to hold a demo day for the globalization of Korean start-ups. Members of the LESI YMC were able to deliver various comments from the perspective of the IP accelerator that Korean start-ups should keep in mind when entering the global market. In the future, LESI YMC is expected to be even better known as an organization that can help companies with global acceleration based on IP and licensing.

The program was completed by a social event featuring a band made up of YMC membersperforming live on stage. ■