LES BENELUX

NEWSLETTER

TWENTIETH ISSUE - DECEMBER 1997

This quarterly newsletter is written specifically for LES Benelux members and others with a professional or business interest in all aspects of technology transfer and the licensing of intellectual property throughout the world. Further copies are available on request. Unless indicated as author's copyright and subject to acknowledgement of the Society, all material may be used freely in other publications. Editorial, insert and advertising enquiries and contributions should be addressed to Saskia van Dijk-Struyk, LES Benelux, PO Box 6050, NL-2600 JA DELFT; phone +31 15 269 4923; fax +31 15 261 24 03; e-mail vanDijk@cc.tno.nl

Dear Members,

This year of LES activities has ended on a good note, as I write this; our last topic meeting had a good attendance, and we were glad to welcome visitors from LES France and LES Britain & Ireland, as well as some who are not yet members. Various aspects of the rich topic of "Exploiting the results of EU-funded research" were addressed well by our speakers, and gave rise to lively discussion; our thanks are due to them, and also to Loeff Claeys Verbeke for their hospitality, and for use of their excellent facilities. Despite some unfortunate absences due to sickness, the Annual General Meeting which preceded this was well supported. Emma van Oosterom, currently our Secretary, was elected with acclaim to the post of President-Elect, and will take over from me in a year's time; meanwhile, she takes over as Vice-President from Ruprecht Hermans, who received a vote of thanks for his valuable services, and who will continue to support us as a member of the Board. On that same morning, the Board had approved the election of the seven new members listed below.

Since the last Newsletter, some of us were able to attend the very successful Annual Conference of LES USA & Canada in San Diego, which had a record participation of more than 1200, not including accompanying persons. At the International Delegates meetings that followed, the decision was taken to set up an LESI Biotechnology Committee on an ad hoc basis; one of its first tasks is to prepare the add-on meeting on 31 May before the LESI Annual Conference in Edinburgh in 1998, for which a full programme is available. Meanwhile, we are compiling a register of members in all societies who have interests and/or expe-rience in the licensing of biotechnology, including human and animal therapeutics, agriculture, animal husbandry, plants and crops, basic research, bioinformatics, gene therapies, DNA and monoclonal diagnostics. As Vice-Chair of this committee, I would be pleased to hear from any of our members who would like to have their interest registered.

At the European level, the LESI European Committee has submitted comments on the Commission's Green Paper on the European Patent System, and had representatives at the hearing in Luxembourg on 25/26 November. It had already submitted comments on the Commission's Green paper on Vertical Restraints, and attended a hearing on this in October. Members interested in these topics should contact our Board member Tom Vinje, who is a Vice-Chair of the LES International European Committee.

I want to thank all of you for your support of our society in this last year, and look forward to seeing many of you at our meetings in 1998, details of which are given below and on our web-site; meanwhile, very best wishes for the festive season, and for a happy and prosperous New Year.

Dennys Watson, President LES Benelux

e-mail: dennys_watson@compuserve.com

New Members

  • Jacques van Breda, Los & Stigter, Amsterdam (NL);
  • Henk Geut, Raytheon Engineers & Constructors B.V., The Hague (NL);
  • Scott Hanson, Amoco Corp., Geel (B);
  • Tamara L. Joseph, Morrison & Foerster, Brussels (B);
  • Mahendra Patel, Euro Inter Pharma, Zaventem (B);
  • Pieter A. Sloterdijk, Organon Technika, Turnhout (B);
  • Linda Verdonck, University of Ghent, Ghent (B).

For information on membership of LES Benelux, please contact Wil van der Voorde: phone +31 703906873, fax +31 70 390 9113 or e-mail prsnl@euronet.nl.

LES Benelux Meetings 1998

14 January 1998 - Rotterdam :
"Clearing Licensing Fees for Multimedia and the Internet";
22 April 1998 - Antwerp :
"Licensing Strategies for Public Market Companies";
7 October 1998 - The Hague :
"Establishing and Enforcing Security Rights for Intellectual Property";
25 November 1998 - Brussels :
"Impact of European Policies on Licensing".

Licensing Course

Amsterdam 2000

LES Europe

Several European Societies have offered to organise European Conferences. The schedule for the forthcoming years is:

  • 1999: LES Italy (Venice, 22/25-09).
    Information: Secretary LES Italy; fax +39 11 56 22 102.
  • 2001: LES Russia (St. Petersburg)
  • 2002: LES Czech Republic
For more details and a report on the European meeting held in Montreux in September this year, please visit the European web site.

LES International Conference 1998

The programme for the forthcoming LES International Conference "Major Advances in International Licensing" in Edinburgh (31 May-3 June 1998) was published in the September issue of les Nouvelles. For more information please visit http://les-europe.org or contact Margaret Sherry: phone +44 131 556 9245; fax +44 131 556 9638; e-mail: inconference@cableinet.co.uk

Next Newsletter

Deadline for delivering a contribution to the next newsletter is 28 February 1998.

18th Newsletter - June 1997
19th Newsletter - September 1997
LINKS to other LES Chapters

NEWSLETTER MEMBERSHIP
FORTHCOMING MEETINGS OBJECTIVES & STRUCTURE
LES BENELUX LINKS
AMSTERDAM 2000 LICENSING COURSE