LES BENELUX

NEWSLETTER

TWENTY EIGHTH ISSUE - DECEMBER 1999

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 licen-sing of intellectual property. 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. Unless otherwise agreed, acceptance of any submission for publication in this Newsletter is on the understanding that the author also consents to publication in the same or edited form on the LES Europe site at http://www.les-europe.org/. Editorial insert, advertising enquiries and contributions should be addressed to Saskia van Dijk-Struyk, LES Benelux, P.O. Box 6050, NL-2600 JA DELFT; phone +31 15 269 49 23; fax +31 15 261 24 03; e-mail saskia.dijk@wxs.nl

FOR YOUR DIARY 16 February 2000 - EXXON CHEMICAL/MACHELEN Licensing in the Chemical Industries

Dear Members,

I am pleased to report that the last topic meeting of 1999 was a good finale to this year for our society. The rather specialised topic "International Licensing and Taxation'' attracted around 40 registrants. The information provided by speakers from Switzerland, England, Belgium and the Netherlands was highly interesting and will be of use to anyone dealing with international royalty structures. A bundle of all speeches is being prepared and will be available in due course.

It was an honour and a pleasure for LES Benelux to have also Heinz Goddar, President of LES International, as a guest speaker. In spite of bad weather conditions both in Munich (the first snow of this winter) and Amsterdam (November fog …), Heinz managed to be in time in Rotterdam to speak about the Added Value of LES International. Thank you again for coming to our meeting Heinz! The AGM, which was held immediately after lunch, elected two new board members: Ariane Bird and Frans van Voorst. Congratulations to both of you and welcome to the board! Our long-serving chairman of the Program Committee, Bruno Vandermeulen, was nominated as President-Elect per 1 January 2000; he will take over the task of President in 2001. No doubt you will be pleased with this decision and I am confident that he will be an excellent President of our society. Michel Van Malderen asked me to agree with his resignation as a board member since his work does not allow him to dedicate enough time to LES; we are sorry to let him go, but understand his decision. Furthermore, the AGM agreed with the proposal of the board to appoint Assistance Office SWAN as an administrative consultant for LES Benelux. The board is very pleased with this decision; the help of SWAN will enable the board members to work more efficiently for our society. In view of her involvement with SWAN, our present Treasurer - Saskia van Dijk-Struyk - requested me to agree that she steps down from the board. Saskia will continue her work for LES Benelux as a special consultant of the board; so we will not say goodbye to her. Finally the AGM unanimously agreed with the proposal of the Board to nominate our immediate Past President Dennys Watson as honorary member of LES Benelux. The Society is grateful for all Dennys' efforts for LES, on national and on international level!

The year 2000 will be a very important one for LES Benelux, as we shall be hosting the International Conference in Amsterdam. During the next months the organising committee will be working on the final touch as regards the contents of the program as well as the social program of the Conference. It is now nearly five years ago since we started the preparation of the Conference by making a bid to the LESI Meetings Committee for the organisation of the 2000 Conference. Time really flew by and we are now receiving the first registrations for the conference. Early registration is recommended; please check the registration forms, which are published in the September issue of les Nouvelles and on our web site or let me know if you need some further information.

Finally I take this opportunity to wish all members a very merry Christmas. I look forward to seeing you at all the LES meetings of the year 2000

Emma van Oosterom
President LES Benelux
e-mail: Vanoosterom@oos.eur.nl

New members

• Guy Braem, Janssen Animal Health, Beerse (B);
• Maarten van Dongen, Innotact Consulting, Maarsbergen (NL);
• Luis Ferrao, European Commission - DG Enterprise, Luxembourg;
• Bert Oosting, Ekelmans Den Hollander, Amsterdam (NL);
• Slobodan Petosevic, SD Petosevic bvba, Overijse (B);
• Kristof Roox, De Bauw & Maeyaert bvba, Brussels (B);
• Elmar Schnee, UCB SA, Brussels (B);
• Bart Swinkels, Pharming, Leiden (NL);
• Simon Topping, Bird & Bird, Brussels (B);
• Thomas Woods, Medtronic Inc., Maastricht (NL).

For information on membership, please contact Wil van der Voorde: phone +31 70 3906873; fax +31 70 3909113 or e-mail Membership@benelux.les-europe.org

LES Benelux

Wednesday 16 February 2000 - Machelen -
Exxon Chemical; half-day meeting on Licensing in the Chemical Industries; program and registration form will be sent to all members soon. More details will appear on our web site.

Topic meeting on Taxation
Hand-outs of the presentations held on 25 November about International Licensing and Taxation are now available; please contact Saskia van Dijk-Struyk, fax +31 15 261 24 03; e-mail saskia.dijk@wxs.nl.

Board Members LES Benelux for 2000
President: Emma van Oosterom
President-elect: Bruno Vandermeulen
Immediate Past President: Dennys Watson
Secretary: Nigel Wagstaff
Treasurer: Frans van Voorst
Membership Secretary: Wil van der Voorde
Program Committee: Ruprecht Hermans, Thomas Vinje and Ariane Bird; advisor Wout van Everdingen.

LES Europe

European Conference in Venice, September 1999
The scene for the LES European Conference this year was perfect: warm and sunny and a high level of plenary presentations, lively and well-attended workshops and on top of that the beautiful setting of Venice. More than 450 participants enjoyed the benefits of an active and growing LES: high level education and excellent network opportunities. LES Italy has to be congratulated with one of the most successful LES meetings held in Europe.

Preparations are now getting into swing for the Pan-European Conference 2001, which will be held in St. Petersburg from 11-15 September. The location for the 2002 Pan-European Conference will be Prague, Czech Republic.

LES International

LESI Committees
Each member of LES may become a member of a LES International Committee. These committees focus on subjects of importance to all members. More information can be found on the LESI web site. LES Benelux tries to play an active role in these committees and is looking for committee members. If you are interested in one of the committees listed below, please contact Emma van Oosterom:
- Industrial Sectors
- Biotechnology
- Chemical Industries
- Environmental Technologies
- Dispute Resolution
- Trademark and Character Licensing
- Patent and Technology Licensing
- Copyright Licensing
- IT and E-Commerce
- LESIAC (International Affairs Committee)
- European
- Pan American
- Education
- Membership
- Meetings
- Communication
- Publications
- Management and Internal Publications
- IP Maintenance

News from the Web
LES Scandinavia and LES Switzerland have both launched a web site with information on local and regional activities. The web sites can be found at www.les-scandinavia.org and at www.les-ch.ch. At the site of LES International (www.lesi.org) two Committees have put downloadable documents: LESI Education Committee a document with names and CV's of potential speakers and LESI Publications Committee four LESI publications. Both pages are accessible via the for ''members only''-section for which a password is needed which will be received after you register for level 2. At level 1 the newsletter from LES Japan ''Winds from Japan'' is published.

Jobs available
A center for fundamental applied biological research, based in Paris, offers an exceptional career opportunity for a LAWYER in its head office at the contracts and licensing department. For more information, please contact Edwige Dorel at e-mail etcconseil@aol.com.

Other events in 2000
11-13 February - APPA/FICPI Forum, New Delhi, India. For information and registration, please contact info@kwconferences.com.
10-13 May - LES USA and Canada Spring Meeting, New York City - USA. For information and registration, please contact Braunstein@frlicense.com.
9-16 September - LES USA and Canada Annual Meeting, Toronto - Ontario. For information and registration, please contact StevensM@les.org.

Review of Euro Biotech CD - Law and Policy
This first edition of 'Euro Biotech CD - Law and Policy' already contains a wealth of useful reference information, which is easily searchable, using either global search, or in each of its various sections; these include International Agreements, EU Documentation, National Legislation, NGOs and Commercial, EU Product Trials, Journal Abstracts and Addresses. It is intended that the CD will be updated four times per year; the first edition covers national legislation and EU references until October 1999, and international documents to May 1999. In this edition, the 'national overviews' are limited to seven Member States and the EU itself, for which the document references are very extensive, cove-ring not only draft and existing legislation, but also responses to Parliamentary Questions, press releases, etc.; these documents can be reproduced in full on screen. The headings of the 'Summary Focus' section include introduction, agriculture and food, agencies responsible for legislation, environ-mental issues and conservation, genetic engineering and biosafety, medical practice and research, patenting, and pharmaceutical issues. The section headed 'NGO and Commercial' has limited coverage at present, mainly related to documents produced by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Green Industry Biotech Platform; it may be hoped that updates will include references to documents from EuropaBio, ICC, research groupings, etc., to provide more balance. The address section provides patchy coverage as yet; the long list of acronyms includes WTO, but not WIPO (nor is there yet any reference to LES), whilst some addresses show only web sites; no doubt such gaps will be filled in later versions. Meanwhile, this is in general a most useful and convenient source of information, not only for biotech specialists, but also for others who need to be aware of legal and policy developments in this rapidly-growing field.

Published by Ellis Publications, P.O. Box 1059, NL-5201 BB Maastricht, phone +31 43 321 5313, fax +31 43 325 3959; web site www.apms.nl/ellis. Offered at a launch, single-user price of EUR 400 until end March 2000: thereafter at EUR 550 - on which LES members would receive a discount of 25%. Purchasers will automatically receive updates.

Next Newsletter - Deadline for delivering a contribution to the next newsletter is 29 February 2000.