Yours, Mine or Theirs? Producing, Protecting and Keeping Your Intellectual Capital An Evening With Bill Berridge, Esq. and Jeff Wasikowski, Esq.   Early Bird Discount ($10 off) ends midnight Sunday the week of the program.

Imagine that you have submitted an invoice for consulting services, and your client is thrilled with your work. "The check’s in the mail,” she says, "And, we’re thrilled that we’ll be selling copies of the article ("software”, "manual”, take your pick) you created for us at our big Fortune 500 companies’ annual conference next month.” 

And you say, "You’re gonna do what? That’s my work!”  

In such a dilemma, what’s a management consultant to do? Your writings and other work products represent your intellectual capital, and should be a competitive advantage that contributes to your profitability, growth and success.

Intellectual Capital (IC) is the knowledge and experience a person builds that produces competitive advantage and monetary gain.

What a client usually buys when they buy "you” is your expertise, ideas and designs, whether intellectual or creative.  Intellectual capital that remains in your head can not be copyrighted.  But, what can be protected are materials you have written or produced in visual, physical, or recorded form (copyright), as well as your business name, logo, tag line and brand (trademark), and more.

Management consultants also increasingly use the Internet and social media for marketing, networking, collaboration, pursuing and conducting work.  Marketing experts recommend that we make our intellectual capital accessible online to draw in, educate, and inform prospects, to better convert prospects into customers.  While "sticky content” increases our reach and elevates our brand, it also increases the risk to us of loss by creating portals for others to expropriate our intellectual capital.

But, don’t despair! Come and "get smart” about producing, protecting and controlling the IC your firm manufactures at IMC NCR’s November 8 chapter and dinner meeting. Jeff Wasikowski, Esq. and Bill Berridge, Esq. specialize in Intellectual Property (IP) and will discuss the types of IP and IC that management consultants often produce, and how to best safeguard, package and present what’s yours. Topics including IP ownership, copyright, trademarks, business method patents, and trade secrets will help you understand what you need to do right away to protect your vital business interests. Please join us for this strategic practice management discussion.

About Our Speakers:

Bill Berridge is a founding attorney of Oliff & Berridge PLC.  Since its inception 30 years ago, Oliff & Berridge has counseled individuals, small business owners, technologists, marketers, in-house counsels, and senior management teams of U.S. and international corporations and universities, exclusively in the areas of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret matters.

Bill is actively involved in patent, trademark, and copyright clearance, prosecution, licensing, counseling, and litigation for the firm's clients. He works on administrative appeals, interferences, oppositions, and cancellation proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in both direct and supervisory capacities. Bill graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a double major in Chemistry and Psychology, became a patent agent in 1980, and received his law degree from Georgetown University the next year.

Jeff Wasikowski is a senior associate at Oliff & Berridge, PLC, a premier intellectual property law firm in Alexandria, Virginia. Jeff's practice encompasses trademark and copyright clearance, registration, licensing and enforcement.  He counsels clients on strategies to optimize brand protection and to manage domestic and international trademark portfolios.  He is actively involved in administrative appeals, oppositions, and cancellation proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Jeff graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Sociology from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and received his J.D. from the Duke University School of Law.

Parking:

Remember that our new starting time (as of April 2012) is now 6 pm instead of 5:30 pm. Parking is available on the street after 6:30 pm in most places but off-street parking is available at:

• Colonial Parking Lot #165, 3 Washington Circle (enter on 23rd St); 7am-9pm
• PMI, 2300 'M' St. NW, (enter on 24th St), 6 am-12 midnight
• Colonial Parking Lot #292, 2300 'N' St NW, 7am-11pm