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Highlights of the latest intellectual property news from around the country.
The Supreme Court has recently abolished the presumption that a patent confers 'market power' on the patent owner, ending the presumption of antitrust liability arising from the conditioning of a patent license to the purchase of unpatented articles. <i>See Illinois Tool Works v. Indep. Ink, Inc.</i>, 126 S. Ct. 1281 (2006). As discussed below, this decision will have wide-ranging implications to the field of patent licensing, where fear of antitrust liability has tended to dampen the creativity of patent license schemes.
Features
Just recently, two great 'little' books were sent to me that I believe bear reviewing. The first is <i>The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering</i>, by James A. Durham, currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Ropes & Gray in Boston. The second is <i>Business Competency for Lawyers</i>, by our Board member, Edward Poll, Principal of The LawBiz Management Company in Venice, CA.
Features
Our experience working with attorneys and law firms tells us that the pressure to develop new business is on the rise. It is no longer good enough to be an excellent attorney; you are now expected to develop new business as well. Many attorneys that we coach want to develop more business; they are just not sure how to do it, or where they will find the extra time.<br>We've found that skilled and well-networked attorneys can utilize several methods to grow their business without taking much time away from billing clients. Some of the methods may initially be a challenge, but if you can move out of your comfort zone and learn some of these new techniques, you will have increased success in developing business.
Features
This month, Jaffe's insiders look into Crain's Chicago Business. This business magazine, with a circulation of over 50,000 readers and over 125,000 registered users, has served as a source of local business news and information to Chicago's most influential business and legal executives for more than a quarter century. Crain's Chicago has sister publications in Cleveland, Detroit, New York and Mexico. Each of the Crain's business publications operates distinctly in the sphere of its home city, yet they share a similar look and interest.
It takes a lot of effort and funds for a law firm to recruit and train its attorneys. If they stay for a sufficient period of time, improve their professional skills and start to bring in new business, the firm is likely to see a nice return on its investment.<br>These days, however, lawyers at some point typically leave the place that gave them their start; unlike days gone by when lawyers typically would stay at a firm for their whole professional careers. Today, they may go to a competitor firm, to a smaller firm, in-house or to a business that may or may not be a client of the firm. Yet, this does not necessarily mean that a law firm should just write off the time and money it spent on developing its former lawyers. Rather, as increasing numbers of law firms are coming to understand, a firm's former attorneys can play an important role in the firm's marketing and client development activities. To tap that resource, many law firms are creating alumni programs or are formalizing or expanding the basic elements of alumni programs that they already have in place.
Features
Whether you service public, privately held or non-profit clients, the most direct path to marketing results is to affiliate with aggregations of prospects in their industry associations. The caveat is, however, that you must attend regularly and take a leadership role ' join a committee, participate on a task force or event ' so that you become known as a trusted partner. Referrals will happen.
MLF 50, MLF 50/II and MLF Canadian 20 submission update and criteria.
The connection between energy and matter is a fascinating subject to explore. While it generally sounds like the stuff of science fiction, I have uncovered the secret to how it applies to our own special universe of law firms.<br>My inquiry began by going to the source. While conducting painstaking research into previously unknown aspects of Albert Einstein's past, I was astonished to learn that he had been commissioned by a consortium of law firms to come up with a system for generating revenue. Their reasoning for hiring Einstein? Since the physical laws of nature and business do not apply to law firms, they needed an explanation that would work for them.
Features
Imagine fielding all those unsolicited calls and referring them to a professional whose full-time job involves learning your audience requirements and branding strategy, finding research or personally conducting ongoing market and competitor analysis, providing you with data-rich 'Point-of-View' (POV) assessments on how the possible media buys fit into your firm's priorities ' maintaining arm's-length but informed relationships with the myriad publications you might consider, but recommending only those publications that meet a sophisticated test of audience reach vs. cost. This professional then negotiates advantageous terms and specifics, such as date and page placement, and executes the details of the media plan, day-in and day-out. And who keeps the payments and discounts straight and sends you frequent updates for budget-tracking purposes.<br>That professional is a media planner/buyer. No stranger to corporate America, outside media planning and buying services are relatively new to law firm marketing, but their presence is increasing among the larger, more media-savvy firms. Just as the legal profession lagged in accepting and building marketing departments, it has been slow to appreciate the value of these media professionals. That's changing, however, as national and global law firms are recruiting more non-legal professionals to high-level positions; and that new blood is carrying over some well-known best practices found in other industries with longer track records in branding and advertising than law firm marketing.