Reported by: Vincent Bergeron, Lawyer and Trademark Agent at ROBIC LLP, Quebec City, Canada

The 2nd Pan-European LESI Young Members Event was held in beautiful Paris on November 14, 2014, after a very successful first edition of the Pan-European event, which was held in Vienna in 2013. The conference was hosted at the office of Gide Loyrette Nouel, on the banks of the postcard-worthy Seine. Needless to say that the event was again a great success, with 127 attendees coming from all over Europe, but also from North America, South America and Asia.

The general topic of the conference was the recent evolutions in EU law and their impact on licensing. All attendees were amazed at the quality of the presentations and roundtables, where speakers from all around Europe and even from North America discussed the impacts of the EU Directive Proposal on Know-How and Trade Secrets and the impacts of the upcoming UPC and Unitary Patent on licensing. These subjects being very complex and difficult to cover in a short amount of time, the excellent focus and insight of the speakers from the law, business and industry sectors helped the attendees to clearly grasp the important legal issues at hand and to better understand the challenges of the coming years.

While some topics were more focused on law, attendees also had the chance to hear great presentations on the training and credentials needed to help boost a licensing career, as well as a presentation on IP business success and pitfall stories and a presentation on in-house licensing practices from large businesses.

In the evening, the conference was followed by a dinner at the Eiffel Tower’s “Restaurant le 58”, which could have been in itself a reason to travel to Paris. Participants were able to network, share thoughts and enjoy a great dinner with an amazing view of La Ville Lumière from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. Due to the popularity of the event, the restaurant almost reached full capacity with more than 90 participants attending the dinner. The night was topped with the now classic pub crawl, which was attended by a large number of YMC enthusiasts in Paris’ famous Rues de la Soif until early in the morning.

The organizing committee and all sponsors did a wonderful job in organizing a first class event for YMC members, which was a great success on every level. Their professionalism and enthusiasm is however very contagious, as there will be a first Pan-American LESI YMC Event held in Chicago in 2015, in addition to the return of the Pan-European Event in Munich in 2015.