The first day opened with three CEOs taking the stage - Ipendo´s CEO Toni Nijm, CPA Global´s Peter Sewell, and Zacco´s Hans-Bertil Håkansson - to explain to Ipendo customers, prospects and partners the positive direction for Ipendo under CPA Global´s ownership and the new strategic partnership between CPA Global and Zacco Group.

Sponsored by Finnegan from the US and NAM & NAM from Korea, the IUF 2011 was held at the Radisson BLU in Malmö.

The Ipendo Tax Team greeting Ipendo Platform™ users at the IUF 2011

The forum´s first Ipendo Platform™ user presentation was by Ivy Glezos, Global IP director at ASSA ABLOY. Her presentation focused on her work bringing the IP of all ASSA ABLOY companies and subsidiaries under one collaborative roof. Ivy explained that, with ASSA ABLOY being a global company with about 37.000 employees one of her major tasks was to Educate, Energize and Emphasize - explaining to the company and its subsidiaries the value of IP, spreading the word and demonstrating the benefits. She also pointed out that you need to overcome several barriers within a huge organization, including cultural differences, an entrenched way of doing things and emotional ties.

Greg Gramenopoulos, Partner at Finnegan, held the first IUF 2011 sponsor presentation; a panel discussion on the implications of the America Invents Act, which represents the most significant reform of US patent law since 1952. Panel members included Hanns Hallesius from Electrolux, Nils Olsson from Axis Communications and Peter Ericsson Nestlér from ST-Ericsson.

After lunch, Huang San Bae, Senior Patent Attorney at sponsor NAM& NAM explained and outlined the different treaties and revisions in Korean Patent law.

The second Ipendo Platform™ user presentation of the day was held by Hanns Hallesius, Head of Group Intellectual Property at Electrolux. He asked the question:"Why is IP management so inefficient?" - making one or two heads turn in the process, and then proceeding to offer a few answers and solutions.

The first day presentations ended with Marcus Lüpke, OF Counsel at Finnegan, addressing the hot topics and potential pitfalls in the trademark field in the US.

Just as the day had started on a celebratory note, thatÕs also how it ended with Karin Kärvling and Toni Nijm from Ipendo presenting the Ipendo User of the Year award for 2011. This year´s winners were the Anoto Group. Based in Lund, the Anoto Group were one of the first companies to embrace the Ipendo way and the award citation underlined what deserving winners they were, stating:

For being one of the early adopters of the Ipendo concept and consistently finding new avenues to build solid and efficient methodologies for managing a rapidly growing IP portfolio … for having deployed a fully integrated software, services and collaboration platform, Anoto Group AB is one of the ever-shining Ipendo Platform™ stars!

Cecilia Perklev and Linus Grönlund from Anoto accept the Ipendo User of the Year award

On hand to accept the award were the Anoto Group´s Cecilia Perklev and Linus Grönlund, who were just getting ready to leave for the day when the award was announced - much to their surprise! IUF participants then headed out into an Indian summer, as the highest degrees were measured since the 18th century in Malmö on this particular September evening. The forum dinner at Hipp, provided another great opportunity for networking, with attendees enjoying good company and good food.

 
Dinner at Hipp

The second day of the forum on the Friday was devoted to workshops. This year, the programme was extended to enable forum attendees to participate in two out of the three workshops that were organized.

The three workshops were: Ipendo Basic; Budgets & Forecasting in the Ipendo Platform™; and Trademark Management. The workshops began with presentations by the Ipendo team, following which there was open discussion with Ipendo Platform™ users, new and old, being given the chance to ask questions and discuss the topics and key issues arising.

 

We would like to thank all participants and our sponsors at the IUF 2011 for a great event.

Keep on dancing!

The Ipendo Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B73EQdHOoNo