Colleges of Law and Business Collaborate to Host First-Ever Corporate Intellectual Property Roundtable
April 26, 2006
Georgia State University’s College of Law and Robinson College of Business have entered a unique collaborative partnership to present Atlanta’s first-ever Corporate Intellectual Property Roundtable April 20 at the Student Center Ballroom. The event served as a premier forum for exchange of ideas, best practices, information and networking exclusively for in-house executives in the IP law community.
Nearly 50 business and legal professionals participated in the roundtable event, which began with welcoming remarks from Dean Steven J. Kaminshine of the College of Law and Dean H. Fenwick Huss of the Robinson College of Business. Facilitators for the event were Perry Binder, J.D., Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Robinson College of Business; Scott M. Frank, President, BellSouth IP Management and Marketing Corporations; and Clifford S. Stanford, Assistant General Counsel, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Both Frank and Stanford are COL alums who are among the founders of the Georgia State University College of Law Intellectual Property alumni group dedicated to furthering IP law and positioning Georgia State as a leading resource in this arena. Frank, Stanford and Professor Binder worked together to found the IP Roundtable event.
"The Corporate IP Roundtable at GSU is a unique opportunity to bring together some of the brightest IP minds in corporate America and academia,” said Frank. “I look forward to sharing ideas and enhancing my knowledge with this esteemed group of people."
The featured speaker for the first Corporate IP Roundtable was Dr. Paula Tkac, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Her presentation, entitled The Rise and Impact of the “Knowledge Economy” Underlying the Growth of Intellectual Property, set the stage for lively conversation, questions and answers, and a brainstorming session. Corporate participants prioritized intellectual property issues affecting the legal and business sectors for further focus and discussion.
According to Professor Binder, the Roundtable brought together Atlanta's best IP professional in the corporate world with Atlanta's leading academics in the field.
The potential for shared research on vexing issues such as asset valuation is boundless," he noted. "This is only the beginning. We are planning at least three or four similar sessions each year. Today, we received a lot of great input on particular topics and speakers that we feel will add value to this network of select corporate IP stars.”
Major corporations represented during the IP Roundtable included ADP, BellSouth, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cingular, Cisco, The Coca-Cola Company, CompuCredit, Cox, Delta Airlines, EarthLink, Equifax, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Southern Company, General Electric, The Home Depot, Kimberly-Clark, Merial, Panasonic, Southern Company, Turner Broadcasting System and The Weather Channel.
“This Roundtable is one of many examples of the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration between law and business, and these collaborations benefit our two colleges and the law and business community," added Dean Kaminshine. "We believe a Roundtable about IP in particular fills a critical need in today's high-tech world."
Participants in the first-ever Corporate Intellectual Property Roundtable hosted by Georgia State’s College of Law and the Robinson College of Business April 20