2011
New England Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition

New Wrinkles in Procurement Law
Gregory S. Rosenblatt, Partner (Intellectual Property Practice Group); Wiggin and Dana LLP

Intellectual Property (IP) rights are obtained from patents, trademarks, copyright and by rule of law. The owner of IP rights may have the authority to prevent the making, selling and using of products infringing on IP rights. While a supplier’s offer to indemnify for IP infringement may give the supply chain manager some comfort, indemnification is not an adequate remedy if the owner of the IP rights seeks to enforce non-use of a product or your supplier lacks adequate resources for indemnification.

In a discussion directed to those who develop supply chains for products or services, Greg Rosenblatt will provide:
     • An overview of the types of intellectual property;
     • A summary of the rights granted an owner of intellectual property;
     • Examples of the use of United States Patent and Trademark Office databases to quickly check for obvious red flags;
     • A definition of “patent exhaustion” and an explanation why products are marked with patent numbers; and
     • Suggested clauses to minimize your company’s and your customer’s exposure to intellectual property problems.