Widely recognized as the global gathering of the world’s IP business leaders, IPBC Global’s 2019 annual event in Boston was attended by representatives from the world’s top universities (e.g. Harvard University and Yale University) and companies (Google, Facebook, PayPal, Deloitte, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and more).  The three-day event addressed a broad range of topics in IP strategy, regulation, policy and commercialization. In particular, TIV’s Dr. Stankovic was joined by leaders from Mastercard, Barclays and Operem to discuss the role of blockchain in IP protection. The discussion covered three major topics, namely:

• Assessing the potential hurdles for large-scale application of blockchain

• Using blockchain as a tool for managing patent function

• Avoiding temptation for attaining a large quantity versus high-quality of patents

The conference spanned a spectrum of topics, including: identifying the barriers that women face who seek to build careers in IP; innovative IP strategies for life sciences; the introduction of 5G technology to fuel exponential growth in the number of connected devices; rethinking managing IP, among others.