Galveston Island: HIPLA Fall Institute and a Native Son
By: Tom Hochstatter, President
We are excited to be a first-time sponsor of the Houston Intellectual Property Association Fall Institute (HIPLA) set for September 27th-29th at the Moody Garden Convention Center in Galveston. We hope to make new friends and clients and visit with our loyal Texas customers too.
From HIPLA: Fall Institute Introduction
HIPLA has put on the Fall Institute in association with the University of Houston for the past thirty-four years, and we are planning an exciting, not-to-be-missed program for 2018. This year's keynote speaker is Dennis D. Crouch, associate professor of law at the University of Missouri School of Law. Professor Crouch is the founder and lead author of the nation's leading patent law blog/resource, Patently0.
The last day for early registration is September 7th – that’s when the fee increases by $100.
HIPLAs’ newest member, Luke Barbin, CEO, Techson - and Galveston native son
Luke is a co-founder and CEO here at Techson IP. Luke was born-on-island (BOI) in Galveston and moved with his family for his father’s work in Waco, TX – home to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, the Dr. Pepper Museum, those trendy Fixer Upper folks and the must visit Magnolia Market at the Silos.
Luke has been in the intellectual property industry since graduating Texas A&M with a Biomedical Engineering degree. After working in innovation as an R&D engineer for a F500 pharmaceutical and medical device company in Fort Worth, Luke crossed the Red River heading north to law school.
Luke took a 14-year sabbatical from Texas to study law and establish his law practice in Chicago. After 6 years of practice, he pivoted into the intellectual property research, consulting, and data services space where he designed and delivered IP-related solutions to some of the largest corporations and law firms.
As it were, Luke always had his sights set on returning to his home state, and he guided his pickup southwest in the Fall of 2014, crossed the Red River again, with a big Yee Haw, and didn’t stop until he reached Austin.
Techson IP is Born
In 2015, Techson IP was born to offer the marketplace a desperately needed premium patent search offering. Up until 2015 the patent research and advisory business was in a terrible downward slide with “race to the bottom” commodity-based providers - accelerated by a massive effort of offshore providers exploiting their below-market salaried technologists.
What got lost in the land grab was the research customer and the necessary services they required (and desired) to fulfill their own clients’ patent research needs. Techson IP set out to fulfill market demand for services and results that could be trusted…on every project. Three years later, we have not only attracted an incredible group of customers, but also an incredible team that works together to satisfy their needs while raising the bar on what should be expected from services and technology providers in IP.
We are all looking forward to seeing and meeting as many of the attendees as we can because beyond obviously earning new business from those attending, we like to hear from the marketplace directly as often as possible to further inform our business and how we can better serve the intellectual property industry.
#RelentlessResearch