Enthusiasm at Annual AUTM conference...and Arnie

by: Tom Hochstatter, President

It’s not often I get to attend one of the biggest IP events in our industry - and stay home at the same time! But this year we were lucky enough to have the Annual AUTM conference right here in Austin. What we lovingly refer to as the #ATX. And to get things out of the way, yes, we did “Keep It Weird”.

Somewhere close to 2,000 people (at least by count of those registered on the AUTM app) attended this year. That is a fantastic number regardless of how it stacks up to previous years. Why? Well this crowd of attendees was like no other: engaged, energetic, impassioned about their industry. It rubbed off on alot of us attending.

Some observations:

Connections - the partner meeting room which is where I tend to hang out the most during events was booming from morning until evening every single day. I know having those cool meeting apps really helps but I saw people put it to use. Only good things will come from these hundreds of sit downs. I’ll be watching the press closely too…as I may have overheard a few things not yet public…

Bullishness - across the board from the innovators I met, to the IP department personnel, to the all-important investor crowds. I likely spoke to “more money” than I ever had previously at an event of this magnitude. For the few sessions I was able to attend (mostly VC/Investor oriented) I heard both audience and presenters eager to connect and put investments to work on new and breakthrough innovations.

Commercialization - in the not so distant past commercializing new innovations out of universities was quite difficult. Many institutions just didn’t quite get it and the “real world” us on the outside didn’t quite know how to relate to universities and their uniqueness. That’s simply melting away and we are seeing more innovations, faster, exit the university sphere to the commercial world. We heard of many campuses launching or adding to their own incubators, shared work spaces, inviting investors to colocate - all the things we expect to see in maturing markets. Is a pendulum swinging for the old “publish or perish” to “profit or perish” - probably not quite yet, but for the university inventors to see real market potential for their inventions will most certainly drive them to work a bit harder.

So we left today both energized and full (our bellies that is). You see one “hardship” of having the big event in your town is you know all the good places to eat and drink. And that we did! Thank you to those that were brave enough to trust our recommendations and venture out with us to the likes of La Condesa and Lonesome Dove…and a few bars… We are back on whole 30 now that you’ve all gone home.

So what were your high points or favorite outcomes from AUTM? Let us know here. Also, as always, if you need patent research services we have the best, 100% US-based, credentialed researchers using our new Limestone patent research platform - faster, higher quality results, for less money. Beyond meeting so many brilliant people and discussing real projects one of our highlights was this this…after all he’s our industry’s closest thing to a “Kardashian”.

Yep, that’s me holding our most recent trademark for Limestone our patent research platform with Director Iancu.