PRESIDENT\'S MESSAGE

To give you a heads up - SVIPLA\'s May meeting will be held on Thursday, May 20, at the Westin in Santa Clara. The speaker will be Singer Huang, Managing Director of the East IP Group, a Chinese intellectual property law firm, who will give a very informative presentation on patent prosecution and litigation in China.

I look forward to seeing you all at this month\'s meeting, April 21, at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto. Please see details below.

Stephen Sullivan, SVIPLA

President

MAKE YOUR RESERVATION TODAY FOR APRIL 21 MEETING!
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto (El Camino Real north of San Antonio Road)
6:00 p.m., cocktails and registration; 7:00 p.m., dinner and program

SPEAKER: Alan H. MacPherson, Partner, MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP

TOPIC: \"Claim Construction and the Federal Circuit\"

Mr. MacPherson is a Founding Partner of MacPherson Kwok Chen & Heid LLP. His practice focuses on patent prosecution and litigation cases involving complex and emerging technologies with an emphasis on business transactions and disputes associated with patents, copyrights, trademarks, mask works, trade secrets and unfair competition. Previously he was a name partner at Skjerven Morrill MacPherson, where he headed the Patent Group and served as Chairman of the firm. Mr. MacPherson also served as Patent Counsel at Mountain View-based Fairchild Camera and Instrument, and was a member of the Patent Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. There, he performed invention analysis and was responsible for preparation and prosecution of patent applications involving speech bandwidth compression, signal detection, digital transmission systems, acoustics, computing systems and data processing.

To register (in the RSVP email message, please include attendee name(s), company name, email address and any special dietary needs): CLICK HERE

Cost:   Member - $50   Non-Member - $65   Student - $25

Bring your check for dinner payment to the meeting on April 21, payable to: SVIPLA.

PLEASE DO NOT MAIL YOUR CHECK - BRING DINNER PAYMENT TO MEETING.

If your system will not allow you to click on the registration email above, you can send your registration to: svipla@yahoo.com.

DEADLINE FOR RESERVATION OR CANCELLATION: Noon, Monday, April 19. Please make your reservation by the deadline as there are only a few extra spaces allotted at the meeting. The hotel may not be able to serve meals beyond the guaranteed number expected for the meeting.

YOU CAN ALSO BRING YOUR 2003-2004 MEMBERSHIP DUES PAYMENT TO THE APRIL MEETING. The cost of the dinner meeting will be assessed according to your membership status.<

SVIPLA 2003-2004 RENEWAL/NEW MEMBER DUES!

To renew membership dues or join SVIPLA, complete the application by clicking on this link: www.svipla.com/application.html.

Mail completed application with your check to the address indicated on the application.

CALENDAR OF IP-RELATED PROGRAMS

SILICON VALLEY SEMINARS - 2004 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

U.S. Patents & the Patent Process - May 13, 2004, October 28, 2004 - San Francisco Area (for Secretaries, Paralegals, New Patent Attorneys/Agents)

Patents & Patent Claim Drafting - May 14 and 15, 2004 - San Francisco Area (for Patent Attorneys and Agents); July 12 and 13, 2004, October 29, 30, 2004 - San Francisco Area (for Summer and new Associates/Agents)

Trademarks & the Trademark Process - June 15 - San Francisco Area (for Secretaries, Paralegals, Attorneys)

FOR DETAILS - VISIT: www.patentseminars.com or contact: Steve Shear at steve@patentseminars.com.