Dear friends, colleagues, and fellow members, 

I am honored to have been entrusted to lead our Association, and I thank you for the awesome support you showed me at our Annual Meeting last week.  Having been on the job for just a few days, I want to share with you some thoughts and goals for the year.   

Your enthusiasm and your energy are contagious and inspiring! Many of you approached me after lunch on Friday to say you were touched by our pondering the question I presented…What do a woodworker and an AIPLA member have in common?  I happen to be both and can tell you it’s a lot.  Woodworkers and AIPLA members are on a lifelong learning journey, honing our skills, becoming better at our craft, belonging to a community, sharing ideas, and increasing our skills to produce better work.  The woodworker imagines better projects, belongs to a community to share knowledge, takes classes, practices, and makes better workpieces.  And our AIPLA members do the same, we learn together, we share, we belong to a community, we share ideas, we imagine a better IP system, and we grow to make better and better work products as we develop in our careers.  Isn’t that why we are all here in this community of AIPLA? 

For me, being an AIPLA member has been the key to my success.  Just like in woodworking when I learned to build strong, stable, and well-crafted furniture, I learned here that it takes years and a lot of bright people surrounding me - the foundation of this Association - to hone my skills and become something bigger and better in my own career.   

My focus in leading AIPLA will be on Membership, Education and Advocacy as outlined in our strategic plan. We will continue to engage our members through surveys and listening sessions to better understand their needs and demographics. Our goal is not only to grow in numbers, but to strengthen our community by providing meaningful educational opportunities, professional development tools, and avenues for connection with colleagues both domestically and internationally. Everything we do here is done by our members.  You lead the way. You imagine something more.  Just like with the woodworker, AIPLA is made by you and for you.     

We will be creative and adapt to the changing needs of you, our members. Last winter we conducted a Leadership Forum to help our leaders hone in on their leadership skills both here within AIPLA and back home with their respective positions. This winter we will run an IP transactions focused meeting adjacent to the AUTUM conference.  And we have new concepts on the drawing board for the next few winter experiments.  All made for you.  To bring you what you want, bring what you need. And to deliver it how you want.    

Our advocacy efforts are more important now than ever.  These efforts are also made by you and for you.  We find ourselves in a rapidly changing and evolving IP landscape.  We are experiencing changing regulations, interpretations of our law from the courts creating precedents that impact our practices, global developments impacting both large and small businesses, and efforts to harmonize our IP systems for greater consistence and efficiency.  We advocate for you as professionals, and for fair and balanced IP systems though work with our legislators, amicus briefing with our courts, participation in harmonization efforts representing US interests, and delegation trips around the world to build relationships.  These efforts are all made by you and for you, our members.     

All of what we do starts with our committees and I encourage you to get involved. Our committees are the key to finding insightful and like-minded people eager to share and learn from each other.  We have more than 55 committees, special committees, and task forces focused on substantive areas of the law, focused on practice management, focused on membership development, focused on delivering educational content, and much more.  Here you will find an opportunity to make your impact on AIPLA and the areas of our profession you feel the most passionate about.  

This year, I am here because of you, and I want to hear from you.  I’m easy to find. Email me here. Tell me what you need from AIPLA and what we can do to help you – help you learn, help you grow, help you form relationships that will enhance your career.  

Like the woodworker who creates, learns, shares, and grows, come to AIPLA, in person or through the many virtual opportunities we have, to make something for yourself in this awesome community.  No matter your background, industry, or IP perspective, here in the AIPLA you could be the person who grows, who learns, and who shares with colleagues.  AIPLA is what you make of it; It is made by you and for you.  Let’s make it a great year!  

Many know Sal by different titles. Engineer, Attorney, Partner, Pilot, Carpenter, and to some, as he’ll tell you, “The Butcher’s Son.”

We know him as Dad. 

Of course, there are more things we may have called him throughout our teenage years, but his title of Dad gives us the pleasure of knowing each version of the person who will now lead this organization. Now, we have the privilege of introducing him to you. 

Having multiple very important roles, Sal hasn’t slept very much throughout our lives. Although we don’t remember much of the time, our mom tells us about how he started his legal career with night school while raising a newborn and continuing to work as an electrical engineer by day. With voracious support (and gentle threats) from our mom, he successfully became a patent attorney and continued to work around the clock throughout our childhood -- not only at his day job, but as a professor at Temple University, a continuing student, and a passionate member of AIPLA. Yet, one thing that is so fascinating about watching Sal work, is that we don’t look back on these times and think, “our dad was always working.” He somehow managed to do it all seamlessly. While building his career, he was also taking us on family trips to Disney World, spending evenings on father-son bonding projects like renovating the basement, enthusiastically spectating at-home song and dance performances, and always making sure the coffee was ready for our mom in the morning. 

Sal’s ability to wear many hats, and wear them well, is a unique gift. While he’s shown many people in his life what you can achieve with a steady work ethic, he’s also exemplified what it means to have passion and compassion. It would be easy to go through life and check boxes -- but we’ve seen that you don’t achieve what we’ve seen him achieve without caring, a lot. 

There is no doubt in our minds that you have chosen a leader that will care for each and every one of you, and for this organization. In a profession where creativity is quietly essential, communication is paramount, and innovation is faster than ever before, attention is still the most valuable resource. There is no one we know who will pay more attention to this organization than our dad. We are so excited to see what you all accomplish together this year. And even if the day comes where Sal does decide to sleep more and work less, we know that you’ll still find him somewhere providing guidance and leadership to someone who needs it – but probably from a beach, or a plane, or a vineyard instead of an office 

Members of AIPLA, please welcome our dad and your President, Sal Anastasi.