International conference “Effective management of intellectual property – a key to successful business in Russia and its integration into international community” was held in St.Petersburg in Russia’s Presidential Residence “Palace of Congresses” in Strelna. LES Russia was a co-organizer of the Conference.

Over 80 attendees from 22 countries participated at the Conference.

Within the Official opening ceremony the attendees were greeted by Sergey Zhdanov, Chairman of Committee, St.Petersburg Administration, Dr. Natalia Karpova, President, LES Russia, Willy Manfroy, President, LES International, Dr. Vladimir Kurychev, President, Russian National Group of AIPPI, and an address from Mikhail Fradkov, Chairman of the Russian Government, was read.

At the Plenary session on the first day of the Conference which took place in the Marble Hall of Konstantinovsky Palace Dr. Sergey Kolesnikov, Deputy of the Russian State Duma (Parliament), Vice-chairman of the Committee for Education and Science, Dr. Valentin Valyukov, Head of Department, Security Council of Russia, Sergey Shurygin, Head of Department, Federal Customs Service (Russia), Elena Belikova, Counselor of Legal Department, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (Russia), Andrey Starostin, Deputy Head of Department, Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russia), Simonetta Zarrilli, Legal Officer, UNCTAD (Switzerland), Zhanna Prokofieva, IP Lawyer, Schlumberger Research and Development (France), Elena Orlova, Judge, Arbitration Court of St.Petersburg city and district (Russia), and Professor Natalia Karpova, Academy of National Economy (Russia), were the speakers.

On the second day of the Conference three concurrent Workshops –Trademarks, Patents and IP Management and Valuation - were held in the Halls of Baltic Star Hotel. Among the speakers and moderators at Workshops there were members of LES Russia and LESI – Dr. Natalia Karpova, President, Valery Medvedev, Vice-president, Sergey Dorofeev, Secretary, Dr. Alexey Zalesov and Willy Manfroy, President, LES International.

All the speeches and presentations caused a great interest among the participants and were discussed in details.

Since the Conference was within the period of “white nights”, a particular and unforgettable impression for the attendees and accompanying persons had an interesting social part of the Conference, namely – excursions to museums The Hermitage and the Russian museum, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo, night tour to St.Petersburg, etc. The Conference was ended with Gala Dinner in the Blue Hall of Konstantinovsky Palace and great fire works in the Frenchpark of the Palace on the bank of Gulf of Finland.