Patent Law

Preparing for an IP Mediation: Flow Charts, Check Lists and Mind Maps

By Les Weinstein, Michael Young, John Leo Wagner, Eric van Ginkel, and Victoria Pynchon

(mind map from Knowledge Aforethought)

Check out the brilliant copyright flow charts and checklists which the The Corner of Lex and Biz has thoughtfully aggregated for the rest of us here.

When I prepare for an IP mediation, I take the parties' briefs and make flow charts, mind maps and checklists from them.  Though your deathless prose is a joy to me as an old Lit Major, writer and literary journal editor, it's not so useful to me in getting what I need to understand about a complex commercial transaction really quickly, including the party relationships, legal and fatual issues, party interests, points of potential impasse, junctures at which party differences might be put to good negotiation advantage and similarities that might be used to smooth the way toward a reasonable settlement that makes good business sense for everyone.

Here's what I tell my litigants -- MAKE THE CHARTS FOR ME.  If you're the only "side" that does this, I'm far more likely to keep YOUR CHART before me throughout the course of the negotiation.  And though I do not see my primary role as a 13th juror -- particularly in cases where the lawyers have being living with the case for years -- the opinions I express -- sometimes reluctantly -- on the merits, do have an effect on the parties' decision to settle and their valuation of the case.

As I'm always saying, please help me help you.

Full post as published by IP ADR Blog on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).