James G. Conley, Ph.D., Director has served on the full time faculty of Northwestern University since 1994 with appointment in various schools including the Kellogg School of Management, the McCormick School of Engineering and the Segal Design Institute. He presently serves as an appointed member for the United States Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office Public Advisory Committee (Trademarks)
He consults on matters of intellectual property creation and protection, patent infringement, trade secrets, strategy formulation and product liability. He has testified in multiple federal courts and forums including hearings at the International Trade Commission. In addition to being an inventor, Professor Conley has over 50 publications in the mechanical, nuclear, manufacturing engineering, and manufacturing management journals. He developed and teaches modular course offerings in the areas of product development and intellectual capital management.
Before joining Northwestern, Professor Conley held a number of engineering and management positions with the Ryobi Limited Group of Companies in Tokyo, Chicago, and Phoenix.
Dr. Conley earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BS in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Virginia.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
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Intellectual Property
Consultant in a number of Innovation and or Intellectual Property contexts. Clients include SABIC, SONY Corporation, Samsung Electronics, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, American Dairy Council, Honda Motors, Briggs and Stratton, Black and Decker Consumer Products Division, University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), Amsted Industries, Primex Inc., Polaris Industries, OpenText, Inc., Eaton Corporation, NASA, US Defense Logistics Agency, The Federal Aviation Administration, Donnelley Corporation, MOTOROLA, Peabody Western Coal, Mercury Marine, HEICO Investments, Hawthorne Partners, Bar Technologies Inc., Walbro Engine Management Systems, Stihl Inc., Raychem, and the Ryobi Group of Companies.
Honors and Awards
• Appointed to serve on United States Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark office advisory committee (TPAC), August 11, 2008 to August 2nd 2009 and again September 3rd 2009 to September 3rd 2012.
• Selected as Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation Transcoop Fellow, Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation, Bonn Germany, 2008 to 2011.
• Selected as 2007 Professor of the Year (also in AY2004), Master of New Product Development Program, Northwestern University.
Representative Publications
• W. Wang, J.G.Conley and H.W. Stoll, Rapid Tooling Guidelines for Sand Casting, SpringerLink Publications, March 2010. Available on line at http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-1-4419-5730-6.
• J. G. Conley et al, Inventing Brand: Opportunities at the Nexus of Semiotics and Intellectual Property, Design Management Review, Design Management Institute, Boston, MA, V19, no. 2, Spring 2008
• D. Orozco and J. G. Conley, The ˜Longer Walk’ after eBay v. MercExchange, published in Les Nouvelles, Journal of the Licensing Executives Society, Summer 2007.
• S. Bordas, J. G. Conley, B. Moran, J. Gray and E. Nichols, A Simulation-based design paradigm for complex cast components, accepted for publication in Engineering with Computers, Fall 2006.
• J. G. Conley, Using Brand Identity to Reinforce Market Value, IDSA Innovation Journal, Winter 2005, available online at http://www.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/articlefiles/Conley_winter05.pdf.
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