June 10-11, 2008- The Helmsley Park Lane-New York, New York

A joke:

An engineer died and reported to the pearly gates. An intern angel, filling in for St. Peter, checked his dossier and grimly said, "Ah, you’re an engineer; you’re in the wrong place."

So the engineer was cast down to the gates of hell and was let in. Pretty soon, the engineer became gravely dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and began designing and building improvements. After a while, the underworld had air conditioning, flush toilets, and escalators, and the engineer was becoming a pretty popular guy among the demons.

One day, God called Satan up on the telephone and asked with a sneer, "So, how’s it going down there in hell?"

Satan laughed and replied, "Hey, things are going great. We’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there’s no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."

God’s face clouded over and he exploded, "What? You’ve got an engineer? That’s a mistake; he should never have gotten down there; send him up here."

Satan shook his head, "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I’m keeping him."

God was as mad as he had ever been, "This is not the way things are supposed to work and you know it. Send him back up here or I’ll sue."

Satan laughed uproariously, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

Not only will you meet an attorney or two who practices the fine art of patent litigation, you will also get to mix and mingle with industry experts and corporate counsel. The first two days include topics such as “Practical Applications of Trademark Applications” and “Protecting Trademark Rights through Litigating in China.” On the third day, a master class will be offered providing invaluable tips on planning for litigation. Register at AmericanConference.com/tmlitigation

Note from the editor: I Googled both “patent attorney jokes” and “engineer jokes.” I came up with one joke about patent attorneys. There were tons of jokes about engineers. Hmmm. Does that tell us anything about what law school does to an engineer’s sense of humor or funniness?