Legal Talk, Saving the Earth, and Crepes

January 24

It is currently 1am and I am doing great, I had an amazing day full of really fun meetings and fun with my friends. We got up at 8 and were out the door by 9 on our way to Valea which is a company known for technology and law. We met with Andrew and Daniel who work at the company. Andrew Hammond is the CEO and Daniel is a lawyer. Andrew is a European Patent Attorney and looks over about 75 employees. He has 36 years of experience in IP, CEO, and is the founding partner of 2004 work primarily in patent related issues. The vision is to be recognized as a European market leader in intellectual property consulting and as the partner of choice for clients with a proactive and strategic approach to maximizing the value of intellectual property. They basically help clients strengthen competitive advantage, prevent others from unlawfully taking advantage of clients intellectual needs and invalidating competitors IP rights. There are some restrictions on what I can talk about in this blog but basically the mission of Valea is the help clients make money from inventions and they have done projects for clients Volvo, Nestle SKF, and ABB. Andrew talked about inventions and defined it as a new idea that generally makes it easier to live life. He mentioned inventions like the light bulb, phones, and reusable water bottles. He additionally mentioned patents and described them as a contract between the state and the investor. It’s a legal document that has the right of a company to own their product and stop others from selling their products. Daniel is a lawyer at Valea and spoke on trademarks and brands which I found to be interesting as I have always been interested in brand names. When we see the McDonalds logo, we automatically know what it is. There is a lot that goes into a brand and making the public feel some kind of way-his job is to save people’s brand and help them establish it. After the presentation, we ate lunch with them and it was so good! Below is a picture of their cafeteria, all the business cafeterias here have been so nice and clean. I think we need to up our game back in the states for food.

After lunch, we had about 2 hours to walk around Nordstan mall and shop! I didn’t end up getting anything but I might go back to get some things this weekend!

Next, we visited Xylem! We met with Christian and he talked about primarily WATER!!! It kind of freaked me out because by 2050 the demand for water will increase 5 times. (SCARY) Also fresh water on Earth will stay the same and the icebergs are melting which is our one source of fresh water so basically we need to figure out some solutions fast. Water is the challenge that will define the 21st century as we are dealing with water scarcity, environmental challenges and population growth. No need to worry though, Xylem is working on solutions and devoting time and money into their products. Xylem has a $4 billion revenue and more than 16000 employees with offices around the world. They devote technology , time and talent to advance the smarter use of water performing important, high paying jobs. They have actually installed pumps to protect the great pyramids and also have done the pumping of water for the World Trade Center Memorial. CRAZY!

It was an open dinner night so after the visit, we headed back to Nordstan (probably my 5th time there) and Nicole needed a new suitcase because her wheels broke off so we got one then headed back and went to the Pasta House for dinner. We went there the first night and it was so good, we had to go back! Afterwards, my friends and I just hung out and played chess…. wink wink. Happy weekend!!! We have two days off so tomorrow we are planning on sleeping in and doing some touristy things and SHOPPING! I cannot wait! Oh, I can’t forget about the fast food Crepe stands all over the city! Nicole and I had to stop and get one! SO YUM!

Daily Reflections

• I need to be more resourceful with water
• I’m actually interested in going into law
• Pasta Haus is the best Italian I have ever had