Five Landmark IP Deals Receive Licensing Executives Society’s Prestigious 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Awards

Winners include AOL, Microsoft, Facebook, NIH, ConocoPhillips, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, Eli Lilly, University of Illinois Chicago, Gilead Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim and others

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A gigantic patent deal by AOL, Microsoft and Facebook was one of five extraordinary intellectual property licensing deals that received Licensing Executives Society, (U.S.A. and Canada) 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Awards during the Society’s Annual Meeting today.

Now in their 8^th year, the awards are presented annually to companies that orchestrate the most outstanding IP-based licensing and business deals in five industry sectors. The 2012 winners are:

** Click here to view the full release with details of each winning deal.

• High Technology Sector: AOL, Microsoft and Facebook
• Chemicals, Energy, Environment and Materials Sector: Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC and ConocoPhillips Company
• Industry-University-Government Interface Sector: National Institutes of Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Gilead Sciences, and the Medicines Patent Pool
• Life Sciences Sector: Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim Strategic Alliance
• Consumer Products Sector: McNeil-PPC Inc. and Insight Pharmaceuticals LLC

Started in 2005, the LES Deals of Distinction™ Awards Program recognizes worthy transactions involving licensing and transfer of intellectual property and promotes creative and innovative solutions to business and licensing issues involving contracts. Nominations, with the support of a LES member, are considered and, with input from that industry, recommended by the LES Deals of Distinction™ Awards Committee and ratified by the LES Executive Committee. The criteria for the 2012 awards included distinctive deals in structure or objective, consummated in the 2011-2012 time period with at least one party having a presence in the U.S.A. and Canada. The physical award is hand-sculpted glass by the artisans of Parris-Roché Design Studios, consisting of a pair of entwined blue glass ribbons encased in a clear conic pinnacle, symbolic of parties coming together and obtaining superior results through collaboration.