• Dear Friends

In May 2009, the U.S. economy entered the 17th month of recession-now the longest recession in the post-WWII period-the overall pace of economic contraction appears to be slowing. Credit markets are slowly thawing, employment declines have lessened somewhat and glimmers of stabilization may be appearing in the housing market. Even the mainstream media has begun reporting on more positive news at last.

In these uncertain economic times I am pleased to say that we continue to grow, with the addition of another attorney to our team, Peter Rainville. Peter brings a wealth of experience in Intellectual Property procurement and management to the firm.

In China, we now have a dedicated Director of Business Development, Steve Xue. The number of companies in Asia that benefit from our Intellectual Property expertise continues to grow. I will be in China later this month meeting with numerous new customers. As we expand overseas, we will also be growing on our home shores later this year and into 2010.

I am also very pleased to announce that Phillip Wren has joined the firm as Business Development and Marketing Director. In addition to managing the growth of our practice, Phillip will also control the operations side of our business, taking over from John Duffy who resigned last month.

As July 4^th approaches, I thought you'd be interested in the fact that the construction of Lady Liberty was funded in part through the sale of patented replicas. You can read more on this and the new additions to the firm in the Sidebar section of this newsletter and on our Web site.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

- Richard R. Michaud