Tag Archives: San Francisco

Responsible deal-making is the focus of SF IP conference, 9/18

June 14, 2018 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Responsible IP deal-making – where parties enter into licensing and other agreements mutually – has become something of a lost art. Not long ago, it was a best-practice.

Many companies need to in-license to practice the inventions that cover their products. Similarly,  not every business has the capital to make products from its inventions. Those that do not, may need to out-license. Once a symbiotic relationship that could be effected without the need for litigation, much patent licensing has turned contentious and patent holders who wish to license are seen as bad actors.

“Patent Licensing: The Business of Responsible Licensing” hopes to change that. The location is the Golden Gate Club in San Francisco on September 18.

Post-“Troll” Environment

The day of the so-called “troll,” where licensing businesses armed with nuisance suits forced businesses to settle, is long gone, the victim of increased patent uncertainty and the high cost of litigation.

What is responsible licensing in today’s environment? What are fair and reasonable terms? This conference will examine various sides of the issue.

IP CloseUp readers receive a 15% discount with a promo code or mention they saw this article. (Service providers may not be eligible.)

Participating in the day-long event are licensing executives from Dow, Nokia, Visa, Samsung, Cisco, Intel, among others. Panels include:

  • Building a successful patent licensing strategy
  • The good, the bad, and the ugly of licensing transactions
  • Defining FRAND
  • International licensing
  • Strategic licensing scenarios

There will be ample breaks and time for networking.

For the complete program, go here.

For the list of speakers, here.

To register, go here.

Image source: iammagazine.com; mckinsey.com

 

 

Events, Litigation, News, Places, Research, Transactions
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USPTO Director Iancu will keynote 2018 IPBC Global in San Francisco

April 17, 2018 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

An impressive group of speakers, sponsors and supporters, led by USPTO Director and Undersecretary of Commerce, Andrei Iancu, will be featured at the 11th global Intellectual Property Business Congress in San Francisco, June 10-12 at the Palace Hotel.

Director Iancu has indicated that he will support the long-awaited move to greater certainty in the U.S. patent system.  In a recent speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce he said that “reclaiming our (U.S.) patent leadership is within reach.”

Attendees will be eager to hear about Director Iancu’s strategy for attaining this and other goals.

IPBC Global 2018 plenary’s and panels include:

  • Will the U.S. Continue to Lead in IP?
  • CIPO Scenarios: The Good, Bad and Ugly 

IP CloseUp editor, Bruce Berman (that’s me), will be a member of the patent quality panel:

  • Is patent quality a distraction? – all that really matters is patent eligibility

    -What is a quality patent?
    -Controversy around eligibility
    -The importance of predictability

For the AI panel, participants will include Bart Eppenauer, former Chief Patent Counsel at Microsoft and William LaFontaine, General Manager, IP, IBM.

  • The World of Artificial Intelligence 

For the IPBC Global 2018 program, go here.

For the full list of speakers and their biographies, go here.

To register, go here.

Image source: ipbc.com; ipwatchdog.com

Litigation, News, People, Places, Research, Transactions, Uncategorized
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Tech pioneer Nolan Bushnell to keynote IPO annual meeting in SF

August 14, 2017 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

This year’s Intellectual Property Owners Association annual meeting will feature a presentation by the founder of Atari Computer and Chuck E Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater, Nolan Bushnell.

Another keynote will be presented by John Cabeca, Director of the Silicon Valley USPTO. More than forty service providers, law firms and IP holders will be exhibiting at the three-day even from September 17-19 at San Francisco’s Marriott Marquis.

Mr. Bushnell, an American electrical engineer and businessman, has started more than 20 companies and is a video game pioneer.

He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre chain. Mr. Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the Nation’s Restaurant News “Innovator of the Year” award, and was named one of Newsweek‘s “50 Men Who Changed America.”

2017 IPO meeting highlights include:

  • Monday Patent General Session: Alice and the 101 Wonderland

The law on § 101 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal Alice ruling has been a murky morass to navigate.

With district court, PTAB, and Federal Circuit decisions that are all over the map, and calls for the abolishment of § 101, IPO recently introduced a legislative proposal to address the lack of predictability in § 101.

Panelists will discuss these issues, whether the current state of § 101 is promoting or inhibiting innovation, and what if anything should be done going forward.

  • Two Corporate Panels at 11am on Monday
  1. Patent Session: In-House Best Practices: Strategies for Adapting to a Rapidly Changing Environment
  2. Strategic Partnering with In-House Trademark Counsel
    ___________

For the full program, go here. To register, here.

Image source: ipo.org

 

Events, Litigation, News, People, Places
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Wall Street Discovers Patents

March 12, 2012 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Experts Gather in SF for IP-Finance Forum

Patents, abstract and esoteric, remain largely a mystery to those on Wall Street. At the same time, the financial community’s perspective on IP value, grounded in the capital markets, is not something that patent holders and professionals readily understand.

To bridge the information gap the Licensing Executives Society (LES) San Francisco chapter will host, “Wall Street Discovers Patents: What IP Holders & Investors Need to Know About Each Other.”

The March 28 luncheon gathering, open to the public, will examine “the sharp incline of highly valued patent and IP asset transactions and their appeal to Wall Street financiers.”

The discussion is expected to delve into what drives the valuations and purchases, and the frenzy of competitive bidding that can take place. In addition to analyzing significant IP deals both past and potentially in the future, this meeting will serve as a “how-to” guide for Wall Street in navigating these patent markets.

Moderating “Wall Street Discovers”  is Robert Aronoff, Managing Partner of Pluritas.

The panel will feature IP and financial experts Sandeep Agarwal, VP and Portfolio Developer for Tessera; Erin-Michael Gill, Managing Director and CIPO of MDP Capital; Gaurav Kittur, Senior VP of Jefferies and Company; and Vincent Pluvinage, CEO of Invention Capital Partners.

“Wall Street Discovers” will be held at noon at PricewaterhouseCoopers conference center at 3 Embarcadero Center, 20th Floor. LES members and non-members are welcome. For more information click here. 

Image source: Hansafx.net

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Latest SF Tech Boomlet Fuels Jobs & More

October 15, 2010 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs — & IP Deals, Too!

If a recent news article about the San Francisco economy is any indication, politicians may soon be campaigning not only on jobs creation but on IP transactions.

The Wall Street Journal writes about how SF is enjoying a mini-renaissance as a tech center. Web and digital media companies have begun to take advantage of low City rents and available talent.

Embedded in an easy to miss graph about jobs creation is an unusual statistic; something I don’t believe I’ve seen before and certainly not in the major business press. Included along with data showing an increase in more than 1700 IT jobs in 2008 and 2009: 100+ Intellectual Property Transactions.

That’s right, IP transactions. Do my eyes deceive me? IP regarded in the same context as job creation? For long-time IP evangelists it doesn’t get much better than this. (Well, actually, it can.)

WSJ’s data source is the Labor Department and the SF Office of the Controller. I wonder if the Controller is tracking transactions or WSJ added them. I doubt the Labor Department cares much about IP activity.

*    *     *

This begs a question: What the heck does the WSJ mean by IP transactions? Patent licensing deals? Sales? Acquisitions? Copyright licenses on Web content? Venture capital raised?

VC Charles River Ventures is quoted in the article. They are an investor in SF-based RPX Corporation, a defensive patent aggregator that is said to be considering a public offering.

I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouse. It’s great that a veteran reporter like Pui-Wing Tam, who has covered start-ups and VCs, had the foresight to include SF IP transactions with jobs growth. It would just be nice to know what they are.

As much as I condone their asendance, I’m concerned that “IP transactions” in general are too abstract to be linked to jobs as an economic indicator. We need to know how the term is being used and how transactions’ impact are being measured. Bravo, I think.

*     *     *

P.S. – There is a reason for the accompanying scan. The soft piece, “Tech Buoys San Francisco,” at wsj.com for some reason dropped the “Growing Field” graphic that ran in the newspaper.

Pui-Wing told me that the graph was sourced to analysis that the SF Office of the Controller did of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Illustration source: The Wall Street Journal, 10/13/10 print edition

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iPlaces – SF Bay Area-Silicon Valley

March 11, 2010 by Bruce Berman 2 Comments

IP Asset-land –

Some places lend themselves to innovation. Some also lend themselves to new uses of innovation rights. Silicon Valley is one such area. In and around Palo Alto are perhaps the highest concentration of  IP-centric companies, investors and strategists.

Among notable IP people in the Bay Area (in no particular order): Peter Detkin (IV, Palo Alto), Ron Laurie (Inflexion Point, PA), Kevin Rivette (3LP, Tessera, PA), Pat Sullivan (The Gathering, PA), Irv Rappaport (former CIPO Apple, National Semi, SmartPatents, PA), Vincent Pluvinage (IV, PA),  ipValue, Kent Richardson (ThinkFire, Mountain View), Joe Chernesky, Ron Epstein, Michael Pierantozzi (iPotential, San Mateo), Joe Beyers (Ambature, Cupertino) to name a few. In nearby SF I am aware of John Amster (RPX), Rob Aronoff (Pluritas), Joe Mullin (The Prior Art), Victoria Slind-Flor (Bloomberg), Zusha Elinson (The Recorder) and Suzanne Harrison (Gathering 2.0).

Robert Barr, formerly head of IP at Cisco, is now executive director of the Center for Law & Technology in Berkeley. The late, great Jim Fergason, an IP Hall of Fame inventor of the LCD, lived in Atherton and worked in PA. IP-centric companies are too numerous to mention.

I know that I am leaving some people out, so please post a comment and let me and readers know who should be included.

The question is why the SF Bay Area? What in the air (or water) makes people look at innovation differently?

The WALL STREET JOURNAL
Power Tables – IL FORNAIO

I think it may have to do with open-minded, arguably libertarian approach to wealth and life-style that pre-dates the Gold Rush. People are not afraid to try new things – or, at least, to look at intangibles imaginatively.

There is no shame in failure, the locals seem to be saying; there’s great shame in failing to try.

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