Programme

Moderator

Richard Lloyd, North America editor, IAM

Speaker

Andrei Iancu, Director and undersecretary of commerce, IP, US Patent and Trademark Office

There is a lot of doom and gloom in the US market, and many people are talking about China and Germany (and perhaps the Unified Patent Court) as new global patent litigation hubs, but is this exaggeration? Surely the United States still dominates and always will do – won’t it?

• The case for the United States
• The case against the United States
• Identifying the new global hubs

Moderator

Jacob Schindler, Asia-Pacific editor, IAM

Speakers

Heath Hoglund, Chief patent counsel, Dolby Laboratories
Dan McCurdy, CEO, Provenance Asset Group
Ami Patel Shah, Managing director and head, IP analysis group, Fortress Investment Group
Wayne P Sobon, Vice president, IP, Juul Labs, Inc

Moderator

Joff Wild, Editor, IAM

Speaker

Sue Siegel, Chief innovation officer, GE

Corporate IP leaders explain how they would handle a series of hypothetical scenarios such as:

• You have been asked by your CEO to create $100 million of value from the company's intellectual property from scratch. Where do you start?
• Your company's portfolio is undersized compared with those of your competitors and you have been charged with growing it organically and through acquisitions. How do you manage that process and ensure that the business has freedom to operate?
• As the level of connectivity grows thanks to the Internet of Things, your company is looking to license its intellectual property into more sectors. How do you work with industry incumbents and agree balanced licensing deals?
• Your patent analytics and portfolio management have fallen behind best practice. How do you go about bringing them up to speed and ensuring that your whole group buys in?

Moderator

Daniel Videtto, President, IP, Clarivate Analytics

Speakers

Gustav Brismark, Chief IP officer, Ericsson
John Han, Senior vice president and general manager, Qualcomm Technology Licensing
Amar K Mehta, Deputy general counsel and head of IP, Waymo LLC
Phyllis Turner-Brim, Vice president and assistant general counsel, IP and technology, Starbucks
Stephan Wolke, Head, corporate IP, ThyssenKrupp AG

Patent pools and other collective licensing arrangements have recently enjoyed a resurgence as they provide a possible answer to some of the market’s ills.

• Why pools are back in the spotlight
• How pools are tailoring their approach to new sectors and jurisdictions
• Can pools ever regain their MPEG-2 heyday?

Moderator

Garrard R Beeney, Co-head, IP and technology group, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Speakers

Mattia Fogliacco, CEO, Sisvel Group
Stefan Geyersberger, Head, patents and licensing, Fraunhofer IIS
Taraneh Maghamé, Senior director, wireless programmes and corporate development, Via Licensing

Patent quality is the new mantra – one you hear from owners, attorneys and issuing agencies. But is it a red herring? Quality is always subjective and should not be second-guessed; what counts is prosecuting, granting and owning patents that meet the eligibility standard.

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

Moderator

Stuart Recher, Vice president, IP services, Clarivate Analytics

Speakers

Bruce Berman, CEO, Brody Berman Associates, Inc
Paul Carpenter, Partner, QipWorks
Joshua Landau, Patent counsel, Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
John H. Pilarski, Director, IP, Johnson Controls International plc

There has been a wave of consolidation in the semiconductor space and a series of patent deals as incumbents and NPEs have looked at opportunities in the sector.

• Industry overview – what are the forces behind the changes in the sector?
• Who has been buying and selling on the secondary market?
• The state of the assertion market

Moderator

Elvir Causevic, Managing director, Houlihan Lokey

Speakers

Billie Chen, Associate general counsel and chief IP counsel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd
Tim Croll, Deputy general counsel, IP, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
Mathen Ganesan, EVP and head, invention investment funds, Intellectual Ventures

Since the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was created more than five years ago there has been much focus on the threat that inter partes reviews pose to patent owners. But some companies have proved particularly adept at fighting back against the so-called "death squads".

• Managing the inter partes review process internally and picking outside counsel
• Fighting pre-institution
• Best practice for appearing before the PTAB

Moderator

Robert McCauley, Managing partner, Palo Alto, Finnegan

Speakers

William Goldman, Vice president, IP, Kudelski Group
Philip Hartstein, CEO, Finjan Holdings Inc
David Ruschke, Chief judge, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, US Patent and Trademark Office

The rise of big data and enhanced tools for analysis mean that patent owners have never had such a range of options when determining how best to create value from their portfolios.

• Using data in portfolio management
• Using data in doing patent acquisitions
• How data analysis best serves your licensing team

Moderator

David Yurkerwich, Managing director, Navigant Consulting, Inc

Speakers

Mike McLean, Senior vice president, IP services, TechInsights
Matthew Stack, Managing director, XLP Capital
Jay Yonamine, Head, data science, global patents, Google

Moderator

Johanne Belisle, CEO, Canadian Intellectual Property Office

Speaker

BenoÎt Battistelli, President, European Patent Office

Corporate IP leaders explain how they would handle a series of hypothetical scenarios such as:

• Your CEO asks you to appear before the company board to justify current IP spend and to demonstrate the value that the IP department brings to the company as a whole – what is in your presentation?
• You are worried that the growth of the Cloud, AI, the Internet of Things and other areas challenges your existing IP strategy, which is heavily reliant on patents: what do you need to change and how do you do it?
• The Unified Patent Court and unitary patent in Europe finally come into force. The CIPO you have just succeeded at a US-based general industrials company did not think they ever would so has not planned for this scenario. How do you go about reducing your company’s risk exposure as quickly as possible?
• You have been hired by the ambitious CEO of a fast-growing Asian smartphone manufacturer to build an IP group and strategy that will enable it to start selling products into the US and European markets. What are your priorities and how long will you need? 

Moderator

Ron Laurie, Co-chair, Licensing Executives Society Silicon Valley Chapter

Speakers

Colm J Dobbyn, General counsel, IP, Mastercard
Lisa McFall, Deputy general counsel, IP, Workday, Inc
John Mulgrew, Global head, IP, Uber
Ilkka Rahnasto, Head, patent business, Nokia

In a growing number of deals, intellectual property is part of a broader business agreement, so giving companies another avenue for IP value creation.

• Tips for putting collaborative deals in place
• Working with other business departments to put deals together
• Moving beyond simple royalty-based licensing

Moderator

Diane Gabl Kratz, Senior corporate counsel, IP, Seagate Technology

Speakers

Atulya R Agarwal, Head, IP licensing and business strategy, Genentech
Jako Eleveld, Head, IP licensing, Royal Philips
Pat Patnode, President, GE Licensing & Technology Ventures
Stefan Tamme, Vice president, IP strategy and licensing, Rambus

With prices low and plenty of sellers out there, there has never been a better time to be buying patents. And all kinds of entity are taking advantage. This session focuses on who the buyers are, what they are looking for and how they buy.

• Types of buyer – corporate, aggregators
• Motives for buying
• What buyers look for and the techniques they use – fixed time, brokers, company to company

Moderator

Kent Richardson, CEO, Richardson Oliver Insights, LLC

Speakers

Kurt Brasch, Head, patent transactions, Uber
François Drapeau-Paquin, Senior IP counsel, Royal Philips
Michael Friedman, CEO, Hilco IP Merchant Banking
Eric Olsen, Senior vice president, acquisitions, RPX Corporation

Over the past year, courts in the United Kingdom, the United States and China have handed down ground-breaking decisions relating to standard-essential patents (SEPs) and FRAND. Throw in indications of a change of tack at the US Department of Justice and the European Commission’s communication on the licensing of SEPs, and both implementers and originators face a rapidly changing framework for their negotiations.

• Implications of the Unwired Planet, TCL and Huawei decisions
• Changing views in the European Union and the United States
• Negotiating the new landscape

Moderator

Jeffery L Carter, President and CEO, HTS, LLC

Speakers

Peter Damerell, Partner, Powell Gilbert LLP
Patricio Delgado, Vice president, FRAND compliance and new initiatives for IP rights and licensing, Ericsson
Earl Nied, Program director, standards and IPR, Intel Corp

Investment in the development of machine intelligence technology is growing quickly, as are the IP challenges that this trend presents.

• Looking at the AI IP landscape
• Identifying the key challenges
• Developing optimal solutions

Moderator

Bart Eppenauer, Managing partner, Seattle, Shook, Hardy & Bacon

Speakers

William R LaFontaine, General manager, IP, IBM
Nicolas Schifano, Senior director and assistant general counsel, Microsoft
Harrick M Vin, Global head, Digitate

US universities are a huge innovation engine but can still struggle to create value from their intellectual property. How can corporates, advisers and colleges themselves work together to help to get deals done?

• The licensing challenges that tech transfer managers face
• When to look for outside help – what can external advisers do?
• Licensing, spin-out or something else? Picking the best value creation option

Moderator

Giustino de Sanctis, Founder and CEO, Vectis

Speakers

Barry A Costa, Director, technology transfer, The MITRE Corporation
Katharine Ku, Executive director, Office of Technology Licensing, Stanford University
Ian McClure, Director, office of technology commercialisation, University of Kentucky
Satish Rao, Associate director, physical sciences learning, Columbia Technology Ventures

Patent licensing and sales deals involving Chinese entities are increasing and will continue to do so over the coming years. But doing business in China is not always like doing business elsewhere. This session will provide insider tips on what and what not to do.

• The importance of the win-win and different deal models
• Flexibility in royalty rates
• Factoring in regional and national government requirements

Moderator

David Pridham, CEO, Dominion Harbor

Speakers

Mark Cohen, Distinguished senior fellow and director, China initiative, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
Eeva Hakoranta, Vice president, licensing, Nokia
Allen Tao, Managing partner, Liu, Shen & Associates
Ben Wang, Vice president and chief IP counsel, ZTE TX