For almost 30 years - under the leadership of giants like Marshall Phelps, David Kappos, and Manny Schechter, IBM led in obtaining the most patents per year. However, in 2020, IBM made the decision to no longer pursue the goal of “numeric patent leadership.” It went from obtaining over 8500 patents in 2021 to, by some counts, less than 5000. Nonetheless, IBM remains one of the top American patentees. Mark Vallone joins Eli to discuss how he stepped into one of the most significant roles in the patent world last year while this dramatic shift in IBM’s patent strategy was taking place. Thanks fo ..read more

J. John Lee is the Chief Counsel for IP in the US House of Representatives and helms the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, which is chaired by Congressman Darrell Issa.  In that role, he is one of only four staffers in Congress who focus on IP issues and help set the agenda for what happens with America’s IP system. John joins Eli on this lively episode to discuss how he ended up in that role after serving as a Lead Judge on the PTAB, how he is currently working closely with the other IP staffers in Congress to advance legislation to fix Section 101 an ..read more

In this special two-part episode, we delve into the creation, implementation, and strategic importance of Europe's Unified Patent Court (UPC) with UPC Judge Michael Fleuchaus and Dr. Benjamin Grau.   The first part of the show highlights Judge Fleuchaus' experience as a newly appointed technical qualified judge at the UPC. Judge Fleuchaus discusses the motivations behind the UPC's establishment and overarching goal to streamline patent litigation across the European Union. He also discusses his role as a technical judge working alongside experienced legally qualified judges and shares the ..read more

This year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce brought together a diverse group of stakeholders and thought leaders in support of a framework of IP Principles.  These IP Principles are part of an initiative to help America overcome a sustained effort to demonize intellectual property rights over the last 15-20 years.    Patrick Kilbride and Brad Watts, from the U.S. Chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), join Eli to talk about leading this initiative, the current narrative on IP rights and the forces that shaped it, the themes of the IP Principles document, and what they hop ..read more

Matteo Sabattini is well known in DC patent policy circles from his previous role as Director of IP Policy at Ericsson.  He now joins Eli from Italy to discuss his new role as President and Chief Licensing Officer of Convida, what he learned from his time in DC, keys to building a successful licensing program, why recent attempts to regulate licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) are misguided, and much more!   Selected Timestamps | 0:11:03 | How shifting value from devices to services & platforms impacts who should license patents | | 0:17:46 | Licensing f ..read more

Ed Murgitroyd joins Eli Mazour to tell the stories of building Murgitroyd into one of Europe’s biggest IP law firms and his disruptive new venture Hexos IP.  Murgitroyd was founded by Ed’s father Ian Murgitroyd in Scotland in 1975.  Ed eventually joined his father and became the CEO of Murgitroyd before it was acquired by a private equity firm, Sovereign, in 2019.      On this episode, Ed talks about: Story of his father, Ian Murgitroyd, starting Murgitroyd in Glasgow in 1975 thanks to a loan from a mysterious benefactor Growing into one of the world’s biggest hu ..read more

Ofinno’s founder Esmael Dinan and CEO Kavon Nasabzadeh join the Clause 8 podcast to tell Ofinno’s unique story of succeeding in the patent monetization space and talk about its plans for the future.    After spending years as an inventor at a large operating company, Esmael came to the conclusion that most such companies aren’t good at obtaining valuable standard essential patents (SEPs) on their own.  This spurred him to found Ofinno in 2011, an R&D lab that would obtain such patents.  He almost quit after spending his savings and initially failing to find any buyer fo ..read more

Amit Soussana is an IP attorney at one of Israel’s leading IP firms, Luzzato and Luzzatto.  She is also one of more than 240 people – including babies, children, women, the elderly, and the disabled - who were brutally taken hostage by terrorists from Gaza on October 7th.  More than 40 days later, almost all of them are still being held hostage.   Kfir Luzzatto, the senior partner of Amit’s law firm, joins Clause 8 to talk about the story of that horrific day, Amit, the ongoing horror that the hostages’ families are experiencing, and the urgent efforts to increase awareness. &nb ..read more

Clause 8 is back for a new season!  To start the season, Eli – for the first time on Clause 8 - shares his own thoughts at length about the hottest debates in the patent world.   On this episode, Eli discusses: The horrific October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel and more than 240 Israelis still being held captured by the terrorists His “first IP interview” with then Israel Patent Office Director Asa Kling ChatGPT spurring changing attitudes towards potential of AI compared to when he interviewed DABUS’ legal mastermind Ryan Abbott Patent practitioners failing to embrace new software ..read more

When Judge Pauline Newman helped create the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982 to have exclusive jurisdiction over patent cases, no one could’ve guessed the drama that would follow almost 40 years after she joined the court herself. In April, Gene Quinn broke the news on IPWatchdog about a complaint filed by the Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit against Newman for being unable to effectively discharge the duties of her office.  Days later, Newman showed up and spoke at Fordham Law School’s annual IP conference in New York in a way that completely un ..read more