This session will be focused on discussing the emerging market for buying and selling patents as well as the practical challenges and efforts required to successfully transact patent portfolios in todayÕs marketplace. Each of the Presenters has significant experience with patent transactions and will provide examples of completed transactions and case studies to provide specific insight and guidance to those interested in learning more about patent sales and patent purchasing. These examples and case studies will include a variety of topics that including the following: analyzing the potential of the patent assets in question, positioning and packaging the patent assets in the best light (internally or externally), discussion frameworks and communication protocols, to valuation (example: integrating validity, scope and design-around risk into the discount calculus for patent valuation, contextual/eye-of-the-beholder analysis, etc.), deal terms and diligence. The presenters will also discuss recent events that are impacting the IP marketplace (high-profile litigations, auctions, patent reform, macro-economic factors, market trends, the rise of hedge funds and litigation funding, IP-awareness among early stage investors, etc). A lively and interactive session is expected.

Presenter Bio’s:

Robert Aronoff
Rob, co-founder of Capital Value Partners, is an experienced deal-maker and tech-savvy executive that brings a business-person’s holistic approach to IP transactions. Rob has 20+ years of experience in Fortune 500 companies (Sun Microsystems, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft), business strategy and technology consulting (Coopers & Lybrand, Peat Marwick), public small cap companies (BrandEra Inc.), and Investment Banking transactions (Worldwide Capital Partners, Capital Value Partners). Rob has hands-on experience in a range of key operating positions including COO, VP Business Development, VP Marketing, Director of Strategy, Director of Product Marketing, etc., and in many of these roles dealt with business and technology evaluations and transactions of IP. Rob also led up the creation of the Digital Imaging Group – a still operating industry technology consortium (since merged with PIMA to become the I3A) with financial and technical backing of such industry giants as Kodak, Fuji, Canon, Intel, HP, IBM, Adobe, Agfa, and Microsoft—and served as it’s founding executive director while working at Kodak. Rob holds B.A.'s in Computer Science and Economics from Brandeis University where he was recognized as a Milton Feld Economics Scholar, and an M.B.A. from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management where he was awarded the William L Stewart Award for Outstanding Contributions to M.I.T. for co- founding of the M.I.T. $50K Entrepreneurship Contest.

Bruce Beron
Bruce was the Manager of the Litigation Analysis and Decision & Risk Analysis Practices at SRI International from 1983 until his departure in 1985 to organize The Beron Group, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in Litigation Risk Management and Decision and Risk Analysis to advise new and growing venture companies on business development, strategic direction, technology decisions, and market planning.. In 1988 he founded the Litigation Risk Management Institute. Bruce has successfully conducted Litigation Risk Management / Settlement Valuation Analyses in a broad spectrum of IP cases in the semiconductor, telecom, manufacturing, and consumer industries. He has also directed studies concerning strategic technology portfolio valuation for investment planning for international energy companies and a capital investment analysis of a major entertainment industry project. Before joining SRI, Bruce studied Engineering Economics at Stanford University, was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University, and taught at California State University at Hayward. He currently lectures at Stanford University. Bruce received his B.A. with Honors from Princeton and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford in Physics.

Joe Chernesky
Joe is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of IPotential, LLC, a Silicon Valley-based Intellectual Property Services Company that specializes in helping technology companies create, manage and execute IP strategies, business plans, and patent-based transactions. Prior to IPotential, Joe served as Vice President of Boeing Management Company (a subsidiary of The Boeing Company responsible for its IP policy, strategies and initiatives) from 2001 to 2004. In this role, he created and managed the Corporate Technology Licensing Group and was responsible for IP and technology out-licensing, IP donations, Patent Purchasing and Patent Sales, and IP-related M&A and divestiture activities delivering significant financial results to Boeing.

Prior to Boeing, Joe spent 6 years at Intel in several management positions in Intellectual Property Licensing and Business Development, New Product Development, and Corporate Treasury. As Senior Manager, Licensing and Alliances, Joe was responsible for developing intellectual property licensing strategy and managing patent and technology licensing activities as well as assisting in the development of Intel’s Patent Purchasing Program.

Joe holds a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Business Administration from the University of Arizona. He is an active member of the Licensing Executives Society.

Joe is proud to have served for ten years as a U.S. Naval Officer in various active and reserve assignments throughout the world.

Ron Laurie
Ron Laurie is a co-founder and Managing Director of Inflexion Point Strategy, LLC, an intellectual property investment bank formed in early 2004. Ron has worked in Silicon Valley for over 40 years, first as a software engineer and then as an intellectual property lawyer advising computer, communications, semiconductor, media and financial services companies on IP strategy, a subject he has taught at Stanford and Boalt (UC-Berkeley) law schools. Ron was a founding partner of the Silicon Valley offices of Skadden Arps and Weil, Gotshal, & Manges As a lawyer, his primary focus was on the strategic use of IP assets in complex business transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, technology divestitures, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and Ron led IP teams in some of the largest technology deals in history, worth over $50 billion. Ron is a registered patent attorney and a substantial part of his earlier legal practice involved strategic planning, commercial exploitation and litigation of patents on cutting-edge software-based technologies such as artificial ntelligence, encryption and Internet business methods, including the much publicized Priceline patent.

Venue:
Mariani's Inn and Restaurant
2500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA
Tel: (800) 553-8666
SCHEDULE
8:00 AM - 8:30 AM: Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30 AM - 11:30 AM: Presentations/Discussion

Pre-registration available on-line until September 10th at http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=116733>