Posts in Podcasts

The latest episode of the Clause 8 podcast features an interview with Josh Malone – the inventor of Bunch O Balloons and America’s foremost advocate for reliable patent rights. Josh came up with the idea for Bunch O Balloons to help his kids fill up 100 water balloons in less than one minute. It eventually became the most popular toy in America. However, before Bunch O Balloons even came to market, another company copied it and started selling its own versions of the product. Luckily – or so he thought at the time – Josh filed a patent application for his Bunch O Balloons invention. He did not know the enormous amount of time, money, and luck it would take to successfully enforce patents that covered his invention. This episode tells the story of what it took, including taking a trip to Bentonville, AR in the middle of the night to try to convince Walmart to stop selling knock offs of his product.

This episode is the second and final part of our interview with Kevin Jakel, the founder and CEO of Unified Patents. On this episode, we continue the conversation with Kevin about how Unified Patents operates, discuss Unified Patents’ new program for targeting Standard Essential Patents (SEPs), debate whether the patent troll narrative has been overblown, talk about the patent quality problem, and delve into some other patent policy issues related to IPRs and the PTAB. We also find out what Kevin has in common with George Costanza!

Kevin Jakel is the founder and CEO of Unified Patents. Since the passage of the American Invents Act (AIA), Unified Patents has been focused on using AIA’s new post-grant proceedings to challenge patents at the PTAB that are owned by so-called non-practicing entities or “patent trolls.” This is an amazing story of rare and impressive innovation in the patent field.…

Gene Quinn is the founder of IPWatchdog.com. It has been the leading online publication focused on intellectual property for almost twenty years. Although they don’t always agree, Federal Circuit judges, Congressional staffers, and K Street follow it closely to stay abreast of latest IP policy-related developments. During the episode, Gene discusses the serendipitous start to IPWatchdog.com, why it has been…

Gil Hyatt is one of the most significant American innovators in the field of personal computing – the inventor of the microprocessor. And, he has been involved in a David versus Goliath battle with the US Patent and Trademark Office for decades.

John Harrity is the managing partner of Harrity & Harrity LLP and a leader in innovation in the legal field. John, along with his twin brother Paul Harrity, founded the patent preparation and prosecution firm almost twenty years ago. During this episode, we discussed the history of the firm, the secrets to the firm’s success, and how to successfully innovate…

Makan Delrahim is the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. Makan is the first registered patent attorney in that role and has already made some significant changes with regards to the DoJ’s approach to intellectual property issues and encouraging innovation. During this episode, we discussed Makan’s personal story, the Antirust Division itself, the intersection between patent and antitrust issues,…

Kathi Vidal is the managing partner of of the Silicon Valley office of Winston & Strawn LLP. Kathi is also one of the top patent litigators in America and one of the most interesting thought leaders in the legal industry. During this episode, we discussed how Kathi became so successful, what it’s like to be an IP lawyer in Silicon…

Aaron Cooper was the Chief Counsel for IP and Antitrust Law on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) and is now the head of global policy for the trade group BSA (fka the Business Software Alliance). The AIA arguably made the most substantial changes to patent law since the Patent Act of…

USPTO’s (United States Patent and Trademark Office) Director of Technology Center 3600 Business Methods discusses his career, role at the USPTO, how policy is formulated and implemented at the USPTO, taking over and turning around the TC after the Alice Supreme Court decision, and section 101 rejections. He also provides priceless advice to patent practitioners about how to successfully work…

Former Congressman Waxman discusses the passage of the seminal Hatch-Waxman Act, recent proposals to improve the balance between rights of brand name pharmaceutical and generic companies, and his 40-year career in Congress.

IP Columnist for Above the Law and Founding Partner at Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC & Markman Advisors LLC. Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC is an IP litigation boutique & Markman Advisors LLC is a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community.

In this episode of the Clause 8 podcast, host Eli Mazour sits down with David Kappos. Mr. Kappos is the former head of intellectual property (IP) at IBM, former Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and now serves as a partner at Cravath. Eli and Mr. Kappos discuss Mr. Kappos’s career at IBM, his time as…

?Sampling of stories and topics discussed during the interview: Starting and growing America’s largest Intellectual Property (IP) boutique law firm Personal story of going from growing up in Pennsylvania and selling furniture to starting a law firm in downtown DC How having successful fathers influenced Doug Henderson and his co-founder Marcus Finnegan Vision and innovations that contributed to Finnegan Henderson’s…

Sampling of stories and topics discussed during the interview: Mistakenly ending up in Soviet Union during the Cold War Working with John Podesta (chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign) on Capitol Hill Advising Judge Bork before his Supreme Court confirmation hearings Being nominated and serving on the Federal Claims Court and the Federal Circuit Bilski decision, its aftermath, and the state…