Posts in Podcasts

The golden age for patent brokers has come and gone, but that doesn’t stop Louis Carbonneau. “There are very, very few patent brokers nowadays,” Carbonneau says. “We’re just one of a handful left. And frankly, we get about four or five portfolios every single day that people want us to broker. We only say yes 1% or 2% of the time.” As one of the world’s leading patent brokers, the CEO and Founder of Tangible IP has brokered over 4,500 patents and boasts close to 30 years in the intellectual property industry. With experience as Microsoft’s former General Manager of International IP & Licensing, Carbonneau has sat on many sides of the intellectual property table. He shares his adventures in the industry and lessons learned with Eli, host of the Clause 8 podcast, including behind-the-scenes stories from his time at Microsoft, the common pitfalls of patent licensing, and why price isn’t always an essential part of the conversation when buying and selling intellectual property.

If listing artificial intelligence (AI) machines as inventors on patents sounds like science-fiction to you, Professor Ryan Abbott is ready to make the case that it’s a very real issue. Abbott became interested in patents after becoming a medical doctor and obtaining a law degree from Yale Law School. He then noticed that scientists were starting to use AI to identify problems and solutions — and wondered about the legal ramifications from a patent perspective. Shouldn’t the AI be identified as an inventor, the same way a human would be? Abbott clearly believed that was the case. However, there was no precedent for any patent system allowing for an AI machine to be listed as an inventor. In fact, he discovered that companies had to forego obtaining patent protection because they were unable to do that. 

Over the past decade, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has emerged as a critical and much-relied-upon tool for those facing patent infringement allegations. Some say that’s exactly what Congress intended with the America Invents Act—a defendant can file a validity challenge at the PTAB and get an expedited ruling on invalidity in a forum with specialized technical expertise and before judges with relevant technical backgrounds, at a lower cost than litigating validity issues in district court. And in fact, district courts will often stay infringement actions pending PTAB review of a patent at issue in a particular case.But the district courts and the PTAB are not the only fora in which patent issues are adjudicated. The United States International Trade Commission (ITC)—an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency based in Washington, DC—has become a forum of choice for patent owners seeking fast and effective relief for patent infringement.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) is an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency based in Washington, DC tasked with a variety of trade-related responsibilities. Perhaps most notably, the ITC is responsible for enforcing Section 337 of the Tariff Act, a trade statute designed to protect American industries from injuries caused by the importation of goods connected to unfair acts. The large majority of these so-called “Section 337 investigations” have focused on allegations of patent infringement, but the ITC can adjudicate disputes involving trademark infringement, copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and even false advertising or antitrust claims.

American football is a sport that permeates the popular culture, but what intellectual property is involved between the end-zones? In this episode of the IP Goes Pop! podcast we explore the movies, toys, patents, and trademarks that have shaped the sport in modern times. From the technology built into the players’ helmets, to the glowing first-down line you see on television, intellectual property has a huge impact on the way we interface with football.

Prof. Dan Brown and his son, Dan Brown Jr., are straight out of central casting.  Prof. Brown, the father, grew up in a working-class Irish family on Chicago’s South Side before eventually becoming a professor of engineering at Northwestern University. Dan Jr. is a moppy-haired marketing genius who is now President of LoggerHead Tools.

A curiosity of the intellectual property field is the lack of emphasis on commercialization. While there are numerous resources that describe how to patent an invention, there are hardly any that offer processes and frameworks for transforming ideas into products and services. This is a disservice to creative people, because they are motivated to share their creativity with the world — not merely protect what they invent. In a new episode of the podcast “Understanding IP Matters,” the fascinating serial entrepreneur Tiffany Norwood laments that while “so much of our world is driven by imagination, only a few of us take our imagination seriously.

What do Bambi, Mickey Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh all have in common? Besides remaining lovable pop-culture icons, these cartoon characters are all part of copyrighted works entering the public domain. In our first episode of season three, IP Goes Pop! co-hosts and Volpe Koenig Shareholders, Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue, are back for a journey into the public domain. With the help of their fellow Shareholder John O’Malley, they walk through the history of copyright term (how long copyrights last), how and when copyrighted works enter the public domain, and the way this area of law continues to evolve as famous and high-value works enter the public domain.

This week IP Goes Pop! carries a torch for IP at the Olympics. Join co-hosts and Volpe Koenig Shareholders, Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue, for a relay through the intellectual property involved in putting on a global athletic competition that sometimes turns its top competitors into household names and “brands.” In this episode, Michael and Joe dive into the trademarked words, phrases and logos owned or controlled by the International, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees and the rights surrounding them. Learn about the planning that goes into Olympic advertising campaigns and a few that have faced challenges.

How do comedians protect their jokes, “bit” concepts, or their delivery style? This week IP Goes Pop! goes to the comedy club to find the line between creative freedom and stolen (or borrowed) laughs. Join Volpe Koenig Shareholders and hosts Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue as they welcome special guest, Volpe Koenig alum, and comedy fan, Aneesh Mehta, Senior Corporate Counsel for Experiences and Devices at Microsoft.  

This week on IP Goes Pop! fellow Volpe Koenig Shareholder Ryan O’Donnell joins co-hosts Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue to explore the technical world of the TV show Silicon Valley, the intellectual property (IP) challenges faced by fictional compression algorithm company Pied Piper, and how realistic those challenges are to those of real-world tech start-ups.

This week on IP Goes Pop! Volpe Koenig attorney and Ph.D., Douglas Bucklin joins co-hosts and Shareholders Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue to travel back in time, and somehow also to the future, to explore intellectual property interests in the area of genetic engineering.In this episode, Michael, Joe, and Doug discuss, among other pop culture icons, the Jurassic Park movies and how the genetic engineering technology discussed in those movies relates to science and intellectual property in the real world.

What is an NFT (Non-Fungible Token)? How are they created? Why would you collect digital files that anyone can obtain or view for free? This week on IP Goes Pop! Volpe Koenig Shareholders and co-hosts Michael Snyder and Joseph Gushue to talk about the ABCs of NFTs. Michael and Joe break down some of the technical jargon behind NFTs and the basics of blockchain as they explore the current trends and future prospects of this technology and how it could impact the pop culture and intellectual property worlds.

Sometimes you have to ask the critical questions, like: Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? How can you turn your holiday invention into a patent-protected idea? In our first-ever IP Goes Pop! Snow-Tacular™, co-hosts and Volpe Koenig Shareholders, Michael Snyder and Joe Gushue, unwrap the iconic pop culture movies, traditions, and intellectual property disputes around the most wonderful time of the year.

This week on IP Goes Pop! fellow Volpe Koenig Shareholder Wesley McMichael joins Michael Snyder to talk about inventors Thomas Edison’s and Nikola Tesla’s “battle of the currents.” Michael and Wes have an electric conversation about the race to light up the country and the patents that paved the way for providing power. They explore the difference between the direct current (DC) championed, sometimes to a shocking extreme, by Edison, and alternating current (AC) advocated for by Tesla.