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Bruce Berman
Chief Executive Officer
Brody Berman Associates
Bruce Berman is the CEO of Brody Berman Associates, a management consulting and strategic communications firm he founded in 1988. He has supported 200+ IP-focused businesses, portfolios and executives, as well as law firms and their clients. Bruce is responsible for five books, including From Ideas to Assets (Wiley) and, since 2003, approximately 100 columns for IAM magazine. He also has written on IP for publications such as Nature Biotechnology and Forbes. His weekly observations about trends can be seen on IP CloseUp. In 2016, Bruce founded the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding, an independent non-profit that raises awareness and provides outreach to improve IP literacy, promote sharing and deter theft.
Bruce is also the host of CIPU’s podcast Understanding IP Matters, which explores the intellectual property story of people who have succeeded in the world of invention, creative expression, and brand – some with the scars to prove it. ‘Understanding IP Matters’ looks at the journey from creator to entrepreneur.
Recent Articles by Bruce Berman
The Intangible Investor: Hit Horror Movie’s IP Story Frightens Some Studio Execs – It Shouldn’t
Sinners looks to be little more than a gothic horror movie set in the John Brown South with incredible box office appeal. Its storyline, however, reflects a subtler narrative about ownership and the bold agreement involving intellectual property rights that the film’s celebrated writer-director, Ryan Coogler, was able to secure from Warner Bros, which has some studio executives running for their wooden stakes.
The Hidden Cost of ‘Free’: The Big Steal Shines a Light on the Domestic Threat to U.S. IP Rights
An important new book about the impaired U.S. intellectual property (IP) system, The Big Steal – Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property, by Jonathan M. Barnett, reveals the deepening failure of IP rights to retain their property status and the weaknesses – seen and unseen – that have accompanied it. The focus of The Big Steal is on what the IP system’s recent failures impact, who they benefit, and what can be done to repair the damage.
Open Source AI? More Transparency, Please
Jockeying for position among the leading generative AI large language models (LLMs) has amplified their differences. Training models and code access are the source of some of the biggest disagreements. Should code for generative and other forms of AI be open or proprietary, protected under copyright, trade secret or even patent? There is a lot riding financially on the outcome, and there are good arguments for and against.
The Intangible Investor: ‘Bad Blood’ Doc Suggests Taylor Swift Dispute is One of Disrespect for Artists and IP Rights
Few, if any, artists own the master recordings to their early albums. Not the Beatles, not Dylan, not Springsteen. Taylor Swift is no different. Labels gamble on acts and part of the upside if they hit—the quid pro quo, if you will—is owning valuable master recordings. Without control of these potential assets, they would likely walk away from most deals.
What RFK, Jr.’s VP Pick Could Mean for IP
Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Vice-Presidential running mate, Nicole Shanahan, a mercurial patent analyst, intellectual property lawyer and incidentally rich entrepreneur, is in the position to influence declining patent reliability and increasing copyright abuse. But will she? This column is not intended to opine on Shanahan’s merits as an independent Vice-Presidential candidate, but to attempt to understand her motivation for running and its potential impact on IP rights, creators and assignees.
