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Louis Carbonneau

Founder & CEO

Tangible IP

Mr. Carbonneau is the founder & CEO of TANGIBLE IP, LLC, the leading patent brokerage and strategic intellectual property advisory firm, focusing on IP sales & licensing along with strategic IP advisory services. Since he founded the firm in 2011, Mr. Carbonneau has brokered the sale or license of over 5000 patents, returning tens of millions of dollars to patent owners and inventors and has helped several technology companies with various advisory engagements. Mr. Carbonneau is one of a handful of individuals in the world who has been recognized by the prestigious British magazine Intellectual Assets Management (IAM) as one of the World’s Leading Intellectual Property Strategists for 12th consecutive years. Louis is the author of a regular publication called “IP Market Updates” which is read by over 20,000 leaders in the IP and business community around the world.

Prior to founding Tangible IP, he was the General Manager of IP Licensing at Microsoft Corporation where he spent 15 years. At Microsoft, he was also the lead business and intellectual property legal counsel to various business units and to the Microsoft Research organization worldwide, while leading the International IP team. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a patent litigator with the national IP boutique.

Recent Articles by Louis Carbonneau

Will Vacancy Caused by Passing of Justice Scalia Put US Supreme Court in a Pinch on IP Matters?

Justice Scalia never hid the fact that patent law was his “blind spot”. He also admitted to often taking his cues on IP issues from his colleague Justice Ginsberg. On a Court that has not been kind to patent owners these past years, Justice Scalia, who never feared a bit of controversy, was generally considered as a “staunch defender of patent rights” (as long as they were valid) and viewed them, rightly so, as property. On the other hand, he is also the first Supreme Court Justice to refer explicitly to “patent trolls” (in the Commil case), and not in a good way… He also famously called out the Federal Circuit jurisprudence on obviousness as “gobbledygook.” Google it; it is not exactly a compliment!

The Patent Scrooges: The rise and potential fall of the efficient infringers

So it now looks like this: if you are a patent owner and feel that your rights have been encroached upon, you now have to assume there will be a challenge to their validity by a potential licensee through an Inter Partes Review (IPR). If you are one of the lucky few (~25%) who survive such a challenge with at least one valid patent claim, you then have to expect an appeal. Assuming you win that appeal, then the real court battle starts in earnest and you’ll have to face what has now become a $3-5M ordeal in legal fees to get through a full trial on the merits and the routinely filed appeal should you beat all odds and win. Treble damages for willful infringement have been rarer than a dodo bird sighting and even winning does not mean you will collect your money any time soon, as the Apple-Samsung saga has recently shown.

Past Events with Louis Carbonneau