Posts Tagged: "John LIndgren"

Boris Teksler named President and CEO of Conversant Intellectual Property Management

Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc. announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Boris Teksler to be the company’s new President and CEO and a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Conversant’s current President and CEO, John Lindgren, will transition to a non-executive role with Conversant and will remain on the Board of Directors.

Patents and Portfolio Value, Up or Down?

David Morland, a partner with 3LP Advisors, moderated the first panel. He lead off the segment by pointing out that in the United States patents are being both applied for and issued in record numbers year after year. He also started the substance of the program today by pointing out that the people who own patents in the United States do not seem to believe that the asset class has been devalued. “Maintenance fee payment rates have raised, particularly with respect to the twelve-year payment, which suggests that those who own the assets do not think they are diminishing in value,” Morland explained.

Ethical Licensing vs. Bad Practices Damaging the Industry

Acknowledging that many of the problems facing the licensing industry was brought about due to bad actors dominating the discussion, Shaer explained that the absence of legitimate patent owners who license real technologies from the debate has also contributed. Rather than self regulating the industry, legitimate patent owners and licensing entities have stayed in the background, which continues to contribute to the negative public perception of the patent system. “We are the first licensing company, to our knowledge, to publicly campaign against patent troll demand letters that we believe are undermining public confidence in the patent system,” Shaer explained.

Taking Aim at Patent Troll Demand Letters

Bad demand letters are a big problem for U.S. small businesses, costing them millions of dollars in settlement fees and legal costs annually. Patent trolls often operate through shell companies and these bad acting companies send form demand letters to hundreds or even thousands of small businesses at a time, claiming with little or no evidence that they are infringing on patents. These mass demand letters are often misleading and sometimes outright false. This type of activity has been characterized as “extortion-like” by the federal courts, and gives hard working innovators a bad name.