Practical perspectives on IP strategy, licensing, and patent enforcement by Kai-Erik Elers. Browse the summaries by topic and follow the links to read the original posts on LinkedIn.
From IP Culture Change to KapelisIP
A long-running discussion about IP as a business asset leads to the launch of KapelisIP. This post introduces the company’s purpose: helping organizations develop, manage, commercialize, and selectively defend intellectual property that supports business growth.
Open-Source Governance for a Licensing Business
Open-source software can accelerate development while complicating a commercial licensing offer. This post explores component inventories, license compatibility, documentation, and practical governance steps that help organizations understand the rights and obligations attached to their software.
Employees as a Source of Infringement Leads
Informed employees can recognize possible overlaps between patented inventions and competitors’ technology. This post explores awareness, factual documentation, and internal reporting practices that can turn a chance observation into a lead for professional assessment.
Joint Patent Ownership: Value and Complexity
Joint research can combine complementary expertise, while shared patents can create difficult negotiations. This post explores ownership, licensing, costs, enforcement, and the importance of planning practical governance for collaborative and cross-border innovation.
Giving Inventors Room to Discover
Unexpected experimental results can lead to valuable inventions when researchers have time to investigate them. Drawing on a semiconductor development experience, this post explores curiosity, flexible schedules, and psychological safety as conditions for discovery.
AI as an IP Analysis Coworker
Specialized AI assistants can help review large volumes of material and develop early infringement insights. This post shares experiments with prompting, acknowledges imperfect results, and considers how access to technical literature could expand their usefulness.
AI and the Changing Legal Industry
Large language models are changing how legal work can be performed, but adoption varies. This post reflects on conservative professional practices, emerging efficiency gains, and the competitive implications of embracing AI in intellectual property work.
Have-Made Rights and Outsourced Manufacturing
A business that designs and sells products may rely on third-party manufacturers. Using the fabless semiconductor model, this post explores have-made rights and why an IP license should clearly address the intended manufacturing arrangement.
Patent Licensing Rights Explained
A patent license can be tailored to the activities a business actually needs. This post introduces basic patent rights and uses manufacturers, distributors, and technology companies to illustrate how different licensing scopes support different business models.
Defining Improvements in a License
What counts as an improvement can become a commercially important question in licensing. This post explores technical dependencies, the surrounding technology ecosystem, and why legal and technical teams need to develop the definition together.
Mutual Improvement Clauses
A mutual improvement clause can give both licensing parties access to future patented developments. This post explores the commercial logic, grant-back and sublicensing questions, and how trade secret choices may influence the arrangement.
Define the IP Included in a License
A license without a clear list of covered intellectual property can create uncertainty for both parties. This post explores valuation, scope, infringement awareness, and why identifying patents and trade secrets supports stronger commercial agreements.