Taraneh Maghame, Vice President & Emerging Technologies Counsel for Tessera Inc., and Derek Minihane, Vice President of IP for Intermolecular, are both members of the newly formed Innovation Alliance, a lobby that was formed in response to calls for patent reform. They were interviewed on April 11, 2007 by Michael Gorman of Tech LawForum. During the interview, Ms. Maghame and Mr. Minihane discussed the impact of the recent MedImmune decision and the Innovation Alliance’s views on improving patent quality, including an interesting position on willfulness and apportionment of damages.

1: Introduction

“…when you’re entering into licensing negotiations with a company, MedImmune has basically introduced a whole new set of issues that need to be negotiated ahead of time.”
5 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

2: About the Innovation Alliance

“We have sent the message that there is a different interest in tech which encompasses the interests of licensing companies such as ours who, basically their lifeblood is the revenues that they receive from the technology that they have developed.”
4 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

3: Apportionment

“Our issue with apportionment language that has been proposed to date is that it basically takes just about one of those factors and codifies it.”
3 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

4: Fee Retention

“We believe that fully funding the PTO and allowing them to maintain or retain their user fees is a critical first step.”
2 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

5: Pre-Grant Review

“Because we hear about how little time each examiner is spending on each patent application. We need to improve that.”
2 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

6: Efficiency and Post-Grant Review

“I’d also like to basically mention that we really have not heard much from the proponents of post-grant review as to why the current review process that Derek mentioned is not working.”
5 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript

7: Future Possibilities

“I think that people on the Hill need to really think about what the potential consequences are for the reforms that are being proposed and not just the small one or two situations that are being cited as the basis for the reforms.”
4 min.

download mp3 (right-click)
download transcript