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In Spider-Man 2002, newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson shouts an iconic line: "Run down to the patent office, copyright the name "Green Goblin." I want a quarter every time someone says it." But here's the thing... that's not how copyrights work. Even smart, engaged people mix up basic IP concepts, and that confusion has real economic consequences.
Corey Salsberg, Vice President and Global Head of IP Affairs at Novartis, joins Bruce Berman to unpack why intellectual property, despite driving over 44 percent of American GDP and a third of the US workforce, remains poorly understood by the public and even most members of Congress. Salsberg traces the disconnect to a lack of education, a communication problem in a soundbite culture, and a tendency to see patents as barricades rather than bridges. He also digs into what AI means for inventorship, why the pharmaceutical patent cliff threatens future medicines, and why human connection still matters in a world of AI generated content. The strongest idea: we already have a great IP story, we just need to tell it better.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE
Learn more about CIPU: understandingip.org
Connect with Corey Salsberg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-salsberg/
00:00 Why IP stories go untold
00:46 Introducing Corey Salsberg
01:28 Where the IP disconnect begins
02:16 The historical roots of the patent system
03:19 One third of US jobs tied to IP
04:12 The education gap, even in law school
05:09 The Spider-Man copyright joke
05:42 IP's communication and attention span problem
07:44 Mark Twain's crab quote on patents
08:33 Politicians and the declining IP voice
09:19 IP through four industrial revolutions
10:22 The surprisingly recent age of modern medicine
12:02 What is and isn't patentable
13:29 The Chakrabarty decision and modern biotech
14:28 Gene patents and the ACLU case
15:17 AI, inventorship, and who owns a patent
17:44 Why AI cannot legally be an inventor
19:11 Patents as a bridge, not a barricade
21:18 Drug pricing is not an IP issue
22:35 The multi-billion dollar cost of a new medicine
23:47 Aspirin, antibiotics, and early pharma patents
24:19 Why most medicines never become profitable
25:38 AI, R&D efficiency, and future drug possibilities
27:28 Federal research cuts and the academia gap
29:41 Private funding and its risks for science
30:12 Why human connection still matters
32:09 Corey's father and his path into patent law
34:10 Do C-suites really understand IP?
36:17 IP champions among industry CEOs
38:03 What's happening with IP reform in Congress
40:38 How the US became a pharma innovation leader
43:19 Teaching IP as part of general education
45:33 The story behind Levi's rivets and jeans
46:29 Eddie Van Halen's guitar patents
48:04 AI is turning everyone into an IP creator
49:08 Taylor Swift, the NFL, and IP advocacy
49:30 Dolly Parton's rights of publicity
50:02 Closing thoughts and what's next
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
America built its patent office before it had paved roads in its own capital, and that decision still shapes how invention works today.
Bruce Berman is joined by Eric Hintz, an invention historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, for a conversation that traces the roots of the U.S. patent system back to the Constitutional Convention and forward through the rise of corporate research labs. Hintz explains why the framers designed a patent system meant to be accessible to anyone, how independent inventors and corporations have alternated the upper hand for over a century, and how figures like Robert Kearns and Samuel Rubin illustrate both the promise and the limits of protecting an invention as an individual.
The conversation matters well beyond patent attorneys. It touches on how innovation actually gets funded, commercialized, and credited, and why the health of the independent inventor matters to entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone who cares about where the next big idea will come from.
Understanding IP Matters is produced by the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU). Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
Learn more about CIPU: understandingip.org
Eric Hintz / Smithsonian National Museum of American History: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-s-hintz-phd/
REFERENCES & LINKS
00:00 Introduction
00:18 Meet Eric Hintz of the Smithsonian
01:05 The Constitution's patent and copyright clause
02:11 How European monarchies handled patents
03:30 America's democratic, egalitarian patent system
04:19 The pendulum between inventors and corporations
05:53 The rise of corporations in the 1880s
07:01 Robert Kearns and the windshield wiper case
07:50 The America Invents Act of 2011
09:02 From garages to global companies
10:16 Three ways independent inventors made money
12:42 Samuel Rubin and the Duracell partnership
17:00 The old Patent Office building in Washington
19:27 Patent models at the Smithsonian collection
20:56 The Men of Progress painting
23:36 The story of Ned, an enslaved inventor
26:07 How corporate R&D marketed against inventors
28:41 Why predatory patent practices carry little stigma
31:48 Why innovation cannot be kept down
36:03 Closing thoughts on America's inventors
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Character licensing is a $370 billion global industry — and most people have never heard of it. Bruce Berman sits down with David Born, CEO of Born Licensing and one of the world's leading experts in character and IP licensing for advertising. From placing Buddy the Elf in a UK supermarket ad to helping Geico license Angry Birds, David breaks down how brands use intellectual property to create instant emotional recognition in marketing campaigns. He explains how licensing deals are structured and valued, how licensors protect their brands from overexposure, and why smaller or emerging characters can actually offer better ROI than the hottest properties. David also shares how he built Born Licensing into one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe without any formal legal training — and why he thinks licensing is the most underrated business skill in the world.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Learn more about CIPU: understandingip.org
Born Licensing: bornlicensing.com
Born to License Podcast: Search "Born to License" on your podcast app
Understanding IP Matters is produced by the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU). Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
00:00 - Introduction & guest welcome
02:13 - How character licensing entered David's life
04:33 - Who listens to Understanding IP Matters
05:15 - Types of IP licensing in advertising
07:05 - How licensing deals are valued
08:35 - Geico x Angry Birds case study
09:08 - Measuring campaign success
11:07 - Born Licensing's two business divisions
12:39 - Major vs. lesser-known characters
15:22 - Brand equity and saying no to deals
17:29 - Operating without a legal background
19:15 - Compensation and equity structures
20:11 - FT 1000 fastest-growing company recognition
21:39 - Filtering opportunities for licensors
22:59 - Born to License podcast
24:44 - Lessons for tech and content licensing
25:29 - The cost and value of licensing
27:40 - AI and the future of character licensing
31:31 - Content authenticity and IP tracking
32:32 - David's first awareness of IP
33:50 - Final thoughts for listeners
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Protecting intellectual property at a university should come before sharing it
Ian McClure, Vice President of Research and Innovation at the University of Kentucky, makes the case that intellectual property isn't a barrier to innovation — it's the scaffolding that makes innovation possible. In a wide-ranging conversation with host Bruce Berman, Ian discusses how UK is leading a $200 million AI transformation strategy, why spinning out startups generates 50% more local economic impact than publishing alone, and how universities must evolve their promotion and tenure systems to truly reward innovation.
Drawing on his background in M&A law, IP transactions, and his tenure as president of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), Ian brings a rare combination of legal, commercial, and academic expertise to every topic — from the ethics of AI adoption to the practical challenge of getting researchers to file a provisional patent before they publish.
Key Takeaways
00:00 Introduction & opening quote
02:06 Ian's role at University of Kentucky
02:34 Challenges of AI adoption at a research university
05:30 The CATS AI strategy: origins and scope
08:00 How UK measures success across the institution
11:54 Addressing fear and resistance around AI
13:44 IP challenges at the intersection of AI and research
17:43 Licensing AI tools and IP as innovation scaffolding
21:42 UK's Microsoft Copilot partnership explained
22:09 Choosing an enterprise AI partner
25:38 Key concerns for tech transfer executives today
28:27 The case for university spin-outs
31:15 Why researchers resist filing patents before publishing
32:26 Reforming promotion and tenure to reward innovation
35:47 Enforceability: the mantra Ian teaches in law school
38:16 Balancing basic research with industry-responsive research
41:25 Ian's first encounter with IP: a merger that fell apart
43:31 Final thoughts: IP, AI, and embracing the transformation era
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Danny Marti has navigated IP from the Obama White House to the boardrooms of some of the world's most powerful companies. As President Obama's intellectual property enforcement coordinator — the so-called "IP czar" — Danny helped shape a whole-of-government approach to IP strategy. Today, as Head of Public Affairs and Global Policy at Tencent, he oversees IP protection for the world's largest trademark filer and one of the top holders of AI patents globally.
This conversation covers Tencent's remarkable transformation of music piracy in China, how the company built Weixin's crowdsourced IP enforcement platform, and why understanding the problem before reaching for a solution is the most underrated skill in IP — or any other field.
Key Takeaways:
Subscribe on your platform of choice or email us at [email protected].
Content provided is for informational purposes only and does not represent the views of CIPU or its affiliates.
00:00 - Cold open: The Situation Room and IP
01:32 - Why Tencent isn't a US household name
05:35 - Danny's role and Tencent's IP portfolio
07:00 - Largest trademark filer in the world
08:30 - Tencent's AI patent strategy
10:55 - Copyright evolution in China
12:00 - Music piracy transformation
14:10 - Life as the Obama White House IP czar
17:59 - Whole-of-government IP strategy
21:01 - Government to global industry
22:35 - IP challenges at RELX and LexisNexis
27:21 - Protecting value-added content
28:33 - Global gaming and localization
32:33 - The Weixin Brand Protection Platform
35:07 - Why users self-report IP violations
37:51 - Agentic AI and the future of IP law
39:16 - Will AI require new regulation?
41:53 - Danny's IP origin story
44:13 - Understand the problem first
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Laura Peters provides rare perspective to intellectual property awareness, having served as Deputy Director at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under Andre Iancu before becoming Executive Director of Research at UNC Charlotte. She tackles persistent misconceptions about patents in university settings, where publication incentives often overshadow commercialization opportunities.
Peters explains how patents function as temporary greenhouses for innovators—protecting ideas for 20 years before releasing them to public knowledge. Her work focuses on helping researchers understand that intellectual property extends far beyond patents and that securing rights doesn't conflict with open knowledge principles.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Wayne Stacy brings a unique perspective from his role as executive director of Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. From his early days as a patent litigator to directing the Silicon Valley USPTO office and earning a Fulbright to work in Nepal, Wayne has witnessed dramatic changes in how technology affects legal practice. This conversation explores how AI is transforming legal education, the evolution of patent litigation costs, and why future lawyers need different skills than previous generations.
Key Takeaways:
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Why do many businesses prefer lawsuits over licensing deals — and what does IP capital mean for innovation?
Phil Hartstein, co-founder of Soryn IP Capital and former CEO of Finjan Holdings, shares insights from orchestrating almost $500 million in licensing deals. He explains why patent licensing has shifted from corporate boardrooms to courtrooms, and discusses the economics of patent enforcement, the role of litigation finance in supporting legitimate innovators, and how AI is transforming IP strategy.
Phil reveals what makes patents valuable, why most portfolios contain only single-digit percentages of enforceable assets, and his perspective on patent monetization as a strategic responsibility rather than defensive last resort.
Key Takeaways:
About the Guest:
Phil Hartstein is a technology investor, inventor, and intellectual property strategist. He co-founded Soryn IP Capital and previously served as CEO of Finjan Holdings, a public company now owned by Fortress. At Finjen, he oversaw licensing and enforcement of pioneering cybersecurity patents, orchestrating more than $300 million in licensing deals. Phil holds more than two dozen pending and issued patents and has been twice recognized as a top 40 IP dealmaker.
00:00 - Introduction to Phil Hartstein
01:44 - Why companies prefer lawsuits to licenses
03:03 - Boardroom licensing era vs today
04:16 - Soryn IP Capital's role in leveling field
06:35 - Corporate litigation dockets explained
08:47 - Patent lawsuit economics and timelines
10:23 - Funding plaintiffs vs bad actors debate
13:10 - Making capital available for innovators
15:36 - Patent quality and portfolio value
18:07 - Supreme Court's Unwired Planet decision
20:16 - The Alice decision's ongoing impact
23:40 - Patent valuation and market adoption
26:25 - PTAB's role in patent examination
29:14 - Working with litigation finance
31:40 - Evaluating patent portfolio strength
34:22 - International IP enforcement landscape
37:08 - Germany's patent system advantages
39:30 - AI's impact on patent prosecution
42:42 - Racing vintage cars as analog escape
44:40 - Patent monetization as strategic duty
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
Allison Gaul, senior counsel at BCG-X, an invention development and commercialization company, discusses the evolving AI landscape, where intellectual awareness meets real-world strategy.
As both a former patent examiner and litigator with a Harvard graduate degree in business analytics, she offers insider perspectives on how companies secure IP rights, why investors now prioritize AI risk policies, and how open source licensing drives market adoption.
The conversation explores copyrighted training data challenges, how small learning models compete with foundational LLMs, and why publicly available doesn't mean free to use. Gaul shares practical IP protection strategies for startups and established companies navigating content attribution, energy-efficient blockchain solutions, and the misconceptions engineers hold about software patents.
Key Takeaways:
• Small, targeted-use models (SLMs) trained on specific datasets are gaining traction because of their relevance and efficiency
• Investors are now scrutinizing AI startup' risk and compliance policies more carefully
• Open source licensing has become a significant tool for capturing market share
• Publicly available content is not automatically free to use; not all LLMs ascribe to this
• Blockchain offers potentially reliable solutions for IP tracking despite energy concerns
• IP and AI strategy require balancing innovation with responsible ethics
• Gen AI adoption began with easy productivity wins across industries
• Businesses that are mindful of AI risk are in a better position to attract capital
Subscribe to Understanding IP Matters on your preferred platform or visit understandingip.org for more episodes exploring intellectual property with leading innovators and experts.
00:00 - Introduction to Allison Gaul
01:07 - AI race and investor expectations
02:36 - Risk policies investors demand
03:01 - How companies leverage Gen AI
04:21 - Working with foundational model providers
05:34 - Day in the life of a product attorney
06:40 - Multi-dimensional AI competition
08:34 - Open source as market strategy
09:10 - Small learning models vs LLMs
11:02 - Copyright challenges in AI training
13:29 - Content attribution and data rights
15:41 - Licensing deals and fair use debate
17:34 - Legal frameworks catching up
19:20 - Transparency in AI systems
21:25 - Attribution standards discussion
23:38 - Geographic variations in AI law
25:44 - EU regulations and global impact
27:50 - Cross-border compliance challenges
29:33 - Energy concerns in AI development
31:18 - IP education for engineers
33:11 - Patents in software development
35:27 - Ethical IP strategy and responsibility
37:54 - Patent troll misconceptions
39:50 - Attribution vs permission clarified
40:54 - Blockchain solutions and limitations
42:08 - First exposure to IP rights
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
Send us Fan Mail
When creativity meets intellectual property, innovation has no boundaries.
Eric Bear has licensed intellectual property to all major U.S. studios and Fortune 500 companies while maintaining a successful acting career. With over 100 patents covering software and video technology, Eric's seamless expansion invention was popularized by The Matrix and licensed to Disney, Fox, and other major studios. This conversation explores how he balances roles as inventor, entrepreneur, actor, and university professor while navigating patent litigation and startup IP protection. Discover how unconventional career paths can drive business trademark protection and commercial success.
Key Takeaways:
Support the show
Understanding IP Matters is brought to you by the nonprofit Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) with generous support from its partners and sponsors. The podcast provides leading innovators and experts the space to share their IP stories.
Subscribe on your platform of choice or visit understandingip.org.
To reach us: [email protected]
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