Voice of IP
Clause 8
Kevin Jakel (Pt 1) - Exclusive interview with CEO of Unified Patents
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Kevin Jakel (Pt 1) - Exclusive interview with CEO of Unified Patents

Kevin Jakel is the founder and CEO of Unified Patents. Since the passage of the American Invents Act (AIA), Unified Patents has been focused on using AIA’s new post-grant proceedings to challenge patents at the PTAB that are owned by so-called non-practicing entities or “patent trolls.”

This is an amazing story of rare and impressive innovation in the patent field. It is also a story about how the AIA allowed third parties – that are not directly involved in a patent dispute - to “independently” challenge patents at the PTAB. When Unified Patents is unsuccessful in challenging a patent at the PTAB, Unified Patents’ member companies are able to separately challenge the validity of the same patent again at the PTAB or in district court. This significantly increases the costs and difficulty of trying to enforce that patent.

Either because it wants to keep patent owners on edge, does not want to provide ammunition to those who question how independently it really operates from its members, or for some other reason, Unified Patents has not publicly disclosed how it decides what patents to target. This interview with Kevin tries to resolve some of that mystery surrounding Unified Patents.

This episode is the first part of our interview with Kevin. We talk about his career, what drove him to start Unified Patents, how Unified Patents came about, and start our conversation about how Unified Patents operates.

Discussion about this podcast

Voice of IP
Clause 8
The podcast listened to by sophisticated in-house counsel, judges from around the world, IP policymakers, senior USPTO officials, and top patent dealmakers and attorneys to stay ahead of the curve by understanding the personalities and forces shaping IP.
Eli Mazour’s love of talking to people – along with his belief in the importance of America’s patent system – led him to start Clause 8. Clause 8 features conversations that provide strategic insights about how to best deal with various patent-related issues. Some of the previous guests include America’s great innovators, federal judges, USPTO Directors, top IP staffers on Capitol Hill, and Carole Baskin’s attorney from the documentary Tiger King.
It's the #1 podcast about IP and is in the top 2.5% of all podcasts according to Listen Score. The podcast has been covered and cited in many publications, including Bloomberg, Law360, Courthouse News Service, Above the Law, IAM, and Original Jurisdiction.