At the Via LA 2025 Bridge Summit in San Francisco, Clause 8 host Eli Mazour sat down with two leaders who play pivotal roles in connecting innovators and licensees around the world:
Jane Bu, Chief Licensing Officer at Via LA, the world’s largest patent pool. (You can listen to Eli’s previous conversation with Via’s President, Heath Hoglund, here).
Rob Tobias, CEO & President of HDMI LA, the organization formed by Hitachi, Matsushita, Maxell, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson and Toshiba to manage and promote the now ubiquitous HDMI interface.
In this episode, the discussion turns to the difficulties of licensing in Asia — not as an abstract policy topic, but as a practical reality shaped by culture, relationships, and business expectations.
Jane Bu reflects on how negotiations in Asian markets often rely less on formal processes and more on mutual trust built through repeated, in-person engagement. She also discusses China’s transformation from a latecomer in IP to one of the most active and sophisticated licensing environments in the world — and why patience and long-term relationship-building remain essential for licensors and licensees alike.
From a different perspective, Rob Tobias explains how HDMI’s licensing framework relies on more than patents alone. He outlines how trademarks and brand protection have played a central role in ensuring compliance, maintaining quality, and driving global adoption of the HDMI standard — including in complex markets such as China and India.
Together, their insights highlight how successful licensing in Asia depends as much on understanding people and context as it does on legal or technical structures.
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