GE´s Dave Christensen
Dave S. Christensen is Manager of the Intellectual Property Process Team at GE Industrial Systems in Plainville, Connecticut. He started his career working for DuPont Medical Products from 1990 to 1996, first as an engineer and later as a patent specialist. From 1996 to 1997, he was a patent specialist for Sorvall Lab Products. During this period of time, he also became a registered patent agent.
He joined General Electric´s Industrial Systems business in 1997 as a development engineer, focusing on development of industrial circuit breaker mechanisms and interrupters, and managing IP risks associated with new product introductions. In 1999, he was chosen to fill the role of Industrial Systems´ Manager, Intellectual Property Process Team. In that capacity, Dave assists in driving common intellectual property processes across eight GEIS businesses at over 100 sites. He also actively contributes to licensing activities with the technology organization, conducting infringement investigations, and supporting new product development to maximize protection of key technologies and minimize risk of patent infringements. In his spare time, he prepares and prosecutes patent applications in-house, as well as directing the preparation and prosecution of patent applications assigned to outside counsel. He is a named inventor on six issued patents for both DuPont and General Electric.
Dave has a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Hartford (1990) and a Masters in mechanical engineering from Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (1994). He delivered these comments to the recent Executive Briefing session held by yet2.com in Amsterdam.
Internet Tech Transfers at General Electric Industrial Systems
Several weeks ago, the folks from yet2.com asked if I´d talk about how we´ve used Internet technology transfer tools in the Industrial Systems business. After thinking about the fundamental contribution of the Internet to our licensing practice, I realized that licensing within Industrial Systems is driven by our technology organization. As with most R&D-related projects, you need to develop a specification for licensing if your engineers are going to accomplish what you want them to accomplish. Perhaps the biggest contribution of Internet tech transfer tools is providing a specification and a process for how we´re going to proceed with licensing.
Work Globally
GE is made up of ten companies with development organizations spread around the world. Any solution GE implements must work around the world.
Licensing as a Source of Revenue
IP had always been a defensive tool; but GE management saw that income from licensing could fund IP maintenance and also turn a neat profit. Enter licensing as a revenue-generating opportunity.
Aspirations
The Internet is a global tool that exposes GE technologies to new as well as existing licensing prospects. The yet2.com technology form has become a type of product spec for licensable technologies.
Case Study
Taking an inventory is an important starting point when preparing your technology portfolio for licensing opportunities. Making that assessment part of the normal workload for engineers ensures that the effort continue.
The Opportunity Matrix
Ranking technologies is important for efficiently applying your resources. GE used the yet2.com heuristics and several other measurements to decide which technologies to tackle first.
Looking Forward
An ongoing necessity is a process for capturing technology and know-how that is not part of a patent portfolio.
|
