Outside Counsel
Outside counsel who need a monetization partner for their clients.
About
About Karl
I Help Companies Figure Out What Their Patents Are Actually Worth - And Then Do Something About It.
The Practice
Most companies with a patent portfolio have the same questions: What do we actually have? Is any of it worth money? And if so, how do we get it?
That's my job. I lead the Patent Advisory & Monetization practice at Hilco IP Services, where my team and I help companies answer those questions - and then act on the answers.
Sometimes that means running a sale process for a portfolio. Sometimes it's building a licensing program, placing litigation funding, or valuing IP for a lender or an acquisition. And sometimes it's simply giving a leadership team a clear-eyed look at what they're sitting on before they make a big decision.
The work usually starts the same way: a company - or their outside counsel, or a private equity firm looking at a target - comes to us with a portfolio and a question. We do the analysis first, then the monetization.
No jargon, no 80-page reports that nobody reads. Just a clear answer and a plan.
How I Got Here
Every Seat At The Table
I've spent my entire career on this problem, from just about every seat at the table.
I started as a patent attorney at Jones Day, litigating IP cases in U.S. district courts, at the Federal Circuit, the International Trade Commission, and in Europe and Asia. Then I went in-house.
At Eastman Kodak, I was Associate General Counsel, running a team of attorneys, technologists, and business people responsible for the company's IP strategy - licensing, litigation, patent sales, and the IP side of Kodak's Chapter 11. That team generated $2 billion in revenue from IP. At Dow Chemical, I headed IP litigation worldwide, where my team generated another $550 million.
After Dow, I served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Allied Security Trust, leading IP transactions for the defensive patent aggregator, and then spent seven years running West Four IP, my own advisory firm, before joining Hilco in 2022 to build the patent advisory and monetization practice.
Along the way, I taught patent litigation as an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law for six years, and I currently serve on the IP Law Advisory Council at Cleveland State University College of Law.
$2.0B Eastman Kodak IP revenue generated at Kodak
$550M Dow Chemical IP revenue generated at Dow
IAM 300 IAM Strategy 300 Named among the world’s leading IP strategists, multiple years running
The Credentials
Where The Training Came From
JD University of Illinois Chicago School of Law With Honors in Intellectual Property Law - top 5% of my class, Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Intellectual Property Law
BS Purdue University Mechanical Engineering
If you've got a portfolio and a question, I'd love to hear from you.
Book a CallWho I Work With
Four Kinds Of Call
Private Equity
Private equity firms doing IP diligence on a target or trying to turn a portfolio company's patents into a value driver after the deal closes.
In-House Legal Teams
In-house legal teams managing portfolios and fielding questions from the C-suite.
Companies Of All Kinds
And companies of all kinds who suspect there's value in their IP but aren't sure where to start.
Off The Clock
Five Daughters, Two Sets Of Twins
I live in the Cleveland area, where I'm the proud father of five daughters - including two sets of twins - ranging from recent college grads to fifth graders.
After decades of negotiating against Fortune 500 legal departments, I can confirm none of them prepared me for negotiating with five daughters. When I'm not working, you'll find me at the lake, at a show, or volunteering with the local schools.
If You've Got A Portfolio And A Question, I'd Love To Hear From You
Thirty minutes, no pitch and no deck. Bring the question you already have.
Book a Call Karl Maersch · SVP, IP Services, Hilco Global