Experts Available to Discuss Tips on Protecting Intellectual Property.

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TOPIC: Although the risks are very low that a venture capitalist would steal intellectual property, experts say it is still important to take steps to protect it, according to an article in Americanventuremagazine.com. The concern stems from the fact that VCs get to review business plans and other important company information before signing a non-disclosure agreement. Experts advise companies to work only with VCs that are trusted and reputable. Companies should put a non-disclosure agreement in place with a VC after they begin doing due diligence.

EXPERTS: ExpertSource can offer several highly qualified experts to comment on this story:

Christopher Wasden is Chairman and CEO of SimplexityMD, a Houston-based medical device search and development company. Wasden's company identifies promising next generation and disruptive medical device technologies from around the world. Prior to becoming head of SimplexityMD, he was President, CEO, co-founder, and a member of Tympany's Board of Directors. The company, which designed, developed, marketed, sold, and supported proprietary, automated diagnostic hearing testing equipment to physicians and hearing health professionals, was recently successfully acquired. Wasden also spent eight years on Wall Street as an investment banker with JP Morgan & Co., where he was responsible for its international investment banking and mergers and acquisition activity for foreign financial services companies operating in the United States. He also spent a year with Union Bank of Switzerland, where he started and led its Latin American Equity research activities, and was CFO of a $20 billion chemical and refining business at which he headed its corporate finance, research and risk management groups. He left Koch to join Houston based Enron, where he was responsible for its strategy and merger activity for its newest business, Azurix. In that role, he started several of Azurix innovative businesses including its water risk management, operating services and Internet marketplaces. In all these roles, he was responsible for corporate venturing activities that attracted venture capital from management and external investors. Additionally, he is a named inventor on two issued and 12 pending patents. He has been an instructor at the University of Houston and Rice University, teaching courses in Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Corporate Finance. Wasden has an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and two bachelor degrees from Brigham Young University in Accounting and Asian Studies, where he graduated summa cum laude.

His research and publications include, Pioneering disruptive technology, see Houston Business Journal article for more information: http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2004/07/12/focus8.html; Raising capital in a difficult market, see Houston Chronicle article for an example of the challenges Wasden and his company, Tympany faced: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2705639. PR Contact: Karen Blanchard 713-590-3772 [e-mail]

Attorney James M. Singer, of Pepper Hamilton LLP, is an expert in the field of technology and intellectual property law. Mr. Singer's technology practice includes work in the electrical, mechanical, materials science, environmental, software and business method fields. Mr. Singer previously worked in the intellectual property department of a Fortune 500 company and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. His electrical engineering experience focused on power systems design and maintenance, and included work with a major international oil company and a regional power company. Mr. Singer is a patent attorney who helps businesses obtain, enforce, and avoid infringement of patents, trademarks and copyrights. He also works with venture capital groups, institutional investors, and corporate merger candidates to help them understand and resolve issues involving intellectual property in complex corporate transactions. His research and publications include, Intellectual Asset M&A Due Diligence and Risk Management, published in Patent Strategy & Management (April 2006); Essential Questions to Ask About Intellectual Property, published in Pittsburgh TEQ (March 2006); Asset Deals in IP: Buying What You Can't See, August 2006. PR Contact: Jack Loughran 610-649-9292 [e-mail]

Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu is director of UC Berkeley's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, which teaches entrepreneurial thinking and business skills to engineering and science students, while also providing a bridge between Berkeley's resources and the business and venture capital communities. As part of his research, Dr. Sidhu interviewed 50 CEOs about the changing role of engineering, analyzing trends and new roles/requirements for engineers. He offers an optimistic view of outsourcing, pointing to "opportunity mapping" and "harvesting innovation" on a world-wide scale. Under the umbrella of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, University of California at Berkeley, his current research interests include, technology commercialization and technology management, which goes beyond the domain of traditional interdisciplinary engineering by adding the intersection of market force analysis as well as policy decision making tools and analysis. He has had 50 U.S. Patents granted as of 2005. Price Babson SEE XIX Fellow, 2003. Awarded Platinum Inventor, 3Com Corporation, having personally filed approximately 10% of 3Com's claimed intellectual property as of 2001 3Com Corporation's Innovator of the year for 1999-2000. PR Contact: Thanh Tu 415-365-0478 [e-mail]

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