SVPMA Monthly Event - Managing your Intellectual Property Portfolio with Pat Bhatt, founder and CEO of SKYACCOUNTANT May 1, 2013

Organization: SVPMA - Silicon Valley Product Management Association
Topic: Managing your Intellectual Property Portfolio - How to Secure a Competitive Advantage by Patenting Your Product Innovation
Speaker: Pat Bhatt, founder and CEO of SKYACCOUNTANT™
Date: Wednesday, May 1st
Time: 6:30pm - 9pm
Location: Network Meeting Center at the TechMart - 5201 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara
Cost: Free for Members. $30 for pre-registered non-members before the day of the event. $40 on the day of the event
More info: http://svpma.org/events/monthly-meetings/

Presentation:
One of the most effective tools for securing a competitive advantage is to patent any innovation that goes into products. A vast majority of Silicon Valley companies, however, do not pursue an active plan to patent innovations. Several reasons may be attributed to this inaction, including a lack of awareness and know-how, conflicting priorities, cost, among others. Recent lawsuits, such as Apple vs. Samsung, or Oracle vs. Google, can only stress upon the importance of securing intellectual property. Product Managers play a pivotal role in ensuring that intellectual property is properly identified, categorized, documented, and secured. 05 This session will begin with a case for why intellectual property is important as a source of competitive and strategic advantage and review various types of intellectual property and the distinctions between them. Pat will discuss how patents are filed and issued, terminology, governing bodies, the "supply chain", and the various components that go into it. The session will wrap up with a real case-study of a recent patent application that Pat filed at his current startup. Pat will summarize with what Product Managers can do tomorrow, to be on their road to developing their patent portfolios.

About The Speaker:
Pat is the founder and CEO of SKYACCOUNTANT™ - a silicon-valley based cloud-startup focusing on automation solutions for tax and accounting. Pat started as a mechanical engineer but went on to receive a grad degree in Computer Science. Later he pursued an MBA at Stern School of Business (NYU) specializing in finance and management. Pat has worked for various companies including General Electric, Intuit, Goldman Sachs, and Silicon Valley Bank. He is passionate about technology and product innovation. He holds 15 patents (some pending). When not at his computer, Pat is an avid marathoner. He also enjoys sailing and playing classical music at the piano. Pat is married to Jyoti; they have two beautiful kids, a boy and a girl, aged 11 and 10.