IP Hall of Fame Academy members
The IP Hall of Fame Academy comprises previous, living inductees into the IP Hall of Fame, the panellists from the 2006 IP Hall of Fame induction process and individuals who have been put forward for membership as a consequence of their acknowledged expertise in international intellectual property issues. Moving forward, people will qualify for Academy membership only if they are inducted into the IP Hall of Fame or if their names are submitted for consideration by an existing member.
The role of Academy members is to select IP Hall of Fame inductees from the nominations made by the global IP community.
Current members are (click on name for more information):
Marshall Phelps
Former vice president of intellectual property at MicrosoftIP Hall of Fame inductee in 2006
Marshall Phelps put IP on the corporate map. He forced senior managements (and Wall Street) to regard IP not as a legal overhead, but as a profit centre. He took IBM from a few million dollars in IP-related annual revenues in the late 1980s to over a billion dollars in a little over a decade. He helped to popularise the notion that everything a company owns can be licensed at the right price and time. Phelps also helped to establish the virtuous circle of using patent and other licensing revenue to fund R&D activities to create more product and licensing opportunities. At the urging of Bill Gates, he came out of retirement to head Microsoft’s IP strategy and help establish the company as an emerging patent leader, and to expand upon its copyright and trademark successes.