Expert Details
Software and Internet Business and Technology Development
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ID: 723182
California, USA
He has conceived of and led development of successful products in machine vision systems, industrial robotics, file management, expert system development tools, assistive devices for people with aphasia, data visualization, document management, business intelligence, integrated conferencing, data center energy management, and real estate marketing. Five of these product categories entailed transfer of technology from government-funded research groups. Activities in support of these product development projects included product conception, targeted basic and applied research, organizing, operating, or contracting for focus groups to assess and improve product concepts, market research, competitive analysis, prioritization of product features, product management, development and management of product roadmaps, organization and operation of user groups, recruitment and management of multidisciplinary development teams, and establishment of processes and teams for quality assurance.
He has served as a consultant and expert witness in 23 patent disputes regarding expert systems, mobile phone technology, automated configuration, video games, web services, Internet marketing, data integration, secure processing, and application servers, 1 case involving misappropriation of intellectual property, and 4 cases involving performance under contract for enterprise software products, web site development, and consulting services. He performed patent claim analysis, infringement and invalidity analysis, prior art research, technical analysis of commercial software systems, assessment of professional standards in consulting work. He prepared expert reports and expert declarations, was deposed for over 150 hours, testified before judge, arbitrator, special master, and three times before a jury.
He has provided advice on Intellectual Property to numerous clients, helping to identify patentable aspects of their offerings, to assess the value to the business of filing and prosecuting patent applications, and to develop broad and defensible patents. He is an inventor of eightissued US patents and three US patent applications covering an interactive data graphics generator, an expert system for visualization – automatically generating data graphics from data, consumer-selected advertising, a monitoring and surveillance device configured as a light switch, and a system for ranking real estate parcels by their likelihood of selling in a given time period. Together with his co-inventors of one patent, he organized an LLC to purchase rights to the application from a client and develop it into a portfolio sold for $2.5 million. In collaboration with patent attorneys he has authored several patent applications.
He has decades of experience in managing basic and applied research and development, and in coaching clients involved in these activities. He has personally led R&D groups in automated planning, natural language processing, distributed databases, expert systems, machine vision, industrial robotics, medical devices, game platforms, and data visualization. He has coached and consulted for R&D managers working in telecommunications, network management, K-12 education software, document management, ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) applications for web site monitoring and business intelligence, messaging software, and data center management.
He was a designated computer software expert for the defendant in a patent infringement case concerning software for automated configuration of computer systems. He reviewed prior art, the plaintiff's pre-critical-date sales contracts and sales activity, and product source code. He performed claims analysis, authored expert reports, was deposed, authored rebuttal reports, attended depositions of other witnesses as an adviser, and testified at trial before a jury.He was a designated computer software expert for the defendant in a patent infringement case concerning automated process control in manufacturing. He reviewed prior art, performed claims analysis, authored expert reports and declarations, was deposed, and testified at a tutorial related to the Markman hearing.He was the defendant's designated computer software expert in a case concerning the alleged failure of a software developer to adapt its supply chain automation system to a customer's business within schedule, budget and technical specifications. He reviewed extensive software project documentation and identified material deviations from the customer's contractual commitments for the project. He prepared expert reports and served as a testifying expert witness.He was a designated computer software expert for the defendant in a patent infringement case concerning software for automated configuration. He reviewed prior art and the plaintiff's pre-critical-date sales contracts and sales activity. He performed claims analysis, authored expert reports and declarations, authored rebuttal reports, and was deposed.He served as Acting Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for a developer of business graphics software. He co-founded the company, conceived the initial product, and recruited a technical team comprised of Windows programmers, graphic designers, and computer game developers. He released the first product within 8 months of company launch. He recruited a permanent CTO, developed two successful US patent applications, and helped raise over $4 million in equity funding.
Education
Year | Degree | Subject | Institution |
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Year: 1975 | Degree: PhD | Subject: Computer Science | Institution: Stanford University |
Year: 1972 | Degree: MS | Subject: Computer Science | Institution: Stanford University |
Year: 1969 | Degree: BA | Subject: Psychology | Institution: Yale College |
Work History
Years | Employer | Title | Department |
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Years: 1988 to Present | Employer: Undisclosed | Title: Principal Consultant | Department: |
Responsibilities:He provides management and technical consulting services to software and internet startups. He identifies and assesses business opportunities, assists in creating effective and fundable business plans, sets development plans, recruits staff, conceives initial products, manages product development and product marketing, negotiates distribution agreements, and mentors executive staff. He helps develop software businesses, assists in developing technical organizations and in planning and implementing complex software products, applications, and internet-based services.Recent engagements include: Interim Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for the leading provider of data center infrastructure management software; Acting CTO for provider of wholesale audio conference services; CEO Coach and Acting CTO for provider of integrated conferencing service; CEO coach, Chair of Technical Advisory Board; Acting CTO for provider of one of the first (in 2000) "Software as a Service" (SaaS) offerings on the web; CTO for a creator of a development platform for interactive games; and founding CTO for a developer of business graphics software. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1994 to 1995 | Employer: Apple Computer, Inc. | Title: Manager, Systems Architecture | Department: Systems Architecture |
Responsibilities:He established the Systems Architecture group, reporting to the Chief Scientist, to coordinate technology developments across business units. He developed the company's first technology roadmap. He led the Architecture Council, and executed special projects for the CEO’s Product Strategy Council, including market and technical strategies for enterprise computing, client-server architecture for K-12 schools, and the Internet. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1992 to 1993 | Employer: Lingraphicare | Title: Chief Operating Officer | Department: |
Responsibilities:He managed sales, marketing, R&D, and manufacturing for this software-based medical device company. (The product is an FDA-approved user interface embedded in a laptop computer, for use by people with aphasia.) He set marketing, financing, regulatory, and technical strategies, and raised $2 million in financing. He developed and executed sales plans, managed creditors, and implemented FDA-mandated Good Manufacturing Practices. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1987 to 1987 | Employer: Teknowledge | Title: Vice President | Department: Corporate Development |
Responsibilities:He set the strategic goals of the firm's merger-&-acquisition program. He identified and led due diligence on candidate software firms for acquisition and on products for licensing. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1985 to 1986 | Employer: Teknowledge | Title: Vice President and General Manager | Department: Products and Training |
Responsibilities:He held bottom-line responsibility for this operating unit. He brought revenues from expert system software products and training courses from approximately $2.5 million to over $4 million in 15 months. This level of sales enabled an IPO as a software products company. He established a regional sales force, and negotiated marketing or distribution arrangements with five major hardware vendors. He set a product strategy emphasizing integration with conventional computing over Artificial Intelligence pizzazz. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1982 to 1983 | Employer: international Machine Intelligence | Title: President | Department: |
Responsibilities:He established this joint venture with Machine Intelligence Corp. and Yaskawa Electric, which developed the first computer-controlled general purpose industrial robot. He defined the business and product strategies, supervised product development, and recruited a sales and marketing team. He developed the architecture for the highly successful Yaskawa ACGC programmable industrial controller. He managed a close collaboration with frequent interaction with the Japanese parent. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1978 to 1983 | Employer: Machine Intelligence Corp. | Title: Cofounder, VP Engineering, Director, R&D | Department: Engineering, Research and Development |
Responsibilities:He developed the business plan and raised funds with the core team. He managed both systems & product engineering and research & development.He established and ran product development activities in machine vision and English-language data retrieval. The company released the first general industrial vision system, and the first vision-guided robot. He helped spin out the data-retrieval activity as Symantec, Inc., today a leading software publisher. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1972 to 1979 | Employer: SRI International | Title: Associate Director | Department: Artificial Intelligence Center |
Responsibilities:He managed and performed research at this applied research center. As a research manager, he developed, marketed and participated in research programs in automated and interactive problem-solving, natural-language interaction with databases, distributed robotics, and programming languages. As an individual researcher, he pioneered "modern problem solving," developed an early expert system for diagnosis and repair of electromechanical equipment, developed a programming language for incremental development of artificial intelligence systems, and developed problem solving and control methods for a mobile robot. |
International Experience
Years | Country / Region | Summary |
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Years: 1981 to 1992 | Country / Region: Japan | Summary: He served as President and board member of a US-based joint venture of a startup company and Yaskawa Electric Manufacturing Company, and as a board member of a second joint venture based in Japan. He managed the development of the first programmable industrial robot, advised the Japanese venture on development of machine vision systems, spoke at Yaskawa-sponsored functions in Japan, made sales calls together with the Japanese team to major industrial customers such as Toyota, Sony, and Seiko, and developed the architecture for Yaskawa's highly successful ACGC programmable industrial controller. Subsequently, he helped launch and manage a Silicon-Valley-based research facility for Yaskawa which developed a mobile robot prototype. He made a dozen trips to Japan ranging from one day to one month in duration. |
Years: 1991 to 1991 | Country / Region: India | Summary: Under sponsorship of the United Nations, he delivered five lectures on managing knowledge-based systems development and deployment to university and industry groups. He consulted with three major industrial firms concerning expert systems projects. |
Years: 1999 to 2000 | Country / Region: Denmark | Summary: He served as Acting CTO for a subsidiary of LEGO, developing a technology for lightweight animated graphics for online multiplayer games. He managed an international team centered in Denmark, with contributors in Switzerland and the U.S. He identified an unanticipated innovation that resulted in a fundamental patent concerning consumer-selected advertising. |
Career Accomplishments
Associations / Societies |
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Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). |
Professional Appointments |
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He is Chair of Software Committee of the Keiretsu Forum, the San Francisco area’s largest and most active angel investor group. He is an Executive Associate with the San Jose Software Business Cluster, and an Executive Advisor with Astia (a women-focused incubator). He has served on the editorial board of Cognitive Science, Robotics World, and AI Expert. He was Conference Chair for AIPS-96 (an international conference on automatic planning). He is a former member of the Steering Committee of the DECUS AI Special Interest Group, and of program committees of numerous AAAI and IEEE conferences on both computer science research and applications. |
Publications and Patents Summary |
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He is the author of a book and over 20 papers and articles on a wide range of advanced software topics. He is an inventor of 8 issued and 3 pending US patents covering an interactive data graphics generator, an expert system for visualization – automatically generating data graphics from data, consumer-selected advertising, a monitoring and surveillance device configured as a light switch, a system for ranking real estate parcels by their likelihood of selling in a given time period, and automated psychological testing and analysis. |
Additional Experience
Expert Witness Experience |
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He has served as a litigation consultant and/ witness in 32 cases – 25 involving software patent litigation and 7 disputes regarding contractual issues concerning complex software products and professional services. His activities on these cases included patent claim analysis, prior art research, technical analysis of commercial software systems, assessment of performance under warranties, and assessment of performance to professional standards. He has testified three times before a jury, been deposed for over 160 hours, served as a testifying expert at hearings before a judge, a special master and an arbitrator, prepared expert reports, prepared expert declarations, and provided advice and analysis. |
Training / Seminars |
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Business 100.92 for the Technical Professional: This seminar ("Almost Business 101") gives technical teams in high-tech businesses an understanding of what the other teams in a company do, why they have different priorities, and how technologists can work more effectively with them. Planning Great Products This seminar for CEOs explains an iterative methodology for planning and executing product development. This methodology has been applied for over two decades, helping organizations desiring predictable release cycles of three months or longer. Clients typically find that this approach adds days to the product planning process and subtracts weeks from product implementation. More importantly, it allows all functions within the organization to participate rapidly in feature/time/budget decisions as development progresses and the inevitable surprises arise. Key issues covered include: • Product planning in the context of business planning • Focusing on your value proposition • Roles and responsibilities in the planning process: Technical, Marketing, Sales, Finance, CEO • Inputs to and outputs from the planning process • Inputs to and outputs from the execution management process (Hint: the output from planning is the input to execution) |
Vendor Selection |
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He has had vendor selection and purchasing responsibilities for computer hardware and software, on- and off-shore contract development and consulting, contract and contingency recruiters, and colocation data centers. |
Marketing Experience |
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He has been an active participant and close observer of the software industry since the late 1960s. He can offer insights into the life cycle of software businesses and its relationship to the computer hardware industry. As Chair of the Software Committee of Keiretsu Forum San Francisco Bay Area area chapters he has unique insight into emerging trends in the software industry. As a litigation consultant on a patent infringement case, he analyzed the rapid emergence of application servers and the web services architecture. |
Other Relevant Experience |
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He has coached "intrapreneurs" developing new lines of business or major projects within large organizations such as Pacific Bell, Sun Microsystems, Schlumberger, Bell Atlantic, and Apple. He has served as interim CTO or technical advisor to approximately 20 software startups. He has served on eight Boards of early-stage technology companies. |
Fields of Expertise
natural language text processing, data revolution, autonomous system, outernet, artificial intelligence, expert system, knowledge base, knowledge engineering, planning, commercialization, new product design, new product development, new product development management, new product market survey, product, product management, software engineering, software process management, software product assessment, technology innovation, technology management, technology transfer, expert witness, legal patenting, claim (patent), patent claim chart, Markman hearing, patent, patent infringement, patent specification, software patent, software protection, United States patent, research and development management, research management, virtual world, patent application, patent trolling, patent prosecution, patent claim construction, business process management, customer segmentation, industry survey, real-time software engineering, application service provider, Internet advertising, knowledge management, World Wide Web application, new consumer product development, automation technology, World Wide Web software, voice processing, business intelligence, database technology, marketing software, computer software licensing, data compression algorithm, hierarchical database, client/server computing, software agent, software standard, joint venture, cognitive science, device patent, computational linguistics, product reliability improvement, application development system, computer-human interface technology, 510(k) document, product testing, rapid product development, database design, product improvement, product delivery process, corporate strategic planning, product development cycle time, data visualization system, computer software technology innovation, device patenting, application software, device product development, computer processing, new technology business value measurement, research and development, artificial-intelligence programming language, database management, data management, information, product design, object-oriented design, application program interface, Internet, object-oriented database, decision-making, database management system, innovation, distributed artificial intelligence, technology, computer technology, relational database, medical device, management information system, management decision-making, energy analysis software, decision support system, database, computer software, computer science, client/server database access software