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Understanding Venture Capital Investors

Entrepreneurship, Introduction, Venture Capital

This episode explains how venture capital funds work, how they are organized, what types of investments they’re looking for, how they make money, share it with limited partners and how they mitigate risk through modern portfolio theory. This episode provides a useful primer for anyone interested in raising finance from venture capital investors.

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Monetizing Patents Through Non-Practicing Entities (NPE’s)

Patents

This episode is about non-practicing entities (NPE’s). Otherwise referred to as patent licensing companies, patent assertion entities (PAE’s) or patent holding companies, non-practicing entities are companies who’s sole activity is patent licensing. David Smith explains why they exist, what they do, how they make money and the pros and cons of working with them.

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Blocking Illegal Imports Through the International Trade Commission (ITC)

Patents

David Smith and attorney Tom Fasone explain how the International Trade Commission (ITC) is a federal agency tasked with protecting American domestic industries from foreign unfair competition connected to imports into the United States. This podcast explains how products infringing patents and other infringing products can be blocked by US Customs and Border Protection. It explains how cases at the ITC are on expedited schedules, and how ITC cases differ from cases brought before the US federal courts.

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Selling Your Patent

Patents

This episode explains why companies buy patents, what they’re looking for in a patent, what patents are most sellable, and what prices patents collect on the market. It guides patent holders through the process of selling a patent, and helps them navigate the legal minefields along the way.

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Venue–Where to File Suit Against Companies Infringing your Patents?

Patents

How the small town of Marshall in Eastern Texas became the battlefield for patent lawsuits and how the T.C. Heartland case has shifted cases to courthouses in other states, like Delaware, that don’t want to hear them.

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Patenting by Numbers

Patents

Understand the bizarre patent marketplace through looking at the numbers. For example, 98.5% of patents are never asserted. This translates to $60bn spent on patents that are never used. Podcast covers cost of prosecution, maintenance, litigation, inter-parte review (IPR) as well as statistics on fee shifting and other topics.

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Why Startup Valuation is Not Startup Valuation

Business Law, Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

This episodes explains how startups are valued and presents the argument as to why venture capital investments in startup ventures should not be used as the basis to place a valuation on the company.

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Preferred Pizza Toppings

Business Law, Entrepreneurship, Interview, Venture Capital

This episode explains how venture capital investors get preferred stock, and founders get common stock. Preferential toppings provided to investors include liquidation preferences, veto rights, board rights, anti-dilution rights, co-sale and drag-along rights. David Smith talks to Mark Cameron White, founder of the White Summers law firm, about the terms Mark’s seeing in Silicon Valley and elsewhere today.

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Patent Wars & Shifting Legal Fees in Patent Litigation Cases

Patents

How large corporate interests have lobbied Washington, misled the American public and seriously damaged the US patent system at the expense of inventors and small startups.

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Forming the Startup Company and Partnering with Co-Founders

Business Law, Entrepreneurship, Introduction

David talks to Mark Cameron White, Harvard-educated lawyer who founded and financed hundreds of Silicon Valley startups, about forming the company and forming the founding team.

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