Acknowledgments

This book represents the culmination of many years of counseling, drafting, negotiating and teaching in the area of IP transactions and licensing. I am indebted to those who took the time to train, educate and mentor me when I embarked on this little-known but rewarding practice more than thirty years ago. Professors Lloyd Weinreb, Michael Boudin, Stephen Breyer and William Alford at Harvard Law School inspired in me an early appreciation for the intricacies of intellectual property, international law and technology regulation. Ron Laurie, my first law firm mentor in this area, remains a leader in the field. I owe a significant debt of gratitude to those partners at Hale and Dorr in Boston (now WilmerHale) who spent countless hours teaching me the ropes of the corporate and transactional world, including the things that never appear in case books and law review articles: Mike Bevilacqua, John Burgess, Bill Benjamin, David Westenberg, and many others. I am also grateful to the many law firm colleagues, clients, co-counsel and academics with whom I have collaborated over the years, each of whom has added to my store of knowledge of the field, and especially Laura Blood, my colleague in post-firm law practice, whose skill and attention to detail are unmatched. My first experience teaching IP transactions and licensing was at Washington University in St. Louis, where I co-taught the course with Blythe Burkhardt, who, with great experience and good humor, helped me to translate years of esoteric knowledge into a format suitable for students.

Several people contributed to the planning and development of this book. The late Professor Ray Nimmer at University of Houston Law Center was the initial inspiration for this project, and I used his excellent 2007 case book for years as I developed my own approach to teaching the subject. Greg Vetter at University of Houston and Jennifer Carter-Johnson and Jeff Carter-Johnson at Michigan State University provided invaluable input and support in the planning of this book. Matt Gallaway at Cambridge University Press was strongly committed to the open access nature of this book and made its publication possible. Patti Beekhuizen and Matthew Whitehead at the University of Utah provided invaluable help in preparing the manuscript, and many of my students over the years suffered through half-written chapters and notes as the book coalesced into its final form.

The “beta” version of this book was used by several brave instructors during 2021 and 2022 and I am grateful for their feedback and suggestions regarding its usability and improvement. I am particularly grateful to Jacques de Werra, Louis Brucculeri and, most especially, Jim Farrington at University of Notre Dame for reviewing and commenting on the manuscript.

Finally, I must thank my wife, Kimberly Kaphingst, whose endless patience allowed me to miss far too many birthdays, anniversaries and holidays while I was negotiating IP transactions around the world and grappling with the issues that are now presented in this book.