Senior Intellectual Property Counsel

Access Advance LLC is an independent licensing administrator company formed to lead the development, administration, and management of patent pools for licensing essential patents of the most important video codec technologies. Access Advance provides a transparent and efficient licensing mechanism for both patent owners and patent implementers.

Access Advance manages and administers the HEVC Advance Patent Pool for licensing over 29,000 patents essential to HEVC/H.265 technology and the VVC Advance Patent Pool for licensing over 4,500 patents essential to VVC/H.266 technology. The company’s Multi-Codec Bridging Agreement provides eligible licensees with a single discounted royalty rate structure for licensees participating in both the HEVC Advance and VVC Advance pools.

In addition, Access Advance offers the Video Distribution Patent Pool, a comprehensive licensing solution for video streaming services covering HEVC, VVC, VP9, and AV1 codecs.

The Senior Intellectual Property Counsel will support the legal group in providing counsel to Access Advance on a broad range of various domestic and international intellectual property and FRAND licensing issues. Responsibilities will include supporting the licensing team in negotiations with major international technology companies (including contract drafting and technical analyses of infringement), interfacing with and supporting 60+ major patent owners of video codec standard-essential patents, counseling compliance and finance departments in both technical and legal matters, and supporting outside litigation counsel in proceedings related to the company’s patent pools.

The Counsel will also support Access Advance’s independent evaluation function, conducted by independent, outside firms of patent legal experts, for vetting submitted patents for inclusion in the various patent pool portfolios.

• Perform complex patent infringement analysis including review of claim charts prepared by outside counsel with the assistance, as needed, of external technical experts
• Explain and represent the portfolio of licensed patents, as represented by way of example in the claim charts, to support licensing discussions
• Prepare high level summaries of the portfolio, including subject matter coverage, geographic scope, and life expectancy
• Manage independent patent evaluation, including by developing relationships with current and prospective licensors to explain evaluation processes and their relationship to royalty allocations
• Liaise with finance team regarding royalty allocation matters that arise from patent counts in the portfolio
• Regularly communicate with the 60+ patent owners regarding their portfolios and enforcement activities
• Assist with day-to-day litigation activities involving Access Advance or the patents it licenses
• Oversee and conduct product testing to support licensing and audits
• Monitor and investigate global landscape and licensing of SEPs covering video compression standards
• Stay current on international patent litigation and licensing laws, with particular emphasis on SEPs and FRAND
• Other duties as assigned

• Ability to distill complex concepts into easy-to-understand presentations to technical and non-technical audiences
• Must maintain a service-oriented mindset to internal teams and external stakeholders in the program
• Must be able to efficiently manage internal and external resources in a fast-paced environment to accurately and efficiently accomplish several matters and tasks simultaneously
• Must leverage strong substantive expertise and experience to create legal solutions that will advance business goals
• Familiarity or expertise in video compression technologies

• Minimum of 7 years patent legal experience in the high-tech sector
• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or other relevant field from an accredited college or university
• Juris Doctorate from an accredited college or university
• Member in good standing with a State Bar and eligible for…