Patents, and Their Importance to Computer Engineers

Patents have become an important tool in the computer business.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, and computer engineers
must be aware of patents. Although most engineers are granted
patents during their tenure, they are mostly unaware of their
importance, benefits and pitfalls.

In this talk, we will address: the importance of patents to
computer engineers; what can be patented and what cannot; how to
find, read and understand patents; and what it takes to get a
patent in the computer industry; and the emergence of
patent "trolls" .

Rich Belgard has been active in the computer industry for more
than 30 years. Over these years, he designed and managed the
development of computer architectures at Burroughs, Data General,
Tandem Computers and Rational Software, including hardware,
software and microarchitecture.

He is co-inventor on 18 U.S. patents; the sole inventor on 5 U.S.
patents and currently has other pending computer architecture
patents.

Rich is the past Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Association for
Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Microarchitectures,
and past Vice-Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers Technical Committee on Microprogramming and
Microarchitectures. Rich is an IEEE Fellow.

Rich has participated in intellectual property lawsuits, including
patent, copyright, and trade secret. Rich has testified in many
patent trials, as an expert for a party and also as an expert
hired by the Court.

He is a contributing editor of The Microprocessor Report where he
authors the continuing column PatentWatch. Rich has been
extensively quoted on patent and technology issues in The Wall
Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Money Magazine, The Red Herring,
The San Jose Mercury News, EETimes, CNET's News.com, TheStreet.com,
and others.

Rich currently consults for computer manufacturers, software
companies, investor groups and as an expert and consultant to law
firms. He is a director of private software and hardware companies.