University officials who oversee the commercialization of software and other academic inventions held their annual meeting in Orlando last week, and one of the 1,700-plus in attendance was Jay Chawla.
Newly hired by Acacia Technologies Group as vice president for business development, Mr. Chawla was among several attendees listening eagerly to a panel of academics talk about their research on patent licensing. The company has threatened to sue colleges and universities for what it sees as infringement of patents it holds on streaming-media technology. Mr. Chawla said he came to the meeting to learn more about the issues generally. He also hoped to make some connections that could help clinch some deals between Acacia and universities for licensing rights to medical devices, bar-code technologies, and other high-technology inventions. He said he had developed some good leads but acknowledged that the Acacia name wasn’t always such a great conversation opener, noting: "I’ve gotten some resistance from universities."
For more on the battle between colleges and Acacia, see an article in The Chronicle by Scott Carlson.
