Intellectual Property, VC Investing and Exits: War Stories and Lessons Learned

Mr. Chu joined Kinetic Ventures in 1998. His investment activities focus on

information and infrastructure technologies, enterprise and Internet software,

database-related applications, and other emerging technologies. He has led a

broad range of Kinetic investments including Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX),

LogicBlox-Predictix (acquired by Infor), Tower Cloud (acquired by Uniti;

NASDAQ: UNIT), BroadWare (acquired by Cisco; NASDAQ: CSCO),

VerticalOne (acquired by SONE; NASDAQ: SONE), FoodBuy (acquired by

Compass Group; LSE: CPG.L), Instant Financial, Navistone, OPTii Solutions,

Kobiton, and ProctorFree. Prior to joining Kinetic Ventures, Nelson was a

management consultant with McKinsey & Company and a Development

Manager with Oracle. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering (summa

cum laude) from Virginia Tech, his MS in Electrical Engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MBA with distinction from

Harvard Business School.

Marcus Delgado is Assistant General Counsel for Cox Enterprises, a global privately-

owned group of businesses that includes Cox Communications, Cox Media Group, and

Cox Automotive. He manages all intellectual property litigation for the Cox companies.

Marcus joined Cox in 2003, as the Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Cox

Communications, where he managed all of Cox’s intellectual property litigation,

prosecution, and counseling matters. Prior to Cox, he was Chief Patent Counsel for

BellSouth Corporation, a telecommunications company, where he handled patent

prosecution and intellectual property strategy. He previously worked as an attorney at

Kilpatrick Townsend, Graham & James, and Davis Wright Tremaine, litigating and

counseling clients on a variety of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret matters.

Mr. Delgado holds a Physics degree from Boston University, and has a J.D. from UCLA

School of Law.

Kelly Gay is the chairwoman and CEO of OnBoard, chair of Venture Atlanta, and vice chair of the Technology Association of Georgia.  She also serves on the boards of 1105 Media, the Atlanta CEO Council, ATDC, and Acivilate.

Kelly is the former head of Vertical Markets for Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR), as well as co-CEO and COO of Numerex Corp (NASDAQ: NMRX), which was acquired by Sierra Wireless in 2017.  She joined Numerex with the acquisition of Omnilink Systems, where she was president and CEO.

Prior to joining Omnilink, Kelly was chairperson, CEO, and president of KnowledgeStorm, and led the company from startup to acquisition by TechTarget (NASDAQ: TTGT).  She also led IBM in the media, entertainment, advertising, sports, music, publishing, broadcast, and cable markets as vice president of IBM’s North American Media and Entertainment division.  Under her leadership, this division grew to $1.2 billion in annual sales, with 18% annual growth over a three-year period.

Kelly’s management and accomplishments have been recognized by industry-leading publications and organizations, including The Indus Entrepreneurs’ inaugural Atlanta Top Entrepreneur, IoT Now’s first Top Women of IoT, Connected World’s inaugural Top Women of M2M, and Pathbuilders’ first Inspiria Award.  The companies Kelly led were recognized with Inc.’s Inc. 500, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, BtoB’s Media Power 50, and Software Magazine’s Software 500.

Kelly serves on the boards of directors of 1105 Media, where she is the lead digital marketing director; OnBoard, where she is the chair; the Technology Association of Georgia, where she is vice chair and a member of the Executive Committee, as well as a past chair; Venture Atlanta, where she is the chair; Acivilate, where she is the single independent director; and the Atlanta CEO Council.  She also serves on the governing board of the Advanced Technology Development Center, named by Forbes as one of the Incubators Changing the World.

Kelly is a magna cum laude graduate of Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in economics.  She was the first Newcomb College recipient in the school’s history to receive the Murphy Prize in Political Economy, awarded by the Murphy Institute.

Greg Kirsch is a partner with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, a 250-lawyer general practice law firm, where he leads the firm’s Intellectual Property (IP) Department, which includes 30 IP attorneys and patent agents, located across five of the firm’s 10 offices.  Greg’s IP practice focuses primarily on patent matters, including patent procurement, patent portfolio management, opinions, due diligence, licensing and litigation.

Greg’s clients range from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, as well as universities.  He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on various patent/IP topics, and he has been a contributing author on the topic of software patents for two books, published by Random House and the American Bar Association (ABA).  He’s also the co-editor and co-author of an upcoming book on bioinformatics law.

In addition to his full-time legal practice, Greg serves as an adjunct professor of patent and IP law at Emory University School of Law (since 1997) and Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (since 2011), where he teaches classes on patent practice and procedure, and computer software IP law, respectively.

In addition to his law degree (1990), Greg received an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering in 1987

IP practice leader Daniel E. Sineway is a registered patent attorney who takes a strategic, business-focused approach to helping protect the IP rights of his clients. Daniel and his teamwork with companies of all sizes to craft and develop innovative IP strategies in ways tailored to best fit each client’s needs. Daniel’s team provides significant value in helping not only startups and early-stage entrepreneurial companies, but also mid-market and large companies navigate difficult IP issues with respect to “high tech” areas. He is adept at managing and shepherding patent and trademark portfolios of all sizes, preparing and filing patent and trademark applications, drafting license agreements, and otherwise guiding his clients through difficult IP issues. He takes a pragmatic approach and focuses on helping his clients connect technical details and legal requirements to business goals and needs. Daniel’s work often takes him to the cutting-edge of technology, including computer software and computer implemented technologies, electronic commerce and payment systems, Internet-of-Things (IoT), social media technologies, electronic medical records and healthcare systems, medical devices, electromagnetic technologies, network security, nanotechnology, “green” technologies and power management systems. Daniel also represents research organizations, universities, and institutions of higher education, particularly with respect to helping those institutions protect and commercialize technologies.