Intellectual Property Copyrights Consultants: 20

Sidney P. Blum, CPA, CFE, CPEA, CFF has 30 years of professional and testifying expert experience in the areas of Royalty Auditing, Forensic Accounting, Intellectual Property Economic Damages, and General Economic Damages. Mr. Blum was named California CPA of the Year (2017) and Certified Fraud Examiner of the Year (2012). He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Professional Environmental Auditor, and Certified in Financial Forensics by the AICPA. Mr. Blum was a KPMG Partner. He specializes in breach of contract, lost revenues, patent infringement, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, lost pay, and wrongful termination.

As a world leading royalty auditor, Mr. Blum has extensive knowledge of the Georgia-Pacific factors and other major influences on reasonable royalty rates for intellectual property litigation. He led the national royalty audit practices for Big 4 firms Ernst & Young and KPMG and he also wrote the global methodologies for both firms. He is one of 5 members of the Board of Regents with the 80,000 member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. 

Clients: Mr. Blum's clients have included Adobe, Amgen, Beats Electronics, DGA, Disney, Dolby, DTS, DKNY, Ed Hardy, General Electric, General Motors, IGT, IMG, Marvel, Mattel, McDonalds, Microsoft, MLB, WWE, UMB Bank, Steven Spielberg, Harley-Davidson, and the NFL.  Expert witness testimony on royalty audit standards and results. 

Industries:  Many industries such as medical devices, music, toys, energy, film, consumer products, electronics, apparel, automotive, manufacturing and biotech.

Consulting Services:

Desk Audits and Field Audits Forensic Accounting and Investigative Audits Royalty Reporting / System Audits

Evaluation of License Agreements Royalty Compliance and Monitoring Programs Royalty Compliance / Monitoring Program Reviews

Mr. Blum’s two books published by Oxford University Press and LexisNexis on financial terms in contracts are leading sources of valuable information for attorneys and contract negotiators. He has also made numerous presentations to law firms, professional groups, universities, and others regarding contract compliance and auditing.

View Sidney Blum's Expert Witness Profile.

FORENSIC EXPERT WITNESS - PHOTOGRAPHY

Professor Jeff Sedlik has decades of experience at the highest level of professional photography including advertising, corporate, editorial and stock. He is a respected and acknowledged authority on photography having served as Past National President of professional photography's leading trade organization,  "Advertising Photographers of America". Professor Sedlik is also an experienced Expert Witness. 

Areas of Expertise:

Contracts Copyright Licensing Publicity Rights Model Releases

Lost/Damaged Film Stock Photography Business Practices Forensic Scene Recreation Forensic Image Analysis

Argent Media™ is a full-service Search Engine Marketing Agency that offers website optimization, search engine marketing strategies, and online reputation management. Founded by Chris Silver Smith and based in Dallas-Fort Worth, Argent Media has been provided high-quality, custom services to large and small companies, both domestic and international. 

Argent Media offers a broad range of bespoke web marketing services including:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Local Search Optimization Image SEO and Video SEO

Social Media Management Online Reputation Management SEO Expert Witness Consulting

Chris Silver Smith, the President and CEO of Argent Media™, has an extensive background in search engine optimization and online marketing. He has worked for some of the top agencies in the SEO industry, researching and developing search optimization and providing search marketing strategies for Fortune 500 and Internet Retailer 500 companies. 

Mr. Smith worked at Verizon/Idearc for over ten years, serving as the Head of Technology & Advanced Development for their Superpages.com sites. His projects there included R&D, local search development, user interface design, map-based search, mobile applications, and more. He was awarded the Verizon Individual Excellence Award in 2004 for his innovations, which increased site traffic (and click-through revenues) for the company. 

In 2006, Mr. Smith founded and chaired the Idearc SEO Council, which brought together individuals from across the company to focus on natural search optimization. 

Mr. Smith currently has five patents pending. His work has been featured in several publications, and he regularly contributes articles to Natural Search Blog, Nodal Bits, and Search Engine Land (which is the leading online publication dealing with paid and natural search marketing). Mr. Smith is a regular speaker at a number of technology and marketing conferences, and he also previously served on the Board of Advisors for Thomas-Reuters FindLaw's SEO Advisory Board, and on the Board of Advisors for Universal Business Listing (UBL).

View Chris Silver Smith's Expert Witness Profile.

Michael Nranian, JD, MBA, MS has over 30 years experience focusing in Product Development, Intellectual Property, Patent Litigation, Legal and Technical Compliance, and Product Liability Litigation. He is a licensed attorney in Michigan, Texas, & the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Nranian is a Six Sigma Black Belt, Professional Engineer, & Certified Project Management Professional. He has an in-depth background and education in Law, IP, Electrical, Chemical & Computer Engineering, & Business. He has testified extensively as an expert witness in depositions, hearings, and trials in state & federal courts.

Mr. Nranian conducts Product and Technology Analysis, Patentability & Prior Art Research,and provides Technology & Litigation Support for Intellectual Property. His litigation background includes patent infringement / non-infringement under literal infringement and the doctrine of equivalents, patent validity / invalidity, prior art, & file-wrapper estoppel, for both ITC and Federal cases, including Inter Partes reviews. He conducts analysis of patents and products, prepares claim charts, & expert witness reports. This includes testimony and document preparation for cases before state, and federal court jurisdictions, and the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Mr. Nranian is thoroughly familiar with all 101, 102, 103, 112, and other enablement and prior art arguments. His experience includes Technology Standards Boards and Licensing Authorities, Antitrust / DOJ, Technology Development and Transfer, Patents, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, and Copyrights, Licensing, Unfair Competition/Trade, False/Deceptive Advertising, & Lanham Act Actions, & Class Actions.

His Product Liability Expert Witness litigation background includes all types of Safety Systems, Electrical Systems, Fires, Accident Reconstruction, and Evaluation of Alternative Designs for Automotive, Medical and other industries. He has over 29 years of experience in Automotive Safety Systems, Sensors, Seatbelts, Airbags / Curtains, Seats, Diagnostic Systems, Crash Recorders, Crash Pulse Analysis, System Diagnostic, Fault Codes, Structure (including roof-crush and door) and front, side & roll-over systems (including sensing and algorithm development) for domestic and international corporations. He is thoroughly familiar with all regulatory (including FMVSS), and corporate due-care requirements, & preemption arguments, occupant kinematics, & injury causation.

Rob Wallace has unique expertise in Trademark, Trade Dress, Copyright, Brand Identity and Package Design Infringement. For 30+ years, Rob ran one of the nation's top Brand Identity Strategy and Package Design Resources providing global branding expertise to Fortune 500 companies in virtually all CPG categories. His clients include P&G, Nestle, Pepsico, Unilever, Kraft, Colgate, The Home Depot, Brown-Foreman, Novartis, J&J and more than 30 market leading companies. Manhattan-based, Rob has been an expert witness for important litigation involving:

• Likelihood of Consumer Confusion, Brand Valuation & Dilution
• Innovation/Ideation Copyright
• Package Graphic/Structural Design
• Product Design
• Branding Industry Best Practices
• False Advertising
• Corrective Advertising
• and all brand related issues.

Rob has commissioned literally hundreds of consumer surveys and is uniquely qualified to determine the results of all research. He has worked for attorneys on both the plaintiff and defense sides of his cases. He is effective and efficient with the average project report requiring between 10 and 12 hours.

Biernath Consulting helps small to midsized companies envision how AI and other advanced science & technology can help grow their business. He helps them create and implement innovative solutions to achieve success.

Rolf Biernath, PhD in Chemical Engineering, has over 30 years in the Chemicals and Electronics Industries with a concentration on AI advanced technology new product development. He developed new products and product lines at 3M for 31 years in senior technical roles. His 58 issued US patents span a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines. 

Rolf has a strong drive to find the simplest and most effective solutions that meet customer needs and business objectives. His broad technical background and his resourceful ability to learn new fields quickly make him an ideal partner to help turn product's into fully realized new products and services. If it can be done, he'll find the way. If not, he'll tell you why, and let you know what advances might enable it in the future.

Rolf also works with VC and Angel Investors to assess a startup's new technology odds of technical and business success. He is known for his ability to break down complex technical problems and find the critical aspects that will make or break a new product. This helps investors ensure that financial investments are used to target the highest risks first, thereby reducing the money and time wasted chasing after products that may likely never see the light of day.

Consultant Specialties:

New Product Innovation Manufacturing Innovation Adhesives and Tapes Generative AI Prompt Engineering Root Cause Identification Chemical Engineering

Smart Devices IoT Devices IIoT Sensors Electromechanical Assemblies

Background Experience - Dr. Biernath has 58 Issued US Patents on New Products, including:

• Industrial Adhesives and Tapes – 3D printing materials, development, automation, and tape application processes
• Electronic Displays and optical display films, outdoor digital displays, backlights, LED color mixing
• Electronic Materials, epoxy thermoset adhesives, application process, elastomeric, high speed electronic connectors
• Signage, retroreflective signage, license plate recognition, ADAS, Human Invisible, Machine-Readable Coding System
• IoT and IIoT, Automatic and predictive selection and replacement of controllers, novel low-cost oil-detection sensor
• Microreplication, microfluidics, textured adhesives and processes

View Dr. Rolf Biernath's Expert Witness Profile.

Durand R. Begault received a PhD in Computer Audio from UC San Diego in 1988 and an MFA from Mills College in 1981. He has been associated with the Audio Forensic Center and Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc. since 1996 and has worked as an expert witness, legal consultant, and acoustical consultant on a variety of audio-related cases since 1988. Dr. Begault also holds a research position at NASA Ames Research Center and is an adjunct faculty member at McGill University. He is the author of several U.S. patents and is qualified as an expert witness in both Federal and State Courts. Dr. Begault has testified in over 40 cases on a variety of audio technology and forensic audio-related cases.

Areas of Expertise:

• Audio Technology Patent / Intellectual Property Analyses
• Forensic Audio and Video Tape Examination / Authentication
• Analysis of Speech, Alarms, Warning Signal Audibility
• Voice Identification and Elimination
• Analysis of ‘Ear Witness’ Testimony
• Enhancement of Speech from Noisy Audio / Video Tape Recordings
• Music Copyright Infringement and Musicological Analysis
• Gunshots
• Acoustical Test and Measurement - Environmental Sound
• Noise Exposure
• Software / Hardware Black Box Testing for Infringement
• Videotape Image Enhancement
• Analysis of Digital Recordings

Please contact the Marketing Department at Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc./Audio Forensic Center for Dr. Begault’s current CV.

View Expert Witness Profile.

Howard J. Cohen, PhD, has over 30 years of experience in Software Engineering, Architecture and Implementation. He possesses particular expertise in Algorithms, Relational Databases, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and Software Applications in general. His experience has been in a broad spectrum of technology, in several languages, in a wide variety of applications, and on multiple platforms. Dr. Cohen's background includes Electronic Design Automation, Bioinformatics, Digital Cartography, Banking Systems for Foreign Exchange Traders, and many more. He is the co-inventor on approximately 120 patents.

Since 1979, Dr. Cohen has served as a Software Development Consultant to several major Silicon Valley businesses including Nortel Networks, Surromed, Incyte Genomics, BomDiver, Canon Information Systems, WeatherNews, PetroSoft, LSI Logic, Aspect Development, Abbott Laboratories, ETAK, Engineering DataXpress, Nikon Precision, Diasonics, Daisy Systems, Rolm, Oceanroutes, Mindcraft, and Integrated CMOS Systems. Concurrently, he has also held full time senior engineering and management positions with such companies as Tibco, Zycad, ETAK, and the NASA Ames Research Center.

Dr. Cohen's Consulting Services are available to companies needing software development involving problem definition, analysis, design modeling, documentation, programming, and implementation. Consulting services are also available issues regarding Trade Secrets, Copyright and Patent Infringement, and Computer Software Security and Forensics.

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Reasoning, Inc. provides expert testimony for trademarks, defamation, authorship attribution, and communicative malpractice related to faulty tests and surveys. Reasoning is a group of doctoral-level linguists and logicians with superior understanding of all aspects of language. We do linguistic and logical analyses of publications, newspapers, books, letters, interviews, advertisements, manuals, contracts--to identify meanings, inferences, innuendoes, bias, actual malice, damage to reputation, similarity to other documents, copyright infringement, plagiarism, breach of contract, authorship, and fraud.

As a specialist in educational testing, Dr. Habick provides expert testimony on educational practices related to fairness, bias, psychometrics, and flawed test questions or testing programs. He provides Linguistic Analysis of news reports and other communications and in the assessment of Violations of Legal, Ethical, and Professional Standards.

Dr. Habick testified as an expert witness in linguistics in the U.S. District Court, Trenton, in The United States of America v. Tyshon Bey. Dr. Habick performed linguistic analyses on defamation and trademark cases for Pisanelli-Bice, Las Vegas; Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, Tampa; Seed Intellectual Property Law Group, Seattle, and Perkins Coie, Seattle.

Reasoning, Inc. also provided expert testimony on unfair testing, grading, and educational practices for Seals v. State of Mississippi et al.

Areas of Expertise:

Libel Defamation Slander Trademarks Invasion of Privacy Copyright Infringement Discourse Analysis Logical Analysis Logically Flawed Argumentation

Plagiarism Education Educational Examinations Bias and Fairness Psychometrics Authorship Identification Interpretation of Contracts Taped Conversations

Professional Affiliations
Germanic Society of Forensic Linguists

International Language and Law Association
International Association of Forensic Linguists (IAFL)

Eric F. Forister, PhD is an Economist with expertise in industrial organization, applied microeconomics, and applied econometrics. He has extensive experience in applying economic insights to understand firm and market behavior, analyzing large datasets using advanced econometric and statistical techniques, and designing and evaluating surveys. He has co-authored medical research papers and legal publications on class certification and market definition. As a consultant, Dr. Forister has addressed issues such as:

Market Definition Market Power Competition Market Pricing Merger Efficiencies Common Impact Materiality

Reliance Ascertainability Royalty Rates (including FRAND) Damages Sampling Survey Design Irreparable Harm

Dr. Forister has analyzed dozens of industries including consumer packaged goods, luxury goods, food products, medical services, biotechnology, legal services, fitness, clothing, entertainment, real estate, air and ground transportation, telecommunications, television, electronics, heavy industry, advertising, restaurants, automobiles, gasoline, payment processing, and illicit markets.

Education/Training:

• PhD in Business Administration (Field: Economics), Stanford Graduate School of Business
• BS in Mathematics / Economics, University of California at Los Angeles, magna cum laude

View Dr. Forister's Expert Witness Profile.

Finity Engineering, LLC comprises highly-accomplished engineers and industrial practitioners that work alongside leading researchers to provide design, analysis, consulting, and litigation support services. Associates are subject-matter experts in the areas of Automation, Mechatronics, Robotics, and Consumer Products.

Finity Engineering professionals have served scores of industry-leading companies and research institutes, and have developed and provided technical oversight for the implementation of hundreds of robotic, automation, and controls systems deployed within the facilities of high-profile end users. Collectively, Finity Engineering professionals are named inventors on over 60 patents and have founded dozens of successful entrepreneurial ventures, demonstrating pragmatic and marketable engineering innovation.

Clients Include: Alcoa, Apple, BMW, Boeing, Cargill, Caterpillar, Chernobyl, Cummins, Ford Motors, Fukushima, General Motors, Gestamp, Google, Honda, Hundai, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Controls, Kia Motors, Lockheed Martin, and many more.

Design, Analysis & Business Consulting Specialties:

Additive Manufacturing Aerospace Engineering Biomedical Engineering Consumer Product Design Control Systems Cranes Design Methodology Dynamics Electrical Engineering Failure Analysis Fluid Power / Hydraulics Haptics Hazard Analysis Image Processing Industrial Control Systems Industrial Design

Machine Design Machine Learning Machine Vision Manufacturing Mechanical Engineering Mechatronics Motion Control Optics Photogrammetry Product Design Rapid Prototyping Robotics Signal Processing Traction Control & Wheel Slip Vibrations Warnings

 Founder, Khalid Sorensen, PhD, is a highly accomplished technology leader in Automation, Mechatronics, Motion Control, Manufacturing, Machine Vision, and Human-Machine Interaction. He has over 20 years of experience developing and deploying world class, mechatronic, motion control, and automation solutions.

Dr. Sorensen has directed the development and implementation of 100s of complex, multi-disciplinary mechatronic systems for high-profile industry leaders including Toyota, Ford, Alcoa, Caterpillar, Boeing, NuScale, and many others, and high-profile facilities including Fukushima and Chernobyl.

Previously, Dr. Sorensen Founded a technology company where he invented and was the Chief Architect of Expertoperator^TM, Safemove^TM, Automove^TM, and Cranevision^TM – technology known within the primary metals, automotive, and heavy-equipment sectors for enhancing crane safety, productivity, and ease-of-use; Developed state-of-the-art, on-line, time-optimal trajectory synthesis software for Cartesian machines - key drivers in the acquisition of his company 5 years after inception by a global leader in automation.

View Dr. Khalid Sorensen's Expert Witness Profile.

Radhakrishnaiah Parachuru, PhD, is a Textile Engineer with an MS degree in Decision Sciences / Applied Statistics. A multidisciplinary scientist, Dr. Parachuru possesses more than 35 years of teaching, research, and industrial experience in Polymer, Fiber, Textile, Apparel, Carpet, and other related disciplines. 

Serving as the coordinator of industry and public support activities at Georgia Tech, Dr. Parachuru has completed more than 180 applied research projects for the benefit of all segments of the Textile and Allied industries. Projects completed fall in the following categories:

• Product / Process Optimization
• Technical Trouble Shooting
• Design and Evaluation of New Products
• Assistance for Product Diversification and Value Addition
• Evaluation of Products and Processes for Dispute Resolution and Litigation Support
• Training of Technical Staff
• Establishment of Quality Control Facilities and Routines
• Business Data Modeling and Analysis
• Miscellaneous Cost Saving Projects

Dr. Parachuru has also conducted basic research in the area of Textile Manufacturing and served as the main adviser of several graduate students who completed MS and PhD degrees in textile engineering. He has been an active member of Fiber Society, AATCC, ASTM and TQCA for nearly 30 years. Dr. Parachuru currently serves as an active member of several AATCC technical committees and also as chairman of the AATCC committee on statistics. His current research interests are in the area of medical and industrial textiles. 

Consultation Services - Dr. Parachuru offers technical consultation to manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. His services are broad-based and they cover the whole spectrum of traditional and non-traditional fiber products.  His services also cover raw materias, in-process materials, finished products and process technologies. Based on 35 years of teaching and research in textiles, ploymers, metals, cermaics and composite materials, he is uniquely positioned to define the contributions of raw materails, design parameters and manufacturing variables. 

Litigation Support - Dr. Parachuru has been qualified as a Fiber / Textile Expert in dozens of civil and criminal court cases. His experience covers federal, state, and county courts in multiple states within the United States.

Areas of Expertise:

Polymers Fibers Yarns Fabrics

Garments Carpets Nonwovens Textiles Technical Textiles

Jason McDonald, PhD, is an accomplished Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google Ads (AdWords) (PPC), and Social Media Marketing professional - teacher, corporate trainer - with over 20 years of expertise in online media. Dr. McDonald works to strategize with clients all over the world. His consulting services include:

Search Engine Optimization SEO Page Tags, Density, etc. Link-Building Campaigns Landing Page Optimization

Google AdWords / PPC Ad Strategy vs. Marketing Campaign Set up & Copywriting Google Analytics & Metrics

Social Media / Online PR Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Youtube & Google+ Marketing e-Newsletters & Press Release

Background Experience - With a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Berkeley, Dr. McDonald began working at a number of San Francisco Bay Area start ups, ranging from Omnibus, Computer Currents, and MW Media. He also wrote freelance for many years with articles appearing in trade journals and press such as EE Times, Dr. Dobb’s, and Software Development Forum. In 1995, he left MW Media and was one of the co-founders of eg3.com. 

Today, Dr. McDonald is Senior Editor for content at eg3.com and is responsible for website coverage (keywords), the monthly newsletter, and the series of Insiders’ Guides on topics from RTOS to FPGAs. He also is the Senior SEO Director at the JM Internet Group. The author of the best-selling SEO Workbook, Google Ads (AdWords) Workbook, and Social Media Marketing Workbooks on Amazon, Dr. McDonald currently teaches at Stanford University Continuing Studies and has taught in the past at the Bay Area Video Academy (BAVC), and AcademyX in San Francisco, California.

 View Dr. McDonald's Expert Witness Profile.

Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh, PhD, has been researching, developing, and bringing to market Cellular and Tissue based Products and Medical Devices for clinical use – as a researcher, scientist, entrepreneur, innovator, and key opinion leader. Dr Taghizadeh is a Scientist, Entrepreneur, Innovator and Subject Matter Expert offering Business Consultant services in the following areas:

Regenerative Medicine Blood and Tissue Banks Blood and Tissue Manufacturing Cellular and Tissue Based Therapeutics Umbilical Cord Blood / Bone Marrow

Stem Cell Bioengineering Longevity Cellular & Tissue Engineering Biotechnology Medical Devices

Dr. Taghizadeh's research has focused on developing aand patenting a new method to increase the number of hematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells (master cells that produce working cells for the lifespan of an organism) ex vivo (outside the body) for treatment of patients afflicted with blood disorders and cancers. He has investigated various sources containing blood-forming stem cells, including umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, and mobilized peripheral blood.

Dr. Taghizadeh also co-founded a biotechnology company that pioneered the processing and banking of umbilical cord tissue for clinical use. He's worked with various groups including umbilical cord blood & tissue banks, organ procurement organizations (OPO), academic, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, contract manufacturing and medical device groups. Due to the diverse nature of the groups that he has worked with, he has experience in developing, manufacturing and innovating cellular therapeutics, regenerative medicine, allografts (tissue products developed from different donors & recipients), bioengineering, cellular and  tissue engineering products.

View Dr. Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh's Expert Witness Profile.

Nevium specializes in managing and increasing the value of intellectual property portfolios. You have your business plan; you have your marketing plan…Where is your IP plan? Quite surprisingly, most businesses don’t have an IP plan; nonetheless even know the total contents of their IP portfolio. At Nevium, we manage and monetize intellectual property and intangible assets. We believe these assets need to be identified, organized and managed in order to maximize value.

Nevium specializes in valuing, managing, monetizing and providing expert testimony related to intellectual property. Nevium values IP for business transactions, tax/estate, joint venture negotiations, transfer pricing and bankruptcy.

Nevium builds and manages intellectual asset management strategies for clients who want to monetize their IP. Mr. Bania and Mr. Buss are frequent lecturers on IP valuation and licensing issues and publish articles for numerous industry publications. Areas of expertise include music, apparel, publishing, film, food, automotive, sporting goods, furnishings, advertising, media, photography, retail and not-for-profit.

Consulting Services Include:

• IP Management - Nevium Identifies, organizes and values IP and IA
• IP Valuation - Nevium values brands, trademarks, copyrights, patents social media and Internet assets for M&A, estate, business transactions, tax and transfer pricing
• IP Monetization - Nevium assists with setting royalty rates, building licensing agreements and buying and selling IP

Doug Bania, CLP, Founding Principal, has over a decade of expertise in managing, valuing and monetizing intellectual property. Prior to founding Nevium, Mr. Bania managed 100s of projects related to brands, intellectual property and related intangible assets. He has assisted clients in intellectual property matters related to acquisitions, litigation, bankruptcy, tax, estate, family and marital disputes, and licensing. Mr. Bania delivers presentations and seminars on IP valuation, management, and damages issues for various business and legal entities across the United States.

San Diego Office 415 Laurel Street, Suite 341 San Diego, CA 92101 Telephone: 858-255-4361 Email: info@nevium.com

Los Angeles Office 9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450 Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Telephone: 310-975-3145 Email: info@nevium.com

View Nevium's Expert Witness Profile.