For a third time, Justus Baron (Northwestern University), Kirti Gupta (Cornerstone Research), and Tim Pohlmann (LexisNexis^® IPlytics) are organizing the Global Standards Leadership Conference that brings together thought leaders on wireless technology, global standardization, and standard essential patents (SEPs). After successful events at the Northwestern University of Chicago in 2022 and the University of California San Diego in 2023, the 2024 conference will be held at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley. For this year’s edition, the organizers have invited C-level industry experts, leading academics, and policymakers to discuss technological trends such as Artificial Intelligence and IoT in global standardization, recent evolutions in standardization policy, SEP litigation and reforms to the system for licensing Standard-Essential Patents. The conference will feature a mix of keynote addresses, panel discussions, and open debates. Save the date and save your spot.

08:30-09:15 Breakfast and registration

09:15-09:30 Welcome Remarks

09:30 – 11:00 Panel 1 - The future of wireless technology

Moderator:
Kirti Gupta, VP & Chief Economist (Cornerstone Research)

• Raj Yavatkar, CTO on 5G & Open RAN at Juniper Networks
• Irfan Ali, CTO Team, Mobility and IoT at Cisco Systems
• Lorenzo Casaccia, VP Technical Standards and IP at Qualcomm Technologies
• Mang Zhu, Vice President and Head of IP at Interdigital

This panel will discuss the technological developments that will shape the future of standards technology: What are priorities for the next generations of technology standards? What standards bodies and alliances are at the forefront of the next technology revolution? How will changes in the technology affect changes in the processes of standards development? What will be the role of SEPs in these emerging new technologies?

Topics for the panel to discuss include:

• The future role of SEPs and open standards in 6G mobile telecommunications technologies
• Developing the critical infrastructure for the next generations (ORAN, etc);
• The role of OSS in mobile telecom networks [NFV, etc]
• Innovation in the chips that drive wireless technology [e.g. AI-on-5G]
• New IoT use cases for standard protocols such as NB-IoT, LTE-M, Cat.1

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:00 Keynote - The Role of Patents and Standards for Technology Leadership

• David Teece Professor at University of Berkeley

12:00 – 01:00 Lunch

01:00 – 02:30 Panel 2 - New frontiers of SEP licensing

• John Han, SVP and GM at Qualcomm Technology Licensing
• John Kolakowski, Director, Licensing at Nokia Technologies
• Ran Xu, GM of Corporate IP Strategy at Xiaomi

Topics for the panel to discuss include:

• How to deal with new industry verticals, new royalty rate price points, complex value chains and different market expectations to facilitate SEP licensing.
• How to deal with new emerging venues of SEP licensing disputes including India and South America.
• Are pools the solution to all challenges? Pools and platforms have gained momentum and companies that never joined pools before are now founding members.
• How may regional regulation harm or benefit the current system? What will the geopolitical impact be?

02:30 – 04:00 Panel 3 - AI & open standards

• Prakash Sangam, Founder and Principal at Tantra Analyst
• Bowman Heiden, Executive director at Haas School of Business Berkeley

• Status of open standards for AI, 
• Leadership in AI development, Government policies (AI Act, NIST, etc.)
• Patenting of AI innovations
• The role for SEPs in future AI standards

04:00 – 04:15 Summary and Key Take-Aways

 04:15 – 05:00 Drinks Reception