David Dreifus, Ph.D.

David Dreifus, PhD

Managing Director

Dreifus@ConfluenceTec.com

David Dreifus has over 12 years of experience leading and supporting IP monetization and portfolio management. He created and led licensing and technology transfer programs yielding > $100M in royalties and has been managing and supporting many more initiatives through patent analyses, landscaping, mining, opportunity identification and modeling, market assessments, competitive intelligence, product mapping, claim chart creation, reverse engineering, and portfolio management. His technical background includes consumer electronics, semiconductors, optoelectronics, telecommunication, solid-state storage, and display technologies. David has served as an IP Monetization and Portfolio Manager for MiiCs IP, Sharp, Avago, and LSI Corporation. David also led corporate strategy development and contributed to storage product developments, technology strategy, and performed technology and market forecasting for networking infrastructure and consumer electronics. Earlier, David worked at Bell Laboratories and Kobe Steel’s Electronic Materials Research Center. David has over 45 scientific publications, and 3 book chapters, and has been awarded over 33 patents. He received a BS from Lehigh University, MS, and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, and he is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Societies and is a Senior Member of IEEE.

EDUCATION

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, Raleigh, NC
PhD Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1989
Research: II-VI Optoelectronic Devices
M.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1986
Research: Radiation Effects on III-V Heterojunction Transistors

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, Bethlehem, PA
B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1984
Activities: Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, I.E.E.E., American Physical Society, Materials Research Society, and Product Development and Management Association

EXPERIENCE

• WATERSHED IP LAW, Philadelphia, PA
  Managing Director, 2021 – Present

  • IP Monetization and Portfolio Management: Managing multiple monetization programs spanning components to standard essential patents. Leading licensing negotiations and providing modeling, patent analyses, and reverse engineering support.

• MIICS IP INC., Vancouver, WA/SHARP LABORATORIES OF AMERICA, Camas, WA
  President, Intellectual Property Monetization and Portfolio Management, 2015 – 2021
  Led and supported monetization activities for wireless, consumer electronics, and component technology sub-portfolios, including standard essential patents generating >$60M in royalties. Identified and modeled opportunities, created and/or assessed patents and claim charts, managed, negotiated, and executed licensing, technology transfer, and second source agreements, and supported the development of evidence-of-use capabilities.

• AVAGO/LSI/AGERE SYSTEMS/LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Allentown, PA
  Distinguished Engineer, 2002 – 2015

  • Intellectual Property Strategy and Technology Planning, Intellectual Property Portfolio Management / Solid-State Storage Product Development:

  • Supported >$100M annual licensing revenue via patent mining, competitive analysis, market and technology landscaping and forecasting, Intellectual Property creation, patent sales, and acquisition opportunities, and claim mapping.

  • Aided in data-driven negotiation, and standards-based licensing. Managed 20K active asset IP portfolio from inception through issuance, ensuring maintenance payments and managing encumbrances.  Enabled savings in excess of $4M/year focusing on maintaining high-value assets.

  • Developed market and product requirements for solid-state disk (SSD) controllers. Created market adoption models, competitive analysis, intellectual property assessments and led the SSD Architecture Team to explore memory & storage hierarchy solutions.

  • Senior Manager / Principal Engineer: Corporate Strategic Planning, Technology Strategy, Systems Architecture, Optoelectronics Research: Drove Corporate Strategic Agenda and R&D planning for LSI Corporation, a $2.5B company global manufacturer of electronic components and subsystems. Led development and implementation of lightweight, increased-impact, corporate strategic planning process focusing on and achieving key metrics. Performed technology and market forecasting for microelectronic, optoelectronic, storage, and wireless applications in networking infrastructure and consumer electronics and formulated recommendations to BU Leadership Teams, Executives, and Board of Directors. Projects spanned Silicon to Systems to Software Development across Storage and Networking.

• BELL LABORATORIES/LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, Murray Hill, NJ
  Technical Manager, 1998 – 2002

  • Led and contributed to teams to drive technology and product strategies across Lucent. Drove technology forecasting and roadmap development within and between business units and worked closely with Wireless Network Group, Power Systems, Fiber Optics, Optoelectronics, and Microelectronics units, creating > 100 roadmaps and strategies resulting in increased market shares, revenue growth, and improved R&D effectiveness.

• KOBE STEEL USA, ELECTRONIC MATERIAL RESEARCH CENTER, RTP, NC
  Senior Research Scientist, 1990 – 1998

  • Led multiple research and product development teams spanning detectors, acoustic wave devices, high-temperature electronics, field-emission devices, and semiconductor switches. Achieved six first demonstration devices in new materials, including world-record performance and the highest operating temperature (500°C) of metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors.

• NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY, ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING, Raleigh, NC
  Adjunct Assistant Professor, 1990 – 2001

  • Pursued research into wide bandgap semiconductor devices, advised graduate and undergraduate students, and trained visiting scientists.

• Exemplary Patents:

  • US9082926 – Semiconductor optical emitting device with metallized sidewalls

  • US8745449 – Systems and methods for managing the end of life in a solid-state drive

  • US8666082 – Utilizing information from a number of sensors to suppress acoustic noise through an audio processing system