Ken Korea previously served as Senior Vice President in charge of Silicon Valley IP Office for Samsung Electronics. He built and led a team of intellectual property attorneys who handled patent litigation, licensing, acquisition and policy matters. Ken specializes in structuring, negotiating, and drafting technology transactions, including patent licensing, technology transfers, joint ventures, and technology-driven mergers and acquisitions.
Patent Licensing Experience
He has decades of law firm and inhouse experience negotiating patent licenses, ranging from ones involving a single patent to some of the largest deals involving tens of thousands of patents worth billions of dollars. He brings to table extensive negotiation experience combined with a real world, business perspective.
Technology Transactions/M&A Experience
Ken has led technology-driven M&A deals in which he helped clients to acquire technology and patent assets. In one deal, he negotiated acquisition of a display technology that made a low power, high resolution display possible in a battery-powered device, which was later incorporated into hundreds of millions of electronic devices. He also led IP negotiation in the acquisition of a Fortune 500 company that allowed Samsung to enter a new market.
Standards Setting Organizations
He has negotiated IP policies and corporate governance issues during the formation of several standard setting organizations in the telecom and consumer electronics industries and helped the internal clients to deal with SSOs.
SEPs, FRAND and Antitrust Issues
Ken has been deeply involved with both assertion and defense against standard essential patents in the telecom industries, both in negotiation, arbitration and litigation context. He has spoken extensively regarding SEPs and FRAND issues in industry conferences in US and Europe.
Patent Litigation
He has extensively litigated patent matters as a litigation partner at leading US law firms. He defended companies in US district courts and ITC and successfully asserted IP rights on behalf of clients in US District Court and ITC, where he obtained an exclusion order on behalf of a software client. Ken was intimately involved in the largest patent case that engendered 50 lawsuits in 10 countries and was instrumental in settlement discussions that ultimately ended the dispute.
Ken received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois, where he was on the editorial board for Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. After law school, he served as a judicial law clerk to a federal judge and as a federal prosecutor, trying 50 cases to a verdict as first chair. Ken then practiced as a partner at leading US law firms, focusing on patent litigation and licensing. He later founded Kapria Law, a boutique law firm specializing in technology transactions, before joining Samsung.
