Overview
Hiro Kobayashi is a Senior IP Technology Specialist at Caldwell. He focuses on helping clients resolve a wide variety of their intellectual property issues. With his expertise as an in-house IP expert in Japan and the US, he primarily assists clients in developing their U.S. patent portfolios and serves as a key hub between our team and Japanese clients, ensuring we deliver services that meet their needs.
Experience
Before joining Caldwell, Hiro held in-house IP counsel or managerial positions at several large international electronics corporations in Japan, handling a wide range of IP matters, such as invention mining, prior art search, patent drafting and prosecution, FTO search, internal IP training, and IP landscape analysis. His IP expertise extends to Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) covering technical standards such as 3GPP 4G/5G, IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), and H.265 (HEVC) and H.266 (VVC). He reviewed legal contracts involving IP, such as co-development agreements, patent licensing agreements, and internal invention award arrangements, to mitigate their potential IP risks. He engaged in patent licensing/enforcement activities, such as claim charting, invalidity analysis, target analysis, and technical or contractual negotiations with third parties, including patent pool administrators. He also worked in the US for several years as an in-house patent agent (limited recognition), during which he developed international patent portfolios for stakeholders in Japan and the US and helped advance their collaboration.