Licensing
New technology is challenging, costly and time-consuming to develop. In today’s fast-paced world, partnering to use technology in new and better ways can be as effective as creating the IP itself. GE’s Licensing team provides access to GE’s patent portfolio and technical and intellectual resources. Licensees receive world-leading technology paired with advice and guidance to accelerate their technology development and achieve market differentiation.
How We Partner
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Business Acceleration
Leveraging GE's latest technology, our partners commercialize our IP to rapidly create vibrant business models and new companies.
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Patent Licensing & Technology Transfer
Through patent licensing our partners gain access to GE’s intellectual property to accelerate their time to market. In addition, through our technology transfer program, partners can gain access to GE know-how, training, and experts like scientists and engineers.
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Market Intelligence & Seeding
When our unique market insights identify opportunities we combine external IP, GE resources, and partners to develop market disrupting ideas and technologies.
Our Platforms
We License IP and Technology in the Following Areas
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Materials & Advanced ManufacturingMaterials & Advanced Manufacturing
Technology Example: GE’s PFS red phosphor is an energy-efficient way to create warmer and more accurate light in the red part of the spectrum. GE uses this technology in our commercial lighting solutions and licenses it for use in displays for TVs, laptops, and smartphones, enabling brighter and more vibrant displays with lower energy consumption.
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Healthcare & Electronics
Healthcare & Electronics
Technology Example: The Healthcare and Electronics team is bringing innovative technology to new markets. One example is through the miniaturization of imaging which can also be used in the human body and microelectronic switches.
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Energy & Industrial Systems
Energy & Industrial Systems
Technology Example: GE is working with partners to commercialize a new fundamental battery chemistry (NaMx) invented by GE. It enables higher energy density, longer duration batteries for harsh environments and high voltage electric grid storage solutions. The solution does not need any cooling system, is based on abundant raw materials, has a combustion flash point over 10x above today’s solutions and is very safe.
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Smart Systems
Smart Systems
Smart Systems is GE’s channel for software technology and intellectual property commercialization in the areas of fintech, machine learning and analytics including cyber risk, enterprise solutions and intellectual assets strategic to GE. The Smart Systems team recently launched AnswerIQ, an AI tool for customer support that is built on technology GE acquired as part of Wise.io. Through our Licensing team, we were able to spin out the technology to help partners and customers outside GE.
GE Ventures Licensing Head Explains the Company's New, Collaborative Approach to IP Value Creation
Today is the anniversary of Thomas Edison’s birthday and, fittingly, National Inventors Day in the US. To mark the occasion, president of GE Ventures' licensing operation, Pat Patnode, has written this exclusive guest blog for IAM looking at how the giant conglomerate is putting its vast patent portfolio to use in a broader range of industries than ever before. At a time when IP value creation has become much more about collaboration, GE is emerging as an undoubted leader in the field.
Here’s what Pat has to say :
When I started out writing patent applications at GE some 20 years ago, our goal was to protect intellectual property and keep our inventions exclusive. Today, we still protect our IP, but success is defined much more broadly. Instead of keeping our inventions to ourselves, we now actively seek out and collaborate with partners who can apply our creations to new industries and offerings around the world.
While this is an important shift, it builds on the legacy of GE’s prolific founder, Thomas Alva Edison. One of the reasons we celebrate National Inventors’ Day each year on 11th February, the anniversary of Edison’s birth, is to recognise how a single invention can spark a technology revolution. Edison set a high bar for invention with his 1,093 patents, and GE proudly keeps pace, filing an average 2,400 patents each year.
But just as the flick of Edison’s light switch in 1879 did much more than illuminate a single room, today we want every invention to solve not only the problem for which it was designed, but many others. Simply put, sharing our inventions with creative entrepreneurs and partners around the world gets more people thinking about, and using, GE technology to solve important problems - and ultimately introduces these technologies to new industries.
This approach to licensing GE technology creates opportunities for collaboration with people in the many innovation hubs that have emerged around the world. As we help other companies grow their business, our new partnerships are helping us leverage GE technology and unlock new opportunities. It is also a great way to accelerate the rollout of breakthrough technology that can transform industries and improve lives. And we’re able to do all this while continuing to leverage our patented technology to differentiate ourselves in our products and services.
One recent example of this is in our approach to hybrid distributed power (HDP), which melds solar, energy storage (batteries) and diesel power into a small, smart box that switches between the three sources, as needed in order to maximise solar power. While this technology was originally developed for and deployed in GE’s wind and solar power installations, by adapting this technology, GE Power and its partners now hope to bring sustainable power to some of the 1.5 billion people who need it around the world.
In India, for instance, Tata Power is using HDP in two pilot projects, including one in a village where a rice-husking mill is planned—unthinkable only a year earlier when there was no electricity to power a mill. “Power islands” like these, where villagers will also be able to charge their smartphones, are also being tested in two rural health clinics and an off-the-grid village in Ethiopia.
In the past, translating an invention in this way - from one industry to another - happened mostly by chance. Now, it’s by design. Every day, we think of new ways to benefit from our treasury of more than 50,000 active patents. In working with startups and established companies, we can test hypotheses faster than ever before - moving innovative products to market faster or halting costly development at the earliest sign of failure.
And no matter how strong and deep one’s research organisation is, we’ve also learned that great ideas on how to use inventions are just as likely to emerge from outside a company as from within. Fostering collaboration within GE and bringing in people from outside the fold gives us the chance to look at our inventions from fresh perspectives.
By looking at things from new angles, we’re able to accelerate the cycle of innovation and growth. About five years ago, a GE lighting technology was identified as a possible solution to a persistent problem in the electronics sector - the inability of LED screens to display a brilliant red colour. Once our licensing team concluded that GE’s potassium fluorosilicate (PFS) phosphor technology (developed for lighting) could solve the problem, it brought a team together to test the hypothesis and prove that it works. Now GE’s PFS phosphor is in the majority of all ultra-high-definition TVs, tablets and laptops sold, solidifying a GE technology into an industry sector where it had no presence before.
This openness to tackle new endeavours comes from our heritage as inventors. The ability to learn from our partners and translate our inventions into new solutions to serious problems presents an opportunity not just to grow business but to make a difference in the world.
Edison had changed the world by the time he and his partners founded General Electric, and much more has changed in the 126 years since then. What hasn’t changed is our collective desire to invent ways to improve lives every day. There is much to celebrate and look forward to this Inventors’ Day.
Sue Siegel, the CEO of GE Ventures and GE's chief innovation officer, will be the keynote speaker at IPBC Global in San Francisco on 11th June.
Changing the Face of IP at GE
Spreading The Light: How GE Ventures Is Finding New Partners For GE Intellectual Property
Roses may be red in nature and in verse, but reproducing that color on a TV screen requires more science than poetry. How we see colors boils down to the spectrum of light reflected or emitted by the things we are looking at. On screens, red has always been the most difficult hue to produce.
That’s because red is quirky, just like the love it’s frequently picked to represent. Deep red makes other colors like green and yellow pop. But on a screen it appears dim to the human eye because its wavelength can quickly shift to the invisible, infrared part of the spectrum. TV manufacturers, who for a long time had to choose between screen brightness and appearance, often settled on a compromise: displays with a broad red profile that had enough brightness but also washed out yellows, greens and oranges.
But the ground shifted more than five years ago when GE materials scientists came up with a better way to display red. Anant Setlur, Jim Murphy and their team at GE Global Research in upstate New York, together with colleagues at Current by GE in Ohio, discovered that a chemical compound called potassium fluorosilicate with manganese (PFS), a yellow powder, could overcome this trade-off between brightness and appearance. GE patented the technology for use in light-emitting diodes, better known as LEDs.
In previous decades, GE would have held on to this important find and used it exclusively for GE products. (A GE scientist invented the first practical red light LED in the 1960s.) But over the past five years, the company has changed its approach to intellectual property (IP). Instead of only using the ideas in-house, GE started looking for licensing partners. Today, more than 80 percent of the “high-color-gamut-display” LED market has licensed GE’s PFS technology for use in LEDs for TV screens, tablets and phones. The result is the vivid colors you can now see today.
These licenses have also helped grow GE’s own business. Current by GE’s chemical plant in Cleveland manufactures and supplies this high-quality PFS-based phosphor to several of its licensees. “This has been a fundamental shift,” says Patrick Patnode, president of licensing at GE Ventures. “Back in the day you could o it alone, but now we’re looking for new ways of optimizing our solutions.”
Patnode has been at the head of this movement. A 23-year company veteran, Patnode started out as a GE lawyer writing patent applications. The job kept him busy, given that every year GE employees file more than 2,400 patents. But in 2013, he moved over to GE Ventures — GE’s venture capital arm, which invests in and helps build new businesses — and jumped into the fast-moving world of tech startups. He saw that if GE was going to profit from the creative ferment at GE Ventures, the 125-year-old company was going to have to think differently.
Patnode knew the company could find new sources of revenue and move into new markets by selectively licensing GE technology to new partners. “Just as the flick of Edison’s light switch in 1879 did much more than illuminate a single room, today we want every invention to solve not only the problem for which it was designed, but many others,” Patnode wrote recently in IAM magazine. “Simply put, sharing our inventions with creative entrepreneurs and partners around the world gets more people thinking about, and using, GE technology to solve important problems — and ultimately introduces these technologies to new industries.”
But it wasn’t an easy sell. His colleagues at GE Ventures were comfortable in the worlds of equity and licensing, but Patnode also had to inspire a new mindset within GE. “I pushed it,” Patnode says. “If we were in a meeting about intellectual property that wasn’t being used much internally, people were more open to selling that.”
Patnode’s philosophy is that patent deals first have to do no harm to the company. GE isn’t in the business of making TV screens, for example, so licensing the PFS patents made a lot of sense. Another project involved India’s Tata Power, which is using one of GE’s hybrid power systems to electrify remote villages in the country.
Patnode expects GE, which holds more than 50,000 active patents, to do more licensing deals as executives and engineers get more comfortable with the concept. “In working with startups and established companies, we can test hypotheses faster than ever before — moving innovative products to market faster or halting costly development at the earliest sign of failure,” Patnode wrote in his IAM piece.
Says Patnode: “We’ll go case by case and pick the right partners and the right business models. These deals can take years but we’ve made a good start.”
Leadership
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Pat Patnode
President
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Faisal Syud
Managing Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences
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Juan Becerra
Senior Director, Smart Systems
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Sukla Chandra
Managing Director, India
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Larry Davis
Managing Director, IP Innovations
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Douglas Naab
Managing Director, Materials and Advanced Manufacturing
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Michael Petracci
Managing Director, Energy and Industrial Systems
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Tatiana Vacaru
Partnerships and Commercial Operations Director
Pat Patnode
President
GE
Pat is President, of Licensing at GE. He is based in Niskayuna, NY and has been with the team since 2013.
Pat leads the team responsible for accelerating innovation and growth for partners by providing access to GE technologies and inventions through licensing and joint development partnerships.
Before becoming President of Licensing in early 2016, Pat was General Counsel and managed the GE Ventures legal team responsible for all legal and compliance needs for the various business units. The legal team’s practice areas span numerous industries and subject areas including securities, intellectual property, complex commercial and licensing transactions, and litigation.
Previously, Pat served as the Chief Compliance Officer for GE Global Research. He managed compliance for the GE Global Research Centers around the world, including sites in India, China, and Germany.
He graduated cum laude from Albany Law School and holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University.
Pat and his wife, Cyndi, reside in Saratoga Springs, New York, with their three children and boxer, Lucy.
Faisal Syud
Managing Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences
GE
Faisal is a Managing Director of Licensing at GE. He is based in Niskayuna, NY and joined the team in 2016.
Currently focused on healthcare and software, he leads the commercialization of disruptive technologies developed by GE. Faisal leverages licensing to enable existing and new market players while forming business models and new ventures throughout the world.
As a part of his broader role, Faisal has led the creation and growth of a profitable GE startup, Research Circle Technology, Inc., over the past three years. Beyond his investor role, he manages multiple functions globally, such as business development and operations, while simultaneously leveraging GE’s technology network and scale.
Prior to his current position, Faisal spent six years as VP of Strategic Growth programs for GE’s Licensing team, where he built programs focused on licensing and new ventures for GE. In this role, he managed a portfolio of new venture programs from creation through early phase execution, monetizing and commercializing GE’s cutting-edge technologies in the healthcare, energy, and advanced manufacturing sectors.
Faisal’s additional roles at GE include: Chief of Operations, Molecular Pathology and Project Leader and Senior Scientist, GE Global Research. As a Senior Scientist, he led programs focused on molecular imaging and life sciences.
He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his bachelor’s degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Faisal holds board seats at Nuvera Medical, Vener8, and Kemsense.
As implausible as it may sound, Faisal was a high school dropout.
Juan Becerra
Senior Director, Smart Systems
GE
Juan is a Senior Director of Licensing at GE. Based in Niskayuna, NY, he joined the business in 2014.
Juan leads the development and go-to-market initiatives for GE’s Smart Systems platform, which includes intellectual property assets in financial technology, artificial intelligence, cyber risk, enterprise applications, and strategic initiatives. His team ties together software, patents, brand, advanced technology, market needs, and business plans.
Prior to joining the Licensing team, Juan spent five years as Vice President of Research Circle Technology at GE Corporate, where he developed new licensing programs and new models for monetizing intellectual property, including the creation of new companies.
Prior to GE, Juan was Vice President of Market and Business Development for MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. where he led market and business development of a new portable fuel cell power technology. In addition, he has previously held project manager and engineering roles at Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation.
Juan has a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Juan has been playing the guitar since he could hold one, and is now an accomplished blues and jazz guitarist. He enjoys performing and recording in the studio.
Sukla Chandra
Managing Director, India
GE
Sukla Chandra is the Managing Director of Licensing in India responsible for technology transfer and licensing collaborations for GE technologies in India.
Sukla in her last role was responsible for developing and executing multi-generation product & commercialization strategies for GE’s Rural Electrification Platform. Additionally, she drove measurable progress by GE towards electrifying those without basic access to electricity in the world today through GE’s packaged hybrid offering based on customer needs. She is a board member of Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) based out of Belgium.
In her previous role, Sukla was the General Manager, GE Global Research, Bangalore, where she was responsible for all the operational aspects of a research group of 300+ scientists. She has also served as Director, PACE (Patents and Analytics Centre of Excellence) at the GE John F. Welch Technology Centre. As the Director of PACE, she managed a team of Intellectual Property professionals providing strategic IP support to GE Global Research and several other GE businesses.
Sukla has several patents, and is registered with the US Patent & Trademark Office. She also co-led the GE Women’s Network Initiatives for India for past 5 years.
Sukla graduated from Jadavpur University Kolkata with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering. Subsequently, she received her Master’s degree from the US in Chemical Engineering, and worked in Air Products and Chemicals in Attentown, PA, in their process engineering group.
Sukla moved back to India in 1999, and headed the Process Engineering group at British Oxygen. In 2000, she joined GE as a research scientist and took up several leadership roles at John F Welch Technology Center Bangalore India as described above.
Larry Davis
Managing Director, IP Innovations
GE
Larry is a Managing Director of Licensing at GE. Based in Niskayuna, NY, he joined the business in 2007.
Larry leads the IP Innovations team in GE Licensing, which originates and builds technology transfer & patent licensing programs for monetization via partnerships & innovative business models. His team delivers programs addressing markets from electronics & materials to power systems & software, building on strong core capabilities around IP analytics, market analysis and deep technology assessment experience.
Prior to his current Licensing role, Larry built the Electrical Systems platform, driving technology investment, IP acquisition, patent analysis, assertion program development and negotiations, and technology transfer deals. Key platform licensing activities focused on the electronics and hybrid & electric vehicle related markets, and leading the engagement with GE’s Aviation & Transportation businesses.
Larry began his career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developing advanced electro-optical components for mil-aero applications. From JPL, he joined networking startup Ciena as an engineering manager for component development in fiber optic systems. Larry then went to Intel as a senior engineering manager, delivering on technology development & product management for communication modules. From Intel, Larry moved to GE to drive deals in the newly formed licensing group at GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna.
Larry received a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and M.S. & Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Douglas Naab
Managing Director, Materials and Advanced Manufacturing
GE
Douglas is a Managing Director of Licensing at GE. Based in Niskayuna, NY, he joined the business in 2011.
Douglas is the platform lead for licensing GE coatings and materials globally and is also the key business interface to GE Lighting and Current, powered by GE, GE Aviation and Baker Hughes GE. His specialties include patent analysis and licensing, technology licensing, deal structure, program management, negotiation, and business development.
Before GE, Douglas served as Vice President of Licensing for IPVALUE Management, where he led negotiations on complex patent and technology transactions. He was also the Manager of Technology Licensing for Xerox Corporation, where he led a team of 13 license professionals to out-license Xerox patents and technology. Before that, he served as the Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at Integument Technologies, running the IP and license practice for the coatings startup company.
Douglas has an MBA in Technology and Marketing from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry from State University of New York at Potsdam.
He is a Registered US Patent Agent for the USPTO.
Douglas is an avid collector of model trains, including a large Lionel O-Gauge collection. He is a diehard fan of the Buffalo Bills and the Boston Red Sox.
Michael Petracci
Managing Director, Energy and Industrial Systems
GE
Michael is Managing Director of Licensing based in Niskayuna, NY at GE’s Global Research Center. He joined the team in 2003 focusing on maximizing GE’s Intellectual Property.
Having successfully deployed $400M+ of cash and closed 25+ transactions, Mike is trusted for his ability to originate, develop and lead unique and complex transactions with a deep understanding of how Book, Tax, Legal, Operations and Intellectual Property all impact transactions.
Current responsibilities include leading a global team to restructure select GE Businesses with external partners, establishing Patent pools, Technology Transfer and spinning out Hi-Tech NewCos. Mike currently serves on multiple Boards ensuring their future success.
Previous positions include running GE’s Trademark Business, Six Sigma Business Quality Leader and Chief Operating Officer. Operationally, he led a global team responsible for 130+ Trademark suppliers resulting in a $1B+ end consumer business and led multiple Six Sigma MBB teams across 6 GE Capital Businesses.
Mike is a graduate of GE’s highly regarded Technical Leadership Program and previously held senior management positions across GE Capital Structured Finance, GE Power and GE Structured Services.
He received his Bachelor and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University.
Mike enjoys scuba diving, international travel and spending time at the New Jersey shore with his wife Jeanne and their three daughters.
Tatiana Vacaru
Partnerships and Commercial Operations Director
GE
Tatiana is a Partnerships and Commercial Operations Director for Licensing at GE. She is based in Menlo Park, CA and joined the team in 2015.
Leading the group’s commercial operations, Tatiana is focused on enabling Licensing to scale through establishing global partnerships to monetize and fulfill licensing transactions as well as developing critical operational processes for the business.
Before this role, Tatiana was the Chief Financial Officer for GE Licensing, where she managed all financial aspects and was key in re-engineering the financial statements to reflect the new business strategy. She was part of Corporate Audit Staff – GE’s premiere leadership development program for finance professionals, and advised LiSiM (fin tech startup based on Bogota, Colombia) in their efforts to scale.
During her 7 years with GE, Tatiana focused on building tremendous expertise in corporate finance, controllership, systems implementation, process efficiency and operational excellence. She is a problem-solver, who finds creative ways of approaching complex problems. She is trusted for her critical thinking and the ability to develop business strategy and connect it to day to day business operations.
Tatiana holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting from the International Business School, Oxford Brookes University.
She speaks 6 languages and is a global citizen who has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents so far.
Licensing is a part of GE Business Innovations. GE Business Innovations includes GE Ventures, Licensing, Business Creation, and New Market Development. We invest in promising startups, commercialize GE’s IP, create companies, and advance initiatives that seed the future of our businesses and communities. GE Business Innovations builds collaborative networks, pioneers the future of industries, and transforms lives.
