Yahoo’s IP Guru Resigns

Joseph Siino, the lawyer who built Yahoo’s intellectual property department, is leaving the struggling Internet search firm.

Siino said he’s leaving to join the growing patent monetization industry, which includes businesses like patent brokerages.

He was hired in 2005 to build Yahoo’s IP department. Siino says he feels his work is done because the group, now with about 30 staff, could stand on its own.

Yahoo shed a number of executives this year and it started laying off 1,500 workers last week. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang stepped down last month.

Siino declined to comment on the turmoil or layoffs at the company.

Siino’s group focused exclusively on intellectual property at Yahoo, building the patent portfolio, cutting licensing deals, and handling IP litigation.

When Siino arrived in 2005, Yahoo was filing about 100 patent applications a year. Now Yahoo is filing 1,000 patent applications a year, Siino said.

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Posted by Erik Even on December 16, 2008. Filed under Legal News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry