Global Intellectual Property Leader Marshall Phelps Joins Article One Partners Board

NEW YORK, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Article One Partners, the world's largest patent validation firm, today announced the appointment of Marshall Phelps to its Board of Directors. The Director position with Article One is Phelps' first board involvement within the IP industry since he left Microsoft last year.

Mr. Phelps has had an extraordinary career and is a prominent leader in the patent industry. He oversaw Intellectual Property and Licensing at IBM for 28 years. Chairman Bill Gates then recruited Phelps – the legendary "godfather" of intellectual property who had turned IBM's modest IP Portfolio into a $2 billion per year revenue stream – to work his magic for Microsoft. In his role as Corporate Vice-President of IP Policy and Strategy at Microsoft, Phelps was responsible for setting the global Intellectual Property Strategies and Policies for the firm. Phelps has also served as the Microsoft Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property for the Legal & Corporate Affairs group, where he supervised Microsoft's intellectual property groups and oversaw the company's IP portfolio management (comprising well over 60,000 patents and patent applications worldwide).

In Phelps' 28 year career at IBM, he served as Vice President for Intellectual Property and Licensing. He then became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Spencer Trask Intellectual Capital Company LLC, which specialized in spinoffs from major corporations such as Motorola Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and IBM. Phelps is an Executive-in-Residence at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and an advisor to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on IP matters.

"Article One's approach to researching patent quality is a perfect example of how virtual communities of people, networked across the world, deliver new levels of business impact without requiring direct knowledge of or control over the technology infrastructure supporting them," said Marshall Phelps, upon joining Article One's Board of Directors. "I was attracted to the Article One Partners community as a powerful example of how difficult problems can be solved at an accelerated pace, by engaging and incentivizing a global community to focus their efforts upon a defined challenge."

"Marshall is one of the world's top experts in the field of intellectual property. His experience in leading Microsoft's patent strategies and IP policy on an international scale provide the guidance Article One needs to further grow its Fortune 1000 client base," said Paul DiGiammarino, president of Article One Partners. "We're delighted to add Marshall's leadership and proven guidance to our Board, and look forward to the impact he'll have upon Article One's market leadership and long-term success."

About Article One Partners

Article One Partners, LLC is the world's largest patent validation firm. It employs a global human search engine in many languages to locate, identify, analyze and present previously undisclosed evidence of patent validity from anywhere in the world. The comprehensive nature and success of the Article One method is helping to legitimize the validity of all patents. Community members, our Advisors, who submit undisclosed evidence can earn up to $50,000 per research project and share in five percent (5%) of Article One's net annual profit.

Article One clients sponsor research Studies for many reasons, including to assist with patent litigation, to strength pending patents and to resolve other crucial patent validity issues. The result is a highly rewarded community that provides a citizen's review of patent validity. This review justifies the monopoly pricing that patents effectively confer upon their owners. It also serves to energize the U.S. patent reform movement. To learn more about Article One, or to become a member of our community, visit www.ArticleOnePartners.com.

Article One Partners and AOP are service marks of Article One Partners, LLC. All other product and company names are the trademarks and property of their respective owners. © 2010. Article One Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

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