James is Vice President and Director of the Licensing Trademarks and Standards Group at Intel, which is comprised of the teams that manage (1) Intel's worldwide trademark activities; (2) standards-related legal activities and counseling; and (3) Intel's worldwide patent transactions, such as traditional licenses, license-on-transfer agreements, acquisitions and sales, as well as pre-litigation patent assertions. Mr. Kovacs also serves on the Board of Directors of Allied Security Trust, an independent member-based, not-for-profit that helps companies mitigate the risk of patent assertions & litigation by securing rights from patents available on the open market. He chaired the Compensation Committee from 2014-2018. Prior to joining Intel, Mr. Kovacs’ private practice career focused on representing clients in connection with complex technology and licensing transactions, including IT and business process outsourcing, software licensing, e-commerce, data privacy, cloud, and intellectual property aspects of M&A. A thought-leader and IP strategist, Mr. Kovacs is a frequent speaker on IP strategy and transactions at conferences, having previously spoken at PLI’s Patent Law Institute, IPBC Global, and Licensing Executives Society’s Silicon Valley chapter, among others. With his co-author Nader Mousavi, Mr. Kovacs authored “Why smart corporate IP strategies need licence on transfer,” published in IAM magazine, Issue 82, March/April 2017.Mr. Kovacs earned his J.D. in 2000 from Harvard Law School. In 1997, he graduated, with high honors, with a B.A. from the University of Michigan.James was admitted to the Illinois bar in 2000. HonorsRecognized by Clients for Information Technology Practice, Legal 500, Volume II on Intellectual Property, Media, Technology and Telecoms, 2007.Recognized 8x by IAM as a leading IP strategist (IAM Strategy 300, 2017-2024) and 5x as one of the top 40 market makers (2019-2023).
Listed skills include Licensing, Intellectual Property, Patents, Strategy, and 20 others.