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At this year's 2026 Corporate IP Strategy Conference in Silicon Valley, one theme surfaced repeatedly: the role of intellectual property is expanding. IP leaders are being asked to drive innovation, control costs, manage growing risk, and increasingly, help their organizations navigate the opportunities and challenges of AI.
The Corporate IP Strategy Conference brought together leading voices from across the intellectual property and legal industries for a day of discussion on patent strategy, litigation, emerging technologies, and regulatory developments.
The event opened with remarks from Shawn Ambwani, Senior VP and Head of Unified Patents, and Cristofer Tzoc, Editor-in-Chief of the SCU High Technology Law Journal, followed by a fireside chat featuring Justin Crotty, CEO of Anaqua, moderated by Andrea Shoffstall, Senior IP Counsel at Unified Patents.
Speakers represented a broad range of organizations and perspectives from across the IP ecosystem, including Robert Cleary, General Counsel at OmniVision Technologies; Russ Jacobs, Managing Director at Starbucks; Bridget Smith, Senior Director, Associate General Counsel at Relativity Space; and Kenny Stensland, Associate General Counsel at Coinbase, who discussed how the patent litigation landscape has evolved over the past two years.
The conference also featured insights from Anthony Del Monaco, Senior IP Litigation Counsel at Lenovo; Lisa Mandrusiak, Senior Associate General Counsel at Roku; Jack McKinney, Director of IP at HP Inc.; and Gail Su, Senior Counsel, Patent Transactions at Google, who explored the increasingly important role of video codecs and streaming technologies in today's patent environment.
Additional perspectives came from Subroto Bose, Head of IP at Astera Labs; James Hagler, Chief Patent Counsel at Intuit; Colin LaRose, Patent Counsel at Guntin & Gust; and Eddie Obissi, Senior IP Counsel at Rivian, who examined the evolving landscape of IPRs, reexaminations, and USPTO policy.
Attendees also heard from Jonathan Stroud, VP and Head of Operations at Unified Patents, who provided updates on litigation funding and disclosure requirements. A special presentation from the SAIL Foundation, moderated by Linda Biel, Officer at SAIL Foundation, featured Tom Mavrakakis, Legal IP Advisor at IBM, and Heather Woodward, Senior Director at eBay, highlighting efforts to support diversity and inclusion within the innovation ecosystem.
Below is the recap of the fireside chat with Justin Crotty, CEO of Anaqua, interviewed by Andrea Shoffstall, Senior IP Counsel at Unified Patents, which highlights the changing IP landscape, the growing impact of artificial intelligence, and how the combination of Anaqua and Unified Patents is helping organizations address new challenges across the full innovation and IP lifecycle.
Fireside chat with Justin Crotty: The IP environment is changing
For years, many IP teams operated in an environment of steady growth. Today, the picture is more nuanced.
During the discussion, Justin highlighted several trends reshaping corporate IP strategy:
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U.S. patent filings have slowed and are declining over the past year.
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European patent growth continues at a reduced pace.
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Trademark activity remains strong, driven by organizations seeking broader global protection.
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Companies are taking a harder look at portfolio maintenance, renewals, and investment decisions as costs rise.
At the same time, litigation costs, economic pressure, and cybersecurity concerns are competing for attention and budget.
"IP is no longer immune," Justin noted, pointing to growing demands from CFOs to reduce operating expenses while maximizing the value of existing portfolios.
These realities are forcing IP leaders to rethink how they allocate resources, which assets they maintain, and where technology can help them operate more efficiently.
"Ligation is the apex predator," Justin Crotty, Anaqua, CEO, remarked, noting that organizations can choose to reduce filings or prune portfolios, but they cannot choose to ignore litigation when it arrives.
AI is reshaping the economics of IP
While much of the conversation around AI has focused on productivity gains, Justin emphasized a broader transformation taking shape across the entire IP lifecycle.
Routine activities that once required significant manual effort, from docketing workflows to portfolio analysis, are becoming increasingly automated. As these processes become faster and more efficient, IP teams can redirect time and resources toward higher-value activities, including invention capture, strategic portfolio management, licensing, and commercialization.
The implications are significant.
As operational barriers decrease, organizations may be able to move more ideas through the innovation pipeline, creating larger and more valuable portfolios. At the same time, AI is also changing the threat landscape. Justin pointed out that non-practicing entities (NPEs) can leverage AI to generate claims faster and at greater scale, increasing the need for equally sophisticated defensive strategies.
The challenge for IP leaders is no longer whether AI will impact their operations. It is how quickly they can adopt the right tools while ensuring quality, security, and strategic advantage.
Why litigation has become a boardroom conversation
One of the most notable observations from the fireside chat was how frequently litigation now enters discussions with chief IP officers.
Historically, litigation may have been viewed as a separate concern from day-to-day IP operations. Today, it's becoming impossible to ignore.
"Ligation is the apex predator," Justin remarked, noting that organizations can choose to reduce filings or prune portfolios, but they cannot choose to ignore litigation when it arrives.
As litigation costs increase, they consume resources that might otherwise be invested in innovation, prosecution, or portfolio development. This reality is elevating the importance of proactive strategies that help organizations identify and mitigate risk before disputes escalate.
Justin Crotty, CEO of Anaqua, noted: "The true value of the combination of Anaqua and Unified Patents is bringing together operational intelligence, litigation insights, practitioner-focused tooling, and real-world data to help organizations make better decisions throughout the innovation lifecycle."
A broader vision for the IP lifecycle
The acquisition of Unified Patents marked an important milestone in Anaqua's vision to support organizations across the entire innovation and IP lifecycle.
During the discussion, Justin shared examples of how customer conversations are already changing.
He described a recent meeting with the chief IP officer of a major life sciences company. After learning about the acquisition, the customer immediately connected Unified Patents' capabilities to a real challenge involving a demand letter they needed to address. It was a problem Anaqua historically could not solve on its own. Now, Anaqua with Unified Patents can help.
Justin emphasized that the true value of the combination of Anaqua and Unified Patents is bringing together operational intelligence, litigation insights, practitioner-focused tooling, and real-world data to help organizations make better decisions throughout the innovation lifecycle.
Building the future together
AI is creating new opportunities and new risks. Litigation is becoming more complex. Cost pressures continue to intensify. Yet amid those challenges, IP leaders have an opportunity to rethink how innovation is created, protected, managed, and defended.
The future of IP will belong to organizations that can connect these disciplines rather than treat them as separate functions.
At Anaqua, that's exactly the future we're building toward: helping customers manage, commercialize, and defend innovation with greater intelligence, efficiency, and confidence than ever before.
Learn more about how Anaqua and Unified Patents are helping organizations navigate the future of IP and innovation.
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