As a Principal Licensing Counsel in the Intellectual Property & Standards Department of Koninklijke Philips N.V. (“Philips”). John has responsibility for representing the interests of Philips in intellectual property legal matters, and in Standard Setting Organization governance policy in so far as it concerns intellectual property issues.
He is also responsible for representing Philips’s licensing interests in the many patent pools in which Philips participates. Philips participates in patent pools administered by One-Blue, One-Red, MPEG LA, Sisvel S.p.A., Via Licensing, Access Advance and HDMI LA.
Mr. Sideris has more than 30 years of experience in intellectual property aspects of patent licensing and infringement, trade secret misappropriation, copyright, contract drafting, and mergers, acquisition and divestitures of companies and technology assets. He has successfully counseled clients in all phases of obtaining financial value for specific patent portfolios and technologies: strategic mining of patent portfolios, preparation and implementation of infringement analysis, and negotiation of intellectual property licenses and litigation settlements.
Mr. Sideris’ legal career began in private practice representing Fortune 500 companies in the law offices of Morgan & Finnegan, and later Rogers & Wells (which has merged with Clifford Chance). His work there ranged from representing companies in patent litigation in the field of electronics and medical devices to advising companies on issues concerning the licensing and management of diverse intellectual properties including patents, copyrights, right of publicity and trademarks.
After his private sector experience, Mr. Sideris continued his professional career at an international level as the sole intellectual property counsel for Hitachi America, Ltd., during which he handled intellectual property matters in patents, trademarks and trade secrets; he implemented company policies for protecting and enforcing Hitachi America’s intellectual property; and conducted training and educational seminars on intellectual property rights. Thereafter, he served as Director of Patent and Legal Evaluation at Alcatel, S.A. during which he was responsible for advising Alcatel’s Executive Committee regarding intellectual property issues and valuations in the due diligence and acquisition of more than thirty companies including the multi-billion dollar acquisitions of Lucent, Newbridge Networks, and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
