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Paul Rodriguez helps STEM professionals build a life in law. The current senior vice president (SVP) and head of IP portfolio management at Adeia also teaches a course called IP Strategy and Management at Northwestern University School of Law.
This class is part of the innovative Master of Science and Law (MSL) program at Northwestern, which is designed for STEM professionals and focuses on the intersection of law, business, and technology. Many of the students are considering a career change or seeking to increase their legal acumen to enhance their careers.
“What attracted me to teaching in the MSL program is that you have people from different industries all over the world who have a broad range of life experiences,” Rodriguez explains. “It’s such an interesting student base, and they ask excellent questions. I’ve built a number of IP functions in my career, and so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how you align your IP strategy with your business strategy.”
Since we last spoke with Rodriguez, the SVP has come to Adeia. People use the company’s technology and IP to enhance entertainment technology daily, from pay TV to over-the-top (OTT) video streaming. For the first time in his career, Rodriguez says he gets to drive company growth and evolution for a company whose technology, inventions, and patents are the true core of the business. It’s also the first time that he’s not an official member of a legal department.
The SVP now sits on Adeia’s IP rights management team, a group of professionals tasked with overseeing over 12,000 worldwide patent assets. It’s a massive portfolio and a chance for Rodriguez to lead from the middle of the business.
“Because our patent assets and intellectual property are so central to our company, I communicate regularly with other key members of senior management to explain what we’re doing and how we’re developing the portfolio,” Rodriguez says. “One of the areas I’ve had to focus on in this role is being more communicative than ever about detailing our strategy and showing how the development of our portfolio aligns with our business strategy.”
“To know that I had an impact on someone’s career development—well, you can’t ask for much more than that.”
Paul Rodriguez
Because Adeia’s portfolio and innovations are so extensive, the attorney says it’s critical for Adeia to regularly interact with customers and licensees about what the company’s technology can do for them, new technology the company is rolling out, and new ways to use the technology. The most important part of that conversation, however, is demonstrating that Adeia understands its clients’ businesses and how Adeia’s technology can enhance its clients’ offerings.
With respect to Adeia’s in-house team, a challenge with managing a large portfolio is maintaining a deep understanding of what you own. That’s why Rodriguez initiated a broad taxonomy exercise that helped the IP rights management team break down its portfolio for both internal and external use, citing key features, applicable uses, and other differentiators that help IP professionals, marketers, and clients understand the depth and breadth of Adeia’s portfolio.
“It was a great cross-functional exercise,” the SVP says. “It ensures that we will be able to provide our customers with the best possible services in the future. It also reminds us of just how much technical expertise and innovation we have here at Adeia.”
It’s an important moment for Adeia. The company, which spun off its product business in October 2022 and changed its name from Xperi to Adeia, has historically been a strong and profitable business. Now, as a standalone public company, there is renewed focus on growth of the portfolio and the business.
“In our media business, we’ve been very strong in the pay TV and OTT markets,” the SVP says. “With the continued proliferation of video content in various contexts, Adeia’s foundational technologies in areas such as video streaming, imaging, and search and recommendation, present a growth opportunity for Adeia to enhance the offerings of clients operating in adjacent media markets such as e-commerce, ad tech, and social media.”
The pace and scale of that growth lie ahead, but the knowledge driving those efforts is on full display for Northwestern students right now. Rodriguez has even seen the benefits of his teaching pay off in person.
“A few years after I started teaching, I wound up seeing one of my former students on a panel of a conference I was attending,” Rodriguez remembers. “He was nice enough to call me out and tell the room that I was part of a pivotal moment in his career. To know that I had an impact on someone’s career development—well, you can’t ask for much more than that.”
Finding Time to Give Back
Paul Rodriguez may spend his “free time” as an adjunct professor at Northwestern, but he somehow finds additional time to devote to his faith and community life.
The SVP and IP pro is on the board of directors for the Northern Illinois Food Bank. The first-generation American says he’s fortunate to have never experienced food insecurity but has learned that no matter how affluent a community seems, there are always people in need.
Rodriguez and his family are also deeply committed to their community at Saint Anne Catholic Church in Barrington, Illinois.
