Almost 200 senior IP and licensing executives, legal professionals, and technology leaders from Fortune 50, 100, and 500 companies will soon be convening at Via Licensing Alliance’s fourth-ever Via Bridge Summit, which will this year be held at The Fairmont Hotel from October 5 to October 9.
This year’s summit, an invitation-only event, is sponsored by Sullivan & Cromwell, Couhausz & Florack, Licks Attorneys, Devlin Law Firm, Bardehle Pagenberg, Lathrop GPM, HG Law (which will merge with the former effective January 1, 2027), Venable LLP, and Invention Co.
The week will kick off with three days of licensor meetings, followed by a full-day IP industry conference on Thursday, and rounded off with a boat cruise on the San Francisco Bay where attendees will have an opportunity to watch San Francisco Fleet Week, a renowned air show staged annually over the city of San Francisco. Attendees who join early in the week will have the opportunity to join a preseason professional basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers, and those who join the evening before the conference will enjoy a reception and industry dinners at vibrant restaurant locations throughout the city.
ip fray is an official media partner of the event and will report during and after. We are excited to be joining such an exclusive event, which has some major key speakers, including:
- John A. Squires of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Andrei Iancu from Sullivan & Cromwell (and former USPTO Director)
One of the industry panels, which will be moderated by former Chief Licensing Officer at InterDigital Eeva Hakoranta (whom we interviewed at Via’s Business Summit earlier this year: March 30, 2026 ip fray article), will focus on IP opportunities in AI and strategies for today’s global SEP environment and will include (in alphabetical order by last name):
- Orange’s Lyse Brillouet (whom we interviewed at another Via event: April 15, 2025 ip fray article)
- Martin Dietz of Fraunhofer
- Jako Eleveld of Philips
Another panel, entitled “Breaking Ground on AI and Datacenter Licensing”, includes:
- Via’s President Kevin Mack
- Via’s Interim Head of Programs Jerome Ma
- Tim Pohlmann of IPLytics
- Kirti Gupta of Cornerstone Research
Via’s summits so far
In 2023, following the formation of Via Licensing Alliance, the company launched two key annual summits: the Via Bridge Summit and the Via Business Summit.
The Via Bridge Summit was first held at the Fairmont San Francisco Hotel in September 2023 and is designed to bridge the gap between licensees and licensors.
The Via Bridge Summit takes place every year in San Francisco, while the Via Business Summit was first held in Madrid in March 2024, last year’s was held in Shanghai (February 28, 2025 ip fray article), and the most recent was in Rome.
At Via’s most recent Business Summit (March 20, 2026 ip fray article), ip fray also interviewed:
- Eeva Hakoranta (March 30, 2026 ip fray article)
- Kevin Mack of Via (April 1, 2026 ip fray article)
- Shunsuke Sakai of NTT (May 4, 2026 ip fray article)
- Masato Okuguchi of IP Bridge (April 6, 2026 ip fray article)