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LES USA & Canada Events - click here for current LES events.

LES Events

    • 12 Nov 2025
    • 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
    • KPMG Silicon Valey Office, 2755 Augustine Drive Suite 701 Santa Clara, CA 95054


    November LES Silicon Valley Chapter In-Person Event

    “Royalty Compliance in the Age of AI: Audits, Disputes, and the Contracts That Matter

    Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025

    11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Registration, Lunch & Networking
    12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. – Program
    1:3
    0 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – Post-Session Networking

    Location: KPMG Silicon Valley Office

    2755 Augustine Drive, Suite 701
    Santa Clara, CA 95054

    Thank you to our meeting sponsor:

    PROGRAM

    Royalty audits are no longer just about combing through spreadsheets and quarterly reports—they now span complex vendor relationships, platform data, embedded licensing, and AI-assisted analysis. As licensing agreements grow more digital and multi-tiered, how can licensors (and licensees) ensure compliance, minimize revenue leakage, and prepare for enforcement?

    This in-person session will unpack the latest tools, risks, and legal frameworks that define modern royalty compliance, including the use of AI to support audits, legal research, and contract management. You’ll hear firsthand from legal and audit leaders about structuring the right contracts, tracking the right data, and executing the right audit workflows—before disputes arise.

    Whether you're an IP holder, licensee, counsel, or investor, this session will help you stay ahead of the compliance curve.

    Key Takeaways (Enhanced)

    • Learn how AI and legal tech platforms (e.g., Westlaw, Lexis, TR) are reshaping royalty audit workflows
    • Explore how to get into the right contracts—including key audit, reporting, and dispute provisions
    • Understand what contractual rights matter most for royalty enforcement and compliance visibility
    • Gain insight on infrastructure, sandboxing, and file access management needed to leverage AI safely
    • Compare audit vs. vendor compliance reviews—where revenue leakage can occur and how to find it
    • Learn what not to do: why third-party IP owners rarely get direct system access, and what to request instead
    • Understand the emerging standards for isolating, analyzing, and verifying third-party usage data
    • Discuss best practices in dispute resolution and royalty clause drafting that reduce litigation risk
    Who Should Attend: Licensing Professionals, Intellectual Property Managers, Finance and accounting professionals, Inventors, Entrepreneurs, Business Development Executives, Investors, and Attorneys


    Speakers & Moderator

    Braden Weatherhead, Managing Director, KPMG Advisory / IP Compliance  LinkedIn

    Braden is a Managing Director and KPMG’s commercial line of business leader for contract compliance. He has over sixteen years of experience in providing royalty audit services to multinational organizations in a variety of industries including High Technology, Semiconductors, Consumer Products, Diagnostics, and Pharmaceuticals.  Braden has deep experience in helping to establish and execute global contract compliance programs combining elements of data analytics, royalty monitoring, audit targeting and remediation. He has led the development of cloud-based data aggregation, monitoring and executive dashboard tool to help better identify licensee compliance issues which range from erroneous reporting, low royalty payment and fraud. He has significant experience successfully managing relationships between potentially contentious third parties in an audit environment. Braden is also well versed in performing advanced data analytics and has developed analytical tools to implement proactive monitoring solutions leveraging third party data.  All together, these programs have resulted in the identification of over $300 million in overpaid rebates & discounts while strengthening contract lifecycle management and strategy.  Braden is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the AICPA.


    Michael Zachary, Partner, Bunsow De Mory LLP LinkedIn 

    Michael is a trusted legal strategist for IP enforcement and defense, with deep litigation experience across licensing disputes and royalty underpayment cases. As a partner at Bunsow De Mory, Michael focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation and licensing, and regularly represents clients in patent infringement, trade secret, trademark and other intellectual property litigation cases. He counsels clients on a variety of technology and intellectual property agreements, including design and development, manufacturing and supply, product evaluation, and patent and trademark license agreements. He has represented large, mid-size, and start-up companies based in the United States, Japan and Europe, including Volkswagen, Bradium, Skype, Amazon, Wacom, PRISM Pharma and Boston Scientific. In 2016 and 2017, he was recognized as a California “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property. He is also a cellist who performs with two local orchestras and with area chamber groups.


    Moderator: Michael Pierantozzi, Co-Chair and Board Member, LES-SVC (IAM Strategy 300)  LinkedIn

    Based in Silicon Valley, Michael is a technology and intellectual property (Tech/IP) entrepreneur, strategist and transaction expert. Andiamo Associates is a management consulting firm that specializes in Tech/IP business catalyzing and monetizing matters. Previously, Michael was responsible for strategic business development, including sales, acquisitions, and licensing for the IP Licensing group at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and served as Director of KPMG's IP Consulting practice. Previously, Michael held executive leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) including HPE, Intellectual Ventures (IV), IPotential, and an IP transaction data services startup that he co-founded. Since 2009, Michael has been recognized by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) Magazine in their IAM 300 rankings as one of the “World’s Leading Intellectual Property Strategists”. He is a frequent speaker at Tech/IP industry events in the US, Europe, and Asia, and has delivered IP management seminars at Stanford University.


    Registration

    Free for LES Members and Guests. Register Now


    Thank You to Our Host and Sponsor


     We are grateful to our longtime LES-SVC community partners at KPMG for hosting this important conversation for the third consecutive year. Their leadership in shaping dialogue around IP management and licensing revenue compliance continues to elevate the IP ecosystem in Silicon Valley.

    Past LES-SVC Events at KPMG:

Past events

10 Sep 2025 LES-SVC Sept. Chapter Event “Copyright, Fair Use and AI: The Current State of the Law”
20 Aug 2025 LES-SVC August Chapter Social: Explore Nature & Network-LES-SVC August 20-Portola Valley
23 Jul 2025 LES-SVC July 2025 Chapter Meeting: "Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Life Sciences Licensing: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities"
22 May 2025 LES-SVC May Chapter Meeting: "What Silicon Valley needs to know about the UPC in 2025"
17 Apr 2025 LES Silicon Valley Chapter (LES-SVC) 21st Annual Chapter Conference (AC2025)
20 Mar 2025 WEBINAR: THE FUTURE OF STANDARD ESSENTIAL PATENTS (SEPS)
14 Mar 2025 Managing IP Value in Startups & Early-Stage Ventures (Event Filled--Waiting list available)
20 Oct 2024 LES 2024 Annual Meeting - "Better Living Through Intellectual Property" Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler
25 Sep 2024 IAM Live: Trade Secret Strategy USA - San Francisco
7 Aug 2024 Explore Nature & Network-LES-SVC August 7-Portola Valley
17 Jun 2024 LES Virtual Education Course: Managing IP Value in Startups & Early-Stage Ventures
1 May 2024 Invention-Con Kicks off at USPTO Silicon Valley
25 Apr 2024 April 25 MEETING POSTPONED: “From Problem to Profit: AI-Driven Innovation and Licensing”
27 Mar 2024 The Ubiquitous World of Internet of Things (IoT) Connected Devices – and the Coming Tsunami of Patent Licensing
15 Feb 2024 2023 U.S. IP Year in Review: 12 Months in Just 90 Minutes!
13 Dec 2023 POSTPONED TO JANUARY 2024-Can You “Just Do the Deal?” Ethics in Negotiations and Transactions
9 Nov 2023 IAM Live: IP and Emerging Technology USA 2023
25 Oct 2023 FREE Webinar 10-25-24: Comparative International Commercial Arbitration
15 Oct 2023 LES 2023 Annual Meeting - It's Not Too Late!

Industry Affiliate Partners:

The Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU) is a nonpartisan nonprofit established in 2016 that raises awareness about the impact of IP on people, business and society. CIPU provides outreach to improve familiarity with IP rights and promote sharing. It holds events, such as the annual IP Awareness Summit®, curates IPBasics.org, an information portal, and produces ‘Understanding IP Matters,’ a critically-acclaimed podcast series that has generated more than 10,000 downloads. UIPM enables successful creators, entrepreneurs and strategists to share their IP story. For more information, visit understandingip.org.

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