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
1:30 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)
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Learn how AI and legal tech platforms (e.g., Westlaw, Lexis, TR) are reshaping royalty audit workflows
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Explore how to get into the right contracts—including key audit, reporting, and dispute provisions
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Understand what contractual rights matter most for royalty enforcement and compliance visibility
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Gain insight on infrastructure, sandboxing, and file access management needed to leverage AI safely
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Compare audit vs. vendor compliance reviews—where revenue leakage can occur and how to find it
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Learn what not to do: why third-party IP owners rarely get direct system access, and what to request instead
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Understand the emerging standards for isolating, analyzing, and verifying third-party usage data
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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.
Trudi Bordi, Vice President of Licensing, HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. Linkedin
Trudi Bordi is the Vice President of Licensing at HDMI Licensing, Inc., where she drives the global licensing strategy and overseeing revenue operations. She focuses on maximizing revenue through optimized licensing and robust intellectual property (IP) protection. Trudi leads the company’s strategic direction in global audits, compliance, and IP enforcement, collaborating with cross-functional teams and external partners to safeguard IP rights across diverse markets.
In her role, Trudi advises the CEO, Board, Founders, and the HDMI Forum on risk management and strategic opportunities, ensuring the organization navigates emerging challenges while capitalizing on IP growth. She plays a key role in driving organizational transformation, aligning initiatives with the company’s long-term goals.
Under Trudi’s leadership, her team has quadrupled in size, contributing to over 75% revenue growth over the past decade. With a 92% compliance reporting rate among adopters, her team has successfully tackled trademark challenges and infringement issues in key markets like China and Taiwan while continually expanding the company’s IP portfolio globally. These accomplishments highlight Trudi’s commitment to excellence, integrity, and innovation in licensing, reinforcing HDMI Licensing’s leadership in the industry.
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:
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