Team
With a balance of in-house counsel and large firm experience, theoretical knowledge and actionable insights, technical know-how and business sense, our team brings together all the right pieces to help with your IP puzzle.
Kent Richardson
Partner
Kent counsels clients on a variety of patent and business matters including patent buying, selling, licensing, valuation, prosecution and operations. Kent has licensing and marketing patent portfolio experiences resulting in more than $600M of patent license bookings. Kent has served as an expert witness on patent monetization and licensing practices in cases in England and the United States.
Prior to founding the ROL Group, Kent was the General Manager of ThinkFire Services USA, Ltd’s Silicon Valley office. Kent has worked in various senior management roles with such growth businesses as Sezmi, Constellation Capital, Rambus, Numerical Technologies. Kent was also an attorney in private practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Kent is a member of the California Bar and a United States Patent and Trademark Office registered patent attorney. He holds five US patents.
He holds a JD and a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada.
email: kent@richardsonoliver.com
Erik Oliver
Partner
Mr. Oliver counsels clients on a variety of patent and business matters, including licensing, buying, selling, valuation, prosecution and business processes. He provides data driven advice using his firm’s proprietary database of patent market information covering more than 115,000 patents and over $12B worth of deals. He has patent portfolio licensing and marketing experience resulting in millions worth of patent license bookings.
Prior to founding the ROL Group, Mr. Oliver was a Vice President at ThinkFire Services USA, Ltd’s Silicon Valley office. He has held various senior positions with a range of responsibilities at Rambus Inc., Synopsys, Inc., and a number of Silicon Valley startups. He was also previously an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati.
Mr. Oliver has over 40 published articles and lectures on patent strategy, intellectual property, and related business issues at Stanford, Santa Clara, and the Center for Intellectual Property at Chalmers.
Mr. Oliver is a member of the California and District of Columbia Bar and a United States Patent and Trademark Office registered patent attorney.
Mr. Oliver has a B.S. in Computer Science/Mathematics from Haverford College, an M.S.E. in Computer Information Science from University of Pennsylvania, and a JD from the University of Pennsylvania.
email: erik@richardsonoliver.com
Michael Costa
Intellectual Asset Analyst
Michael acts as the ROL Group’s financial, engineering, and market analyst. His background in engineering and consulting allow him to bring a blend of business knowledge and technological understanding to our clients.
Prior to joining the ROL Group, Michael worked as an independent financial and strategy consultant for Silicon Valley startups. He has helped companies analyze their business and technology opportunities in crowdfunding, mobile advertising, home automation, green systems and power management, InGaAs semiconductors, and digital signal processing.
Michael holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a BA in Political Science with a math minor from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences.
email: mcosta@richardsonoliver.com
Alan Cavallerano
Technical Consultant
Alan has been a Technical Consultant for ROL Group since 2013, providing a unique blend of technical engineering and intellectual property expertise on a consulting basis.
Alan is adept at all aspects of patent analysis, from screening patent portfolios, identifying prior art, to developing advanced claim charts. He has held numerous technical and managerial positions at various research and product divisions of Philips Electronics, and was instrumental in establishing the ATSC digital television standard. Earlier he worked at the CBS Technology Center. His technical expertise spans a broad array of technologies, including digital video, wireless communications, display technology, and computer science.
Alan has an M.S.E.E. and B.S.E.E. degree summa cum laude from The Cooper Union School of Engineering, and is an inventor named on 37 US Patents.