Technicolor, the European licensing powerhouse has made a new major appointment by appointing Arvin Patel as the French company’s chief IP officer.
Arvin’s appointment at this French company, who previously has also been a – senior VP of IP and licensing at Rovi’s appointment, has been the first time when such a post has been held a Technicolor.
The appointment of Arvin followed the departure of Boris Teksler as the company’s head of technology earlier this year and was replaced by Stéphane Rougeot, who had been its chief financial officer since 2008. It is assumed that Rougeot will handle board and investor relationships, look after the balance sheet and also make sure that there is always a close working relationship between the technology function and the rest of the Technicolor business. Patel shall look deeply into providing the transactional know-how, as well as dealing with the nitty-gritty of bringing in new licensees and keeping existing ones on board.
In March, the Technicolor board finally settled a dispute with activist shareholder Vector Capital over the company’s future direction. Vector advocated splitting the business into two – with one part focused on products, the other on licensing – but the Technicolor board resisted, to the point of launching legal acting against Vector, insisting that unity was a more powerful proposition.
After a long fight, Vector gave its backing to Drive 2020, a strategy based on IP and product development working hand in hand to build overall value and the roll-out of new patent licensing models. Alongside Rougeot, Patel will clearly have a key role to play in ensuring that what is promised in the new plan is now delivered.
