Karl Maersch

Karl Maersch manages intellectual property strategy and monetization for Hilco Streambank. Prior to joining Hilco, Karl was the CEO of West Four IP, an intellectual property consulting firm that provides IP strategy advice, patent and technology licensing, and intellectual property valuation and monetization services to its clients. In the 8 years Karl operated West Four IP, the firm’s clients realized over $550M in revenue from intellectual property.

Prior to founding West Four IP, Karl was head of intellectual property litigation worldwide for The Dow Chemical Company. In that role, Karl instituted a process to identify monetizable assets and managed various offensive litigation and licensing matters, including filing the company’s first-ever ITC complaint, which resulted in a 25 year exclusion order, believed to be the longest exclusion order in the history of the International Trade Commission. Prior to joining Dow, Karl was Associate General Counsel of the Eastman Kodak company where he managed a team of attorneys, technologists, and licensing executives that supported the company’s intellectual property functions, including patent licensing, patent sales, patent litigation, patent-based M&A, and brand licensing. Karl also managed the IP aspects of Kodak’s bankruptcy. During his time at Kodak, his team generated over $1.9B in revenue from IP. Karl started his career at Jones Day where he litigated intellectual property disputes in U.S. District Court, at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the ITC, and in various courts in Europe and Asia. Karl has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a JD from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Intellectual Property Law.

Thought Leadership

IAM Media, “Critical advice on crafting a successful IP strategy in an evolving legal environment,” October 2023

IAM Media, “Blockchain patent assets are hot but hard to find on the secondary market,” October 2023