IP Democracy: Comcast Creates Position for VP of Intellectual Property

In what I think is a first for a cable company, Comcast has created a senior executive position for intellectual property matters. The nation's number one cable company announced this morning it has hired James Finnegan as VP of Intellectual Property Strategy.

Finnegan, who is not a lawyer (another unusual aspect to this announcement), will report to Arthur Block, SVP, General Counsel and Secretary, Comcast Corporation, and Tony Werner, EVP and CTO for Comcast Cable. Finnegan has 17 years' experience at AT&T and Lucent and was most recently VP of Intellectual Property for Qimonda AG in Munich, Germany.

Comcast is obviously gearing up to handle tricky intellectual property issues related to its broadband businesses. The company is already in hot water following the negative publicity generated by how its high-speed network handles P2P uploads. Comcast is facing lawsuits and possible FCC action over its policy of slowing down uploaders.

But, I've got to wonder if there aren't a lot more interesting things that this VP will handle. Is Comcast planning to implement more technology that implicates intellectual property matters? Is the company's foray into online video distribution via Fancast and other outlets going to ramp up in some complicated ways?

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on November 29, 2007 10:40 AM to IP Democracy