Who is Ronald Katz?

If at least one of your clients has not heard from him already, chances are that they will soon.

Since 1996, Ronald A. Katz has received at least 23 U.S. patents for various "telephonic interface systems" which are now assigned to Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing. According to Dorothy Pomerantz writing for Forbes in March 2005, he has received over $750 million in licensing fees since 1990 from 100 companies, including AT&T, IBM and Sears." Katz expects to earn at least $2 billion in fees by 2009, surpassing even Jerome Lemelson as the World's Most Aggressive Enforcer.

Early in his career, Katz formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation's first on-line, real-time credit and check authorizing system. He patented that system and, between 1987 and 1993, he applied for 25 more patents and received approval for 20 of them. In his keynote speech at the 2005 Spring Meeting of the Licensing Executive Society (USA and Canada) Inc., billed as the first formal speech about his career, Katz recalled the day in the early 1990s when he told the New York Times that he believed his patent portfolio royalties would one day be worth "in the tens of millions of dollars if not the hundreds of millions." His prediction was met with skepticism by the newspaper.

According to Paul Stockford writing for Saddletree Research on May 15, 2006,

"Information on Ronald A. Katz and his company, Ronald A. Katz Technology
Licensing, LP, remains as elusive as ever. . . . There have been over 3,000 Katz-initiated claims for patent violation over the past 15 years with the vast majority settling before further legal action was taken. In fact, there has not been a single public legal challenge to a Katz claim of patent violation for nearly three years.

In fact, Bruce Berman wrote a profile of him in his book, "Making Innovation Pay," to which Mr. Katz also contributed a chapter. Mr. Katz's latest lawsuits were filed on August 21, 2006 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas as

Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. v. American Airlines, Inc.; American Beacon Advisors, Inc.; FedEx Corporation; Federal Express Corporation; FedEx Corporate Services, Inc.; FedEx Customer Information Services, Inc.; Hilton Hotels Corporation; Hilton Reservations Worldwide, LLC; Hilton Honors Worldwide LLC; Marriott International, Inc.; Marriott Worldwide Reservation Services, LLC; and National Railroad Passenger Corporation d/b/a Amtrak

and

Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. v. Aetna Inc.; Aetna RX Home Delivery, LLC; Wellpoint, Inc.; Professional Claim Services, Inc. d/b/a Wellpoint Pharmacy Management, Inc.; Anthem Prescription Management, LLC; Precision RX, Inc.; Caremark RX, Inc.; Caremark Inc. d/b/a Caremark Prescription Services; The Kroger Co.; Kroger Texas L.P.; Healthy Options, Inc. d/b/a Postal Prescription Services; Petmed Express, Inc. d/b/a 1-800-Petmeds; Safeway, Inc.; Randall's Food Markets, Inc.; and Randall's Food & Drugs, LP.

At least one firm now appears to specialize in advising "contact centers struggling to understand Katz patent infringement liability."