Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Vice President running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is a patent analyst, intellectual property lawyer and entrepreneur who is also a philanthropist.
She is in the position to have a positive impact on declining patent reliability and increasing copyright abuse. But will she?
Understanding her motivation for her running and its potential impact on IP rights is not simple matter. A person who worked closely when she was coming up as an entrepreneur told IP CloseUp “she is more interested today in her foundation than IP rights.”
Shanahan was married for two years to Google founder Sergey Brin. She gave birth to their daughter and her divorce separation according to Forbes left her with some $400 million in Google stock (2.6 million Class B shares). Others speculate her net worth could be in excess of $1 billion.
Brin has donated at least $23 million to her Bia-Echo Foundation, a private foundation founded by her “that aims to accelerate social change in order to establish a fair and equitable society for future generations to thrive.” It does not appear that IP rights are currently a part of that.
Shanahan was said to have paid for the provocative Super Bowl ad for Kennedy, said to have a total cost of as much as $7 million and that drew on images of his famous uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The Kennedy family was disturbed by the implied endorsement.
Shanahan worked as an analyst for RPX, the defensive patent aggregator, and was a research assistant for Colleen Chien, a known patent skeptic who apparently coined the term patent assertion entity (PAE) and who worked in the Obama administration. Chien formerly taught law at Santa Clara and has since joined the UC Berkeley Law School faculty.
Shanahan founded ClearAccess IP in Palo Alto in 2013, a financial technology company that provides a platform for financial valuations, analytics, and competitive intelligence for patents.
Her vice president candidacy is an opportunity to bring to national attention the crisis in intellectual property rights – but given her likely ownership of hundreds of million of dollars in Google stock (re: Forbes) that is unlikely.
ClearAccess IP was acquired for an undisclosed sum in 2020 by Erich Spangenberg’s IPwe. IPwe initially partnered with IBM, but on March 5 filed for Chapter 7 liquidation. Spangenberg was regarded as a successful but aggressive patent enforcer in the 1990s and 2000s. It is unclear what IPwe paid for ClearAccess IP or how much asset value has been retained for creditors.
Shanahan’s split from Brin was reported in the Wall Street Journal as the result of a supposed fling Elon Musk, which she vehemently denies. Shanan is married to her third husband, Jacob Strumwasser, who currently serves as the vice president at Lightning Labs, which develops software that powers the Lightning Network for Bitcoin. She describes him as a former Wall Street Guy whom she met at the Burning Man Festival last year.
Potential Spoiler
What is a patent analyst-IP lawyer-entrepreneur doing running with independent candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr., who could be a spoiler?
Kennedy is a known anti-vaccination proponent, health policy skeptic and environmentalist. He has flirted with running as a Libertarian candidate. He has also dismissed the severity of the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol that left five dead and 174 police injured.
It is unclear if his anti-establishment beliefs extend to IP rights. Some libertarians identify positively with the level-the-playing field exclusivity of patents and copyrights, potentially liberating for independent inventors and creators. Others view IP rights as yet more government interference in the lives of businesses and people.
Shanahan has stated that her daughter suffers from autism. Kennedy’s anti-vax position may appeal to her because of the much-debunked junk-science linking autism with childhood vaccines.
“The fantastically wealthy tech entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan — promises to be the kind of cash spigot and fund-raiser that’s hugely helpful to signature collection,” said Frank Bruni of The New York Times. “Her riches are her credential, though perhaps — I don’t know — she wrote a paper about vice presidents in the fifth grade.”
What ever you may think of the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket, it is unfair for Bruni to deride the Shanahan’s wealth and business experience, even though she, like Kennedy, has never held public office. She could surprise us.
An Opportunity to be Heard
There are far richer players, especially in Silicon Valley, that Kennedy might have called on. Shanahan is a lawyer, an IP analyst and an academic fellow at CodeX, but a questionably successful tech entrepreneur. Her value to the ticket could be enhanced by her visible commitment to IP rights, and getting Kennedy to listen.
The Biden administration misdirected pursuit of patent march-in rights is just the kind of issue on which she can score points and show her depth.
Shanahan’s vice president candidacy is an opportunity to bring to national attention the crisis in intellectual property rights – but given her documented ownership of hundreds of million dollars of Alphabet stock how likely is that?
Reform Party VP candidate Pat Choate who ran with Ross Perot in 1996 was an avowedly pro-patent economist. Choate’s book, “Hot Properties: The Stealing of Ideas in the Age of Globalization,” remains one of the clearer explanations about the foreign and domestic threat to IP rights and its impact. Perot and Choate garnered 8.4% of the popular vote.
Looking Ahead
The VP race may be a stepping stone for Shanahan, who could run locally in the Bay Area for Congress or for a State office. In tech-heavy California companies like Google, Apple and Meta, liberal on social issues but more circumspect with regard to IP licensing, can influence who gets elected. These and other IP-intensive businesses could find themselves drawn to a candidate who appreciates their unique position and those candidates who can help maintain it.
Image source: AP Photo/Eric Risberg; Jessica Chou via People
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