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In December, Yahoo joined forces with Seven Network, one of Australia’s largest media companies, in launching Yahoo!7, a version of the Web portal centering on video and print stories from Seven’s news division. Yahoo wouldn’t disclose the dollar value of the deal, only saying it’s hard to price a venture that may help Yahoo dominate Australia’s Web media market.

Yahoo has also struck recent deals with other Internet companies, such as eBay, to develop new services for its users. Yahoo will be able to sell search and graphical advertising on eBay and reach millions of users of the world’s biggest e-commerce company. EBay in turn will offer its PayPal payment service on the Yahoo site.

All of these deals, according to Siino, have major IP components.

“The way we look at it is that Yahoo has a bundle of technology IP rights that can be useful in helping other companies in achieving their business goals,” Siino explained. “Hollywood and media are the same way. Content is but a set of IP rights which is licensed in one way or another.”

“If you put all these together, you have convergence,” Siino added.

Which is exactly what Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan wanted from the company’s IP unit when he hired Siino.

“There’s a traditional structure of IP departments built around patent filing and patent litigation; while I’m sure that’s effective in a lot of places, we really needed something else,” Callahan said. “I wanted a division that is plugged into the management team and helps in the creation of business, product development and commercial transactions.”

So far, he said, the company has made major strides in achieving that vision.

“Joe has assembled, in my view, a topnotch team, and he has helped us really marry IP closely into our business structure,” Callahan said.

UP TO SPEED

Siino, who spent his first month trying to learn all aspects of Yahoo’s business, managed to integrate his team seamlessly into the company’s management and business departments by introducing simple but innovative measures.

Early on, he created an IP board of directors, which pools the talent and expertise of senior business and technology leaders within the company to help guide the company’s overall IP strategy.

Siino also put together an IP creation group that helps engineers and scientists focus their inventions in areas the company wants to develop products or services.

“The best way to really strategically integrate IP into the company itself is to involve [others] within that company,” Siino said.

He also expanded Yahoo’s Research Labs project, a joint project with major U.S. universities, including Stanford University, Santa Clara University and UC-Berkeley, by opening other research facilities around the world.

“Our primary incentive here is to be involved with and share expertise with great thinkers and innovators,” Siino said. “Fostering innovation and being a part of it is a goal in itself.”

EARLY DIVIDENDS

Michael Jacobs, a patent litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster, praised Yahoo’s efforts, and said the company is right to focus on IP.

“The important point is that IP strategy is not a sideline � but it has become much more central to a company’s direction,” he said. “And the business point is that it is so hard to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in fast-moving industries. IP is one tool for achieving those advantages.”

So far, Siino’s plan of fostering innovation within the company seems to be doing just that. He said that since he came on board the company’s patent portfolio has more than doubled. He wouldn’t disclose, however, the number of patents Yahoo owns.

“We are partnering closely with our scientists and engineers who are building the next generation Internet, and we’ve created an IP process that would generate IPs and products,” he said.

How well these innovations serve Yahoo in its cutthroat competition for users and the ad revenue they generate remains to be seen, but it’s clear Siino has created a compelling model for the future of IP.

“I think we’ve built one of the premier IP departments already in slightly more than a year, and we’ll just continue to grow,” he said.