Israeli technology is in the news with respect to the gripping situation playing out in Thailand, with the rescue of trapped boys recently completed. This latest news confirms what many already know — that Israel punches above its weight with respect to innovation. For example, back in 2012, I had the opportunity to speak on IP awareness at a Cleantech conference in the Southern Israeli resort city of Eilat. At the time, there was a lot of interest in patent activity around Cleantech, with the promise of significant public and private investment dollars being directed toward startups and established companies innovating in the area of clean technology.
While the shale gas revolution in the United States and its concomitant impacts on global oil prices ended up dampening some of the global enthusiasm for investing in clean technologies, there is no doubt that significant innovation in the area of sustainable energy, agriculture, and water use is ongoing. One of the countries at the forefront of the clean technology revolution is of course Israel, which has become a global leader in exporting key innovations in disparate areas such as drip irrigation and water desalination, among others. It is not surprising, therefore, that IP lawyers in the U.S. often find themselves either representing Israeli companies, or adverse to them in the event of IP disputes.
Coming on the heels of the 2009 best-selling book, “Start-up Nation,” which sought to explain the rise of the Israeli high-tech sector, the conference I attended did not disappoint in terms of showcasing Israeli startups active across a wide range of clean technology areas. Perhaps more importantly — and in line with the book’s reporting of global venture capital interest in Israeli startups — there were clearly potential “customers” studying the presenting companies at the conference.
While some of those potential customers were clearly representatives of multinational corporations, there was also a large contingent of Chinese attendees. Whether they were sponsored by the Chinese government or by Chinese companies was not clear; nevertheless, the size of the Chinese delegation was impressive — especially considering the distance between Israel and China, as well as the comical population difference between the two countries. At least 15 Chinese cities are more populous than the entire country of Israel, after all.
I was reminded of my experience at the 2012 Eilat conference since I recently returned from a family bar-mitzvah trip to Israel. Over the course of my just under two-week visit, I had the opportunity to see much of the upper half of the country, including seeing concrete evidence of the continuing expansion of Silicon Valley and other companies into Israel. What was striking, as an initial matter, was that in addition to long-present stalwarts like Intel and Microsoft, we passed by modern office buildings (primarily in the Tel Aviv-Haifa coastal tech corridor) bearing the names of companies as diverse as Medtronic and Qualcomm. While those familiar names point to continued interest in Israel as a research and development center, there is also no doubt that multinational giants value proximity to Israel’s thriving startup scene as well. Sophisticated IP lawyers in the U.S. can continue to anticipate work originating out of or involving Israeli companies for a long time to come.
As just one example, Google announced a few months ago that it was setting up a new accelerator in Israel — apparently its first outside Silicon Valley — with a focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Developments like these make clear that the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation-prizing ecosystem prevalent in Israel will continue to flourish. At the same time, what was perhaps more impressive as a visitor to the country was not the potential inherent in the technologies being developed in the country. Rather, it was the clear signs of technologies actually being implemented, from wind farms in the North, to energy saving technologies in place in cities from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. As a resource-challenged country, it was clear that Israeli innovation remains essential to the modern development of the economy there. Long-term, the ability of Israeli companies to export those technologies worldwide — while maintaining a sophisticated approach towards procuring and enforcing IP worldwide — will likely have an outsized impact on the country’s economic prospects. The early successes of some Israeli companies that have successfully globalized to date, such as Waze and MobileEye, augur well on that front.
Over the years, I have had the good fortune of seeing how other countries incorporate cutting-edge technologies to improve the lives of their citizens. From advanced high-speed trains in Shanghai, to Seoul’s hyper-modern subway and highways, to windfarms on the Curacao coastline, there is tremendous momentum worldwide to modernize responsibly — utilizing clean technologies wherever possible. My recent trip to Israel only confirmed what I already know. Israel’s small size, lack of oil, and scarce water supply are nothing more than challenges for the country’s innovators to solve. And while they work on those solutions, others in the country will continue to innovate in medicine, computers, and any other technology area you can think of.
Ultimately, Israel’s culture of innovation is borne out yearly in the form of patents filed in the U.S. and worldwide, for one. Or by the continued announcements of Israeli startups partnering with global technology leaders. Despite its successes to date, the Start-Up Nation is a long way from retirement.
Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.
