Alexander I. Poltorak (born 1957) is a Russian-born American author, entrepreneur, physicist and scholar. He co-authored two books on intellectual property: Essentials of Intellectual Property and Essentials of Licensing of Intellectual Property, both published by John Wiley & Sons. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation (GPC), an intellectual property firm focusing on patent licensing and enforcement. He is also the founder and President of American Innovators for Patent Reform, a non-profit trade association representing inventors and other stakeholders in the debate over the future of the U.S. patent system. Dr. Poltorak is a member of the IAM (Intellectual Asset Management) Strategy 250 — The World’s Leading IP Strategists.
Alexander I. Poltorak was born in 1957 in Krasnodar, Russia, the former Soviet Union. He earned a graduate degree in Theoretical Physics — the equivalent of a Ph.D. in the United States — at Kuban State University (Kubanski Gosudarstvennyi Universitet). He devoted his academic studies to Einstein’s theory of relativity and gravitation. Poltorak published several research papers in this field and wrote his doctoral thesis on a solution to a long-standing “energy problem” in The Theory of General Relativity.
Accused by the Soviet government of Jewish nationalist dissident activity, Poltorak was stripped of his academic degrees. In 1982 he immigrated to the United States. He served as an assistant professor of biomathematics at Cornell University Medical College, where he conducted research on mathematical modeling of brain-flow circulation and on positron emission tomography. He also served as an assistant professor of physics at Touro College and as an adjunct professor of law at the Globe Institute of Technology. Poltorak served as the United States co-chair of a Subcommittee on Information Exchange of the US-USSR Trade and Economic Council.
In 1983 Poltorak founded Rapitech Systems, Inc., a computer technology company he took public in 1986. In 1987, he formed Poltorak Associates, a patent licensing company and a predecessor of General Patent Corporation (GPC) which was incorporated in 1989. GPC was selected by Marketing Computers Magazine as one of “Nine for the Nineties” — one of the nine most promising technology companies for the 90s. Dr. Poltorak serves as Chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation.
Main article: General Patent Corporation (section IP Holdings LLC)
In 1990, Poltorak founded IP Holdings LLC, an IP-Centric merchant banking organization, and serves as its Managing Director. IP Holdings provides IP-related financial and brokerage services, operates an idea incubator and manages portfolio of early-stage IP-rich companies.
Alexander Poltorak is founder and President of American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR), a not-for-profit coalition of inventors, patent owners, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, patent agents and attorneys, and others involved in creating or protecting innovation and advocating for stronger patent protection.
AIPR was founded when the Patent Reform Act of 2007 was introduced in Congress. The 2007 Patent Reform Act failed to pass in the Senate. AIPR also opposes the Patent Reform Act of 2009.
Dr. Poltorak is a public speaker and writer, and a recognized expert on physics and IP strategy and valuation through his published articles, lectures and research on physics, brain research, economics, intellectual property law, science and religion.
He co-authored (with Paul J. Lerner) two influential books on intellectual property law, Essentials of Intellectual Property and Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property. Essentials of Intellectual Property is a primer about patents and other types of intellectual property and how intellectual capital should be properly managed as a valuable asset. Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property is a how- to-book for intellectual property licensing, licensing strategies, royalties and royalty rates, patent, trademarks and copyright licenses, and basic contract law. Poltorak contributed the chapter “On Patent Trolls and Other Patent Myths” to Making Innovation Pay: People Who Turn IP Into Shareholder Value, edited by Bruce Berman.
Alexander Poltorak is widely regarded as a pioneer in intellectual property rights and patent law in the United States and has lectured widely and published many articles on the subjects of intellectual property law, patents, patent protections and patent reform.
