Gerald Lane is Director of Standards and Open Source for the IBM Corporation.

In this role, Gerry oversees and coordinates IBM’s internal and external standards programs, including intellectual property commitments, legal issues, and policy negotiations with a multitude of standards, consortia and special interest groups. He also coordinates groups of skilled technical and legal professionals who advise the corporation on open source technology, issues and trends.

Gerry is often called upon to describe the evolution of IBM’s Intellectual Property regime and how it serves as a valuable collaborative mechanism propelling an innovative business model.

Prior to his involvement with the IBM open source and standards activities, Gerry was responsible for the intellectual property licensing programs in the software and semiconductor areas. In earlier assignments, he was responsible for the worldwide management of IBM’s Undertaking with the European Union while also managing the international technical teams that supported the IBM/Fujitsu Arbitration effort.

With over 25 years of management experience in the Information Technology industry in addition to various technical positions in the development of IBM’s large systems, Gerry has accumulated an extensive background in the management of hardware, software, and their associated legal matters.