Ron Gard is owner and CEO of Limited Times LLC, which is developing the Durationator® technology. He holds both a J.D., with specialization in business enterprise, and a Ph.D., with specialization in economic cultural theory, from the University of Arizona. For over 15 years, at such institutions as Tulane University, the University of New Orleans, the University of Arizona, and the California State University at Northridge, he has taught, studied and written about cultural economics, enterprise, and infrastructure. He is also a non-resident fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

Elizabeth Townsend Gard is co-founder and Director of Research and Development at Limited Times LLC. She is a tenured Associate Professor of Law and the Glazer Professor in Social Entrepreneurship at Tulane University, where she specializes in intellectual property with emphasis in matters of copyright. She holds both a J.D. and an LL.M. from the University of Arizona, as well as a Ph.D. in European intellectual history from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Opportunity/Challenge

In an age where digitization is becoming widespread globally, it has become increasingly difficult and expensive to determine the copyright status of any object. Our software, compiled from years of legal research, can make that determination effectively and quickly.

The Impact

• Developed an innovative software platform that can determine the copyright status of any object anywhere in the world
• 10 major customers including the University of Michigan, Tulane University, The Museum of Modern (New York), and the Frick Collection (New York) supplied with product
• 9,000 individual properties processed to determine copyright status