A group of Novatel Wireless shareholders calling themselves “Novatel Shareholders for Change” published an open letter on April 4, nominating two new members for Novatel’s Board of Directors, Robert Karp and Alex Mashinsky. The group, which controls eight percent of Novatel’s outstanding shares, pointed to Novatel’s financial difficulties over the last few years as grounds for action and specifically criticized the current leadership’s failure to monetize its intellectual property portfolio.  At least one of the nominees, Mashinsky, appears to have direct experience with patent monetization. He is the founder of seven companies —Governing Dynamics, GroundLink, Transit Wireless, LimoRes, Elematics, VenturiFX, Comgates, and Arbinet—and is on the Board of Directors of cVidya , DollarPhone, and Tellabs. He is also a named inventor of 24 patents and 30 applications, several of which have been asserted in litigation by AIP Acquisition. The asserted patents were acquired from Arbinet, a company where Mashinsky served as CEO until 2000 and is still on the Board of Directors. His patents have also been involved in several open market deals reviewed by RPX in 2009 and in 2013.