- Patent auctions will do little to help independent inventors sell their patents
The NY Times is Wrong: Patent Auctions Do Not Provide Indendent Inventors with “Protection”
Interview on Legal Issues Related to Open Innovation and Open Innovation Summit Discount
OPEN INNOVATION INTERVIEW WITH BRADEN KELLEY I recently was interviewed by Braden Kelley of Blogging Innovation about the interplay between Open Innovation and the law. For those interested in Open Innovation topics, Braden's blog is a great resource. The link to my interview is here: http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/labels/Jackie%20Hutter.html Braden and I will both be participating in the Open Innovation Summit being held in Orlando on December 2-4, 2009 along with several other open innovation leaders, authors, and consultants. I will be leading a panel currently titled: "Patents as Tools to Accelerate Innovation - How To Get Your Organization On the Right Path" September 18, 2009 is the last day for the $400 early bird discount. You can get an extra $300 discount by using the code for Blogging Innovation readers can save an extra $300 by registering using the code - NXB458.
An IP Strategist’s Economic Forecast for 2010: An Outsider’s View and How One Can Outperform the “Experts”
In remembrance of the 1 year anniversary of the Financial Meltdown, Forbes.com has included me in a list of bloggers asked to provide an economic forecast for 2010 and also to provide some insights as to what economic markers I use in my work. This is an interesting assignment for me: few who know me would consider me to be an economist and, indeed, such training was wholly absent from my many years of college, graduate and law school. This might actually be a good thing, however, because, as discussed in this recent Robert Lezner StreetTalk post, none of the so-called "experts"--even those at the highest levels of power and prestige (except perhaps Dr. Nouriel Roubini)--predicted the financial instability that would result from Wall Street's increasing reliance on innovative, high yield financial instruments. Notwithstanding the vast reliance put on financial expertise, based on the results of the last couple of years, it now seems
IP Quality Must be a Key Feature in Any Financial Product Based on IP Assets
Neil Wilkof of the great IP Finance blog brought up a couple of interesting issues in his latest blog post entitled Securitization of IP: Urban Legend, or Playing Soon in a Theatre Near You? Specifically, he wonders if the desire for innovative (and not discredited) financial products today will result in the emergence of IP securitization as a model for raising capital and, if so, if the there will be a place for IP professionals in the process of valuing such IP. I recommend Neil's post to anyone who is interested in how IP assets might be leveraged to create opportunities outside of the usual protection of the IP owner's products and technology. Moreover, I agree with Neil's view that if IP is going to be a recognized as a means to raise capital, improvements have to be made in the way finance and IP professionals interact. Put simply,
IP Strategies for High Growth Companies
As an IP Business Strategist, I frequently speak to CEOs of high growth/start-up companies. I have prepared this short deck to walk them through the basics of how IP Strategy can be implemented in their organizations, and where in their organizations their intangible assets might reside.
Reality Check for Inventors: Most Corporations Will Not Give Your Idea a First Look. Here’s Some Reasons Why.
Many people assume that corporations will readily consider good ideas from external sources, presumably because from the outside it makes sense to do so. That is, why should a corporation spend the time and money to create something from scratch if someone else has invented a product or technology that is a good fit and can be acquired at a reasonable cost? Against this assumption, countless numbers of inventors have expended considerable time, money and hopes on patenting their inventions and submitting them to corporations for review.
The sad truth is that most of the money and efforts of these hopeful inventors are wasted. Few corporations today have policies that make it possible for their employees to gather unsolicited ideas from outside of their existing employee or supplier base. Ideas sent to the corporation by outside inventors rarely get reviewed for merit by the relevant business teams. Rather, after the inventor submitting the idea is
Welcome to the New Home of the IP Asset Maximizer Blog!
This blog has been in existence since March 2008, and there is content going back to then on this new site. For those who have been regular readers of this blog, I hope you enjoy the new format. For new readers, I hope to engage with you frequently about the topics discussed here. The blog is built on the Wordpress platform. There will probably been minor tweaks here and there as I gain skills with this product. Please feel free to tell me if there is something that can be improved or to suggest a topic that you would like me to write about. I will be upgrading my other websites soon, so be on the lookout for changes there, too.
Corporate IP Managers: There are Bargains Galore Available at Some of the Most Prestigious Law Firms
With corporate legal budgets being cut more than 10% in 2009 it might seem like challenging times to manage a corporate IP department. To add to the difficulties, such reductions are occurring even while many corporations are increasing the focus placed on creation of value using strategic IP management. Corporate IP managers must therefore obtain more valuable IP with smaller budgets.
Fortunately for corporate IP managers, the current economic climate has forced many prestigious law firms to, perhaps for the first time, develop innovative billing and practice models. This has not only resulted in the effective billable rates of these law firms effectively dropping more than 10%, but many law firms have or are developing more efficient ways to deliver legal services to their clients. Smart law firms will pass these cost savings on to their clients to
Improve Your Chances of Obtaining a Patent at a Reasonable Cost and Time by Demonstrating the “Wow Factor” in the Application
A strong majority of people seeking patent protection to protect their products or technology leave the details the drafting process to their patent attorneys. That is, given the specialized (and, frankly, arcane) nature of the patenting process, even highly accomplished business professionals believe that a patent specialist (i.e., attorney or agent) is better equipped to understand how to best describe their invention to the US Patent Office (“USPTO”). This can be an ineffective way to handle the front end of the patenting process because it can result in the process being more contentious. Such contentiousness can result in narrower claims than desired and can make the patent take longer to issue and make the process considerably more expensive. In determining whether a client’s invention meets the legal requirements for patentability, a patent specialist thinks about how to legally distinguish the invention from those that have come before. Specifically, the patent specialist
Start-up Entrepreneurs & CEO’s: If Your Goal is Investment or Acquisition, You are Probably Patenting the Wrong Things
Do you treat your patents as a fence or a tollbooth? If you wish for your start-up technology company to obtain investment from or acquisition by a bigger player, you had better understand the difference. Most start-up technology company entrepreneurs and CEO's understand that patents can be key to establishing the value of a new business idea. Typically, entrepreneurs and CEO's such as yourself will engage patent attorneys to build an IP portfolio that protects the start-up's technology and products to the fullest extent possible. The motivation for this effort and expense is, of course, to to protect your start-up's idea from use by others. As management of a start-up you may be seeking to build an ongoing business around the patented technology, but often the goal of building a solid patent portfolio is to make your business an attractive target for investment or acquisition by a larger company. I believe that