Fallback Image

IAM Top 300 IP Strategists for 2013 Released this Week: I am on the list for the 5th year in a row!

Please indulge me as I pat myself on the back-- Largely as a result of the efforts that I have put into this blog over the last 5 + years and of the resulting recognition of my expertise by my peers, I have again been named to the Intellectual Asset Magazine Strategy 300.   This award acknowledges my expertise in IP Strategy and Intellectual Asset Management and is given only to those people who actively practice in areas related to capturing and leveraging business value from IP and intangible assets. Although I have been included on the list in each of the previous years of the award's existence, inclusion on the list is particularly satisfying this year.  Specifically, the 2013 list was compiled from scratch as the result of substantive original research from the staff at IAM.  I did not pay to be included.  (More on the methodology here.)  Recognition

Fallback Image

IP and Intangible Asset Strategy: The Easy to Deploy, Not-So-Secret Weapon for Capturing Business Value

IP and intangible asset strategies are a critical feature of ALL businesses regardless of size, product or customer.  But why?  Put simply, leaders need to be comfortable that their companies have the mechanisms in place to capture the value that you see possible from the venture.  Without foresight and action, other businesses will be able to capitalize on the first/early mover's advantage. This happens often when a US company develops a new product, as well as the market for the product, and ex-US companies come in with a lower priced product to take the market away from the first mover.  I have also seen customers (that is, big box or other consumer facing retailers) actually instigate the knock-offs:  when the first mover demonstrates that a market exists for a product, the retailer will reach out to an Asian manufacturer to create a private label product with the same consumer benefits as that

Fallback Image

R & D Tax Credits Mean Little to Businesses That Do Not Competently Manage Their Intangible Assets

This week, President Obama will announce a $100 billion proposal to stimulate the economy, where much of the focus is to be placed in the area of R & D tax credits. In addition to making the R & D tax credit permanent, Obama will seek increasing one of the credits available from 14 to 17 percent. This announcement brought to mind a blog post that

Fallback Image

The News is Out: We Now Have an Intangible Asset-Based Corporate Economy

(Ed. Note:  A family emergency has been keeping me away from the office.  The good news is that I have been catching up on my RSS feeds and reading some really interesting stuff, albeit a bit late.  One of these interesting reads is a David Brooks piece dealing with corporate intangible assets.  Since this was published Christmas week, others may have missed it, too.  And, when pundits pick up on what you have been talking about for years, I means that the public is finally "getting" it!) David Brooks’ Op-Ed in the December 22, 2009 New York Times raises some interesting points about our new intangible economy.  In this piece, entitled “The Protocol Economy,” Brooks recognizes that we have moved from an economy that makes “stuff” –that is, a physical goods economy—to one that deals in “protocols.”  (I think it would be more appropriate to call our evolving intangible

Fallback Image

Everything’s Negotiable: How Corporations Can Drastically Reduce Their IP Legal Costs without Sacrificing IP Quality

Corporate legal managers and the business teams they support complain seemingly constantly abmoney bag symbolout outside counsel expense, and intellectual property ("IP") is no exception. And, why wouldn't they complain when every dollar spent on legal representation is money that is effectively removed from the company's P&L statement? This sets up an ongoing tension between corporations and law firms to reduce legal costs even while lawyers' incomes have sky-rocketed in recent years. For most corporate buyers of legal services, however, the ability to obtain substantive cost reduction has been somewhat limited due to the lack of transparent information available about legal fees. It may be even more difficult for corporate legal services buyers to gain meaningful reductions in IP costs because of the highly specialized nature of this area of law practice which, arguably, makes IP more of a "Black Box" than most areas. Moreover, regardless

Fallback Image

News Items: IAM 250, IP Metrics Benchmarking Study and New Blog for Innovation Entrepreneurs

Regular readers of the IP Asset Maximizer blog will note that my postings have been a bit sparse lately. I have been taking some time off with my family, and will be continuing to do so until later in June 2009. I appreciate your patience. I have some timely news items to share in the interim, however. IAM 250 Awards  logoiam I am proud to announce that I have been named one of the IAM 250 for 2009. This award is given by IAM Magazine to those non-corporate IP Strategists judged by their peers as the leaders in IP Strategy. With Duncan Bucknell, Suzanne Harrison, Kevin Rivette, Andrew Watson and many others whom I respect greatly on the list, it is a great honor to appear on this inaugural list of the world's leaders in

Fallback Image

Innovative Methods for Corporate Legal Managers to Reduce IP Counsel Costs

The Slideshare presentation that follows is an excerpt from a class that I am teaching to in-house legal managers about innovations in IP management. The topic of the presentation is innovative methods to reduce IP legal procurement and management costs. The goal of my presentation is not to get corporate IP types not to think outside the box but, rather, to think outside the truck the box came in. As such, many people may think these ideas are "way out," but if you start with small ideas, you end up with small improvements.

Fallback Image

The "Dirty Little Secret of Patents" is that Most are Worthless to Their Owners. Here is Why.

Notwithstanding the vast corporate and entrepreneurial resources expended each year to file, prosecute, manage and maintain patents, a significant majority end up having little or no business value to their owners. Patents can end up being worthless for any number of reasons, most of which center on the fact that the claims do not cover a product or technology either currently or in the future being made, used or sold by either the owner or a third party. And, when a patent does not cover a current or future product or technology, one might argue its only residual value is as the attractive government document on the right. No doubt exceptions exist to my bold assertion that most patents end up as worthless to their owners. That is why I used the

Fallback Image

Confessions of a "Recovering Patent Attorney" and Why I Have Joined the Growing Ranks of IP Strategists

I often facetiously refer to myself as a "recovering patent attorney." This somewhat tongue-in-cheek phrase seems appropriate to my present professional state of mind because, after many years of drafting and prosecuting patents for clients of all sizes and degrees of sophistication, in the end, I became disillusioned with the way the patent business traditionally operates. Too often, I found that the patents I worked so hard (and was paid handsomely) to obtain failed to serve my client's business needs. In searching for the source of the disconnect between my efforts, the client's expenditures and the ultimate value of the patent to my client's business, I realized that those responsible for the client's business often did not participate adequately in the patenting process. Instead, at many organizations, inventors and patent attorneys served as the gatekeepers for most patent decisions. While the relevant client business unit typically held some say in patenting

Fallback Image

If Your Company is Not Capturing IP-Related Tax Savings You are Likely Leaving Significant Money on the Table

I recently heard a group of tax experts spoke about issues related to intellectual property ("IP"), and since then I have been thinking about how my clients could benefit from better incorporating IP into their corporate tax planning and accounting processes. The topic is very complex and, as such, I will leave the details to the experts. (Feel free to contact me for recommendations in this regard.) I believe it is nonetheless valid to make the following statement: if your tax experts do not include IP issues in their tax planning and accounting processes, your company is likely leaving considerable money on the table. As these experts discussed IP-related tax issues, it became apparent to me how important IP asset management should be to corporate tax planning and accounting efforts. However, my experience demonstrates that few corporate managers are aware that such savings are possible. Even if they know about this

1 2 3