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 Quality Must be a Key Feature in Any Financial Product Based on IP Assets
How to Make Sure Your IP Strategy Plan is Not Doomed to Failure
Smart business leaders understand today that IP Strategy should form a fundamental pillar of their value creation-directed business strategy. By taking a "business eye view" toward IP, forward-thinking corporate managers seek to capture the true value of their company, which today is increasingly measured in the form of intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. If you have read this far in this post, you no doubt realize that your company must develop and execute on an IP Strategy in order to maximize intangible asset value. But, IP Strategy is only one part of the process of generating and maximizing this asset value. As an IP and Patent Business Strategist (more info here: The Hutter Group), I have found that even the most robust business-directed IP Strategy is likely doomed to failure if your company does not also establish an IP Culture within your organization. Put simply,
Using IP Strategy to Reduce the Strategic Uncertainty of Business Decisions
In my wanderings through the Internet, I recently came across a new-to-me management concept. This concept, which generally addresses the management of the risk of strategic decisions, directs C-level corporate decision-makers to embrace as a primary responsibility the management of uncertainty in order to enable the long-term success of their companies. The concept, developed by Michael Raynor of Deloitte Research, is briefly discussed in this article entitled "What is Corporate Strategy, Really" (available here: http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/article.asp?intArticle_id=722) and in more detail in a book entitled The Strategy Paradox (more info here: http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Paradox-committing-success-failure/dp/0385516223 ). In the article, Mr. Raynor effectively asserts that traditional models of corporate strategy are flawed because they are inherently based on a supposed understanding of future events. Instead of embracing the fallacy that they are able to predict the future, business leaders should acknowledge and accept that a significant aspect of corporate decision making is based upon planning
How You Can Be a Top Player in IP in 3 “Easy Steps”
As a forward-thinking business strategist, you will be interested in the reprinted article published in the Summer 2007 Sloan Management Review entitled “Patenting for Profits” (available in this link: sloanreview.mit.edu/wsj/insight/pdfs/48409.pdf). This article, which was written by two partners at Bain & Company, presents a very succinct explanation of the elements needed for a company to become a top player in the IP game. As an IP Strategist and owner of an IP Strategy and Consulting services (more info here: http://www.jackiehutter/, I believe this article clearly lays out the necessary features for your company to create and deploy a patent strategy that will maximize your corporate assets. To summarize this article, as a top player in creating value from patents, you will create and deploy an infrastructure having each of these elements: 1) a strong market focus; 2) a holistic view; and 3) a strong organization. When your organization has a