Analysts say that the current economic downturn will likely last at least until early 2010. While this no doubt seems like almost an eternity for the average consumer, for business strategic planning purposes, this date is just around the corner. Indeed, business managers at many companies are likely conducting “short term” strategic planning efforts targeted for introduction in mid-2010. This might account for the recent uptick in job postings for experienced corporate intellectual property attorneys. I see this increase in job opportunities as signifying that smart corporate leaders are realizing that sustainable business success requires companies to not only introduce innovative products and technology offerings, but also that they strategically protect such innovations. As a result, I believe that more companies will seek to hire strategic in-house IP counsel, which is good news for us IP types. Of course, the traditional model of hiring an in-house IP counsel results in
Do You Know Your Company Needs Strategic In-House IP Counsel, But Think You Can’t Afford It? One Company’s Solution is Hiring Part-Time Counsel
Companies Adopting Open Innovation Methodologies Must Incorporate Patent Information for Maximum Value Creation
Open Innovation is unquestionably becoming a "hot" area of focus for U.S. companies, especially in the current economic climate in which businesses are more than ever focused on smarter ways of doing business. And, why wouldn't Open Innovation be an intriguing business model when companies can fill their product and technology pipelines for significantly lower cost and with more variability of ideas than typically is possible from their own R&D infrastructures? As a result, more and more business leaders are today viewing Open Innovation as a necessary direction in which to move their company's innovation efforts. A fundamental premise of Open Innovation is that good ideas can come from anywhere, even when a company operates in a very specialized core business. Moreover, innovations that come from outside of one's core business, such as in packaging or transportation, are better left to those who specialize in those areas. Perhaps more controversial
Patent Monetization Can be a New Source of Revenue for Your Company: Make Sure You Know the Critical Steps for Success
As corporate revenues continue decreasing as a result of consumer and corporation belt-tightening, many businesses now seek to extract revenue from previously untapped areas. One such source experiencing increasing interest is patent monetization, whereby a business licenses or sells its unused or under-utilized patent assets to generate a new revenue stream. At the surface, patent monetization would effectively appear to be a "no brainer" for business. That is, if one owns an asset that holds little internal value, but to which a third party would ascribe considerable value, why wouldn't a company move forward with selling that asset? In truth, however, few organizations possess the knowledge base required to succesfully execute on a patent monetization plan. This failure results not because patent monetization requires a complex set of skills; rather, the difficulty typically lies with the organization's lack of familiarity with the process of patent monetization. A successful patent monetization process
Investors in the Green Economy: You Could Lose Your Investment in Green Innovators by Failing to Identify the Green Inventors that Came Before Them
With President-Elect Obama's announcement that he will establish an "Apollo Project" to develop a Green Economy, there is no doubt that "the Green Technology train has left the station." Indisputably, investors will start to invest heavily in companies that appear to possess commericializable Green Technology that will enter the marketplace as the US embraces the Green Economy and develops the necessary infrastructure to make this happen. Before staking a claim to one or more of these companies, however, investors should understand whether existing patent rights owned by third parties could undermine the investment potential of even the most promising Green Technology innovators. Anyone seeking to capitalize on the Green Economy and its attendant Green Technology must recognize a fundamental reality of US patent law: in granting a patent, the Patent Office cares only that an invention is useful, novel and nonobvious. Significantly--and this is the rub for investors in Green
Existing Sources of Investment Information Failed Us: Patent Landscaping Analytics Provide a Necessary Innovation for Investors
As global stock markets continue to struggle, smart investors seeking to capitalize on relatively cheap stock prices are searching for promising investment opportunities. Unfortunately, however, most investors are likely relying on the same sources of investment information that failed to accurately predict the current stock market situation. If the predictive nature of this information has been wrong time and time again, why do investors continue to rely on it? The answer is pretty simple: investment professionals lack knowledge that alternative sources of information exist. One such alternative approach to making investment decisions involves using patent landscaping analytics to assess existing investment in a particular product or technology area. My research demonstrates that properly conducted patent landscaping analytics can effectively allow one to predict the future trajectory of product development by companies. For example, as I have written about here and here, the fact that Google and Yahoo intended to significantly
Taking a Disciplined Approach to Protecting Innovation Investment Allows You to Reduce Legal Spends While Still Obtaining Necessary Patent Rights
This week, I am intrigued by what appears to be a recent convergence of reporting and blogging about the state of innovation in the US. There is an obvious concern by those who keep track of such matters that, in the current economic climate, government and business will "take a hatchet" to R & D and innovation budgets in an attempt to reduce overall costs. Such cutting is, of course, a rational short term solution to address today's problems. Government and corporate leaders taking the long view will nonetheless understand that, when it comes to R & D and innovation spending, it is much better to apply the proverbial "scapel" to one's budget. Moreover, as discussed by Tom Donahue (President and Chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce) recently on The Huffington Post (h/t Front End of Innovation), intellectual property protection is a critical component of successful
CEO’s and Corporate Managers: Develop an Engaged Knowledge of Your Company’s Intellectual Assets to Stop Leaving Corporate Asset Value on the Table
More than 70 % of corporate value today lies in the form of intangible assets, much of which are in the form of patents, copyrights and trademarks. Notwithstanding this fact, many otherwise sophisticated CEO's and corporate managers essentially leave a significant portion of firm value on the table by failing to develop and execute on a business strategy directed to capturing and maximizing this class of assets. Of course, few organizations would admit that management fails to fully realize the asset that forms the bulk of today's corporate value. Many managers also may not believe they have the requisite knowlede to determine whether their company's intellectual assets are being properly exploited. Fortunately, it can be fairly easy to discern whether a company's management expends the effort necessary to capture and maximize its intellectual assets. Put simply, if an organization's top business leadership does not possess an engaged knowledge of their company's
The First Step to Generating Revenue from "Patent Monetization" is Understanding What the Term Means
Smart corporate leaders continually seek new methods to capture firm asset value and improve cash flow. And, with estimates of more than 70 % of corporate value being in the form of intangible assets, it is not surprising that many organization are searching for ways to generate revenue from this all-to-often untapped asset class. IP monetization has therefore become an increasing focus of corporate managers and even seems to be an emerging "business model du jour" for innovative corporate managers. Moreover, since patents comprise the most "tangible" form of intangible assets at most companies, many corporate leaders view patent monetization as "low hanging fruit" in the search for additional methods to generate cash income. Indisputably, there is much money to be made from patent monetization. However, in counseling business professionals as an IP Business Strategist (more info here: The Hutter Group), I frequently find that many otherwise sophisticated high-level
Think Business Cannot Predict the Future? Patent Landscape Analytics May Prove You Wrong
Regular readers of the IP Asset Maximizer Blog will recognize my previous post which provided an illustration of the predictive nature of patent landscaping to improve business decisions using Cox Enterprise's $300 Million acquisition of Adify as an example. I wanted to follow up on that post because a recent announcement by Yahoo may demonstrate that, at least in some situations, patent landscaping analytics are so good at predicting future competititve activity that they can operate as a business crystal ball. In that post, I predicted that Cox would likely experience substantial competition in the vertical advertising space as it seeks to capitalize on its purchase of Adify, and supported this assertion by providing a picture of third party commercial intentions by looking at patent filing data. This prediction was bolstered by recent a Google announcement that it was partnering with NBC-Universal to deliver targeted ads through cable. This
Investors Can Predict the Winners of the Alternative Energy Race: Follow the Patents
It seems that in just the last few months, reduction of US dependence on foreign oil has moved from an occasionally discussed aspirational goal to becoming a critical public policy mandate. Indeed, there is much talk about the energy policies of both John McCain and Barack Obama, each of which focus substantially on increasing the amount of energy obtained from within the borders of the US. As an interested observer, it appears to me that the publicity associated with The Pickens Plan announced in July 2008 (which I previously wrote about here) served as a significant impetus for increased public awareness of alternative energy as a public policy concern. There can be no doubt that the alternative energy "train has left the station" and that we will begin seeing an ever-increasing amount of corporate investment in both wind and natural gas technology. This investment will be directed toward