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A Patent Reality Check: Litigation Not a Viable Revenue Source for Most Inventors

The ability of an intrepid inventor to strike it rich from a great idea seems to be embedded in the DNA of many Americans.  Perhaps this view emanates from the presence of patents in the US Constitution, which could create a feeling that US citizens have an "inalienable right" to use patent protection to their advantage.  Alternatively, people may perceive the occasional media reports of successful inventors and substantial patent litigation awards as a signal that patents can serve as a path to wealth for those with great ideas (certainly, this is the Hollywood view).  In truth, however, getting rich merely from a patent is a rare occurrence--maybe not as low a probability as winning the lottery, but the odds are incredibly long that any person can make money from a patented idea alone.  Think about it: if all it took was a patent to make someone wealthy, there would be

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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

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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