Want to Know More about IP Strategy? A Selection of Posts for In-House and Outside Counsel

This week, I am speaking at the Midwest IP Institute.  I will be participating in a “fire side chat” with my good friend, Edna Vassilovski of Stoel, Rives LLP. Our session is entitled “How Patent Prosecutors and In-House Counsel Can Provide Work Product Better Aligned with Client’s Business Needs.”  Specific topics we will discuss include:

• How clients’ views of IP and intangible assets are changing and ways both inside and outside counsel can stay relevant to clients today;
• What you can do to help clients obtain meaningful patents at reduced cost;
• How to really understand clients’ business goals and how to help make those happen; and
• How to help clients monetize their patents

I am really looking forward to sharing my passion for IP business strategy with in-house lawyers and outside counsel, especially since I will be doing this with someone like Edna who I think has a great grasp on client service from a business perspective.  In preparation for this talk, and for the benefit of those attending the the session who would like to learn more about my perspective, I thought it made sense to revive some previous blog posts from the past couple of years where I put forth my positions on why I believe that IP legal service–whether provided by in-house or outside counsel–often fails to create value for clients and how the value proposition for clients can be improved.

Regular readers of this blog may recognize many of these posts, which might be considered a “greatest hits” of my opinions of problems with how we provide IP counseling to our clients.  I semi-seriously refer to myself as a “recovering patent attorney,” and for those who wonder why they should consider my opinions as relevant to their practices, you should appreciate that I am not the only person who is calling for change in how legal services are provided.  The good news–at least for me–is that business people are listening, and anyone who wishes to remain relevant in the long term should take heed, at least to know what alternatives their competition might be offering to their clients.

Without further ado–here are a few posts I think are worth highlighting for those seeking insights on how to better serve their business clients in the area of IP.

July 2010:  IP Lawyers:  Enough About Bilski Already–Start Talking about Things that Create Value for Your Clients

April 2010:  What Outside Counsel Don’t Understand about Patent Marking in the Corporate Environment

March 2010:  A Case Study of the Failure of Patent Attorneys to Protect a Major Corporate Innovation

December 2009:  Issues with IP Counseling in Corporate Innovation Processes–Why Innovation Professionals Ignore their IP Lawyers

May 2009:  IP Management as an Organizational Issue

May 2009:  IP Counsel Can Provide Value-Added Services for Clients by Assisting in Open Innovation Efforts

April 2009:  Innovative Methods for Corporate Legal Managers to Reduce IP Counsel Costs

April 2009:  The Dirty Little Secret of Patents is that Most are Worthless to Their Owners.  Here is Why

March 2009:  An Introduction to Patent Monetization Resources for Corporations and Entrepreneurs

March 2009:  How a Patent Strategy Focused Only on Obtaining the Lowest Cost Patents May Reveal a Company’s Future Inability to Remain Viable

February 2009:  Chief IP Counsel:  Stop Trying to Change How Your Lawyers Bill You and Focus on the Model They Use to Provide Your Legal Services

January 2009:  Without Disruptive Innovation, Many IP Law Firms are Destined to Meet the Fate of Buggy Whip Manufacturers

January 2009:  What is an IP Strategist?  A Lawyer Who is not Afraid to Say “No”

January 2009:  Confessions of a Recovering Patent Attorney and Why I Have Joined the Ranks of IP Strategists

July 2008:  If You Have to Ask Your Patent Attorney what Your Patent Strategy is, You Don’t Have One

July 2008:  Only You Can Prevent Patent Expertise Creep:  Recognizing the Proper Role of Your Patent Attorneys