Life sciences IP management in an age of opportunity

By Peter A Ackerman and Russell L Parr The life sciences industries provide some of the best examples of the risk/reward continuum inherent in the creation and commercialisation of ideas. The risks are considerable given the costs of complex research and development, regulatory requirement, and intellectual property owned by others that must be manoeuvred in order […]

Getting the most from your IP agent networks

By Donal O’Connell IP agent networks stretch around the globe and through every industry sector. Donal O’Connell and Sabine Baum outline best practice for managing those networks and turning them into crucial business assets One of the most essential elements in supporting a global intellectual property (IP) portfolio is the network of IP agents and […]

IP Strategy for Startups

By Ian Maxwell Here are two very true statements A startup should have a patent portfolio Startups can rarely afford to properly invest in a patent portfolio With this fundamental paradox in mind, this article describes some of the options that startups have with respect to IP strategies that most effectively balance the costs and […]

When everything becomes software, how does that affect IP strategy?

By Joren De Wachter Everything becomes software Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and currently co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, wrote in August 2011 in the Wall Street Journal about how “Software is eating the world”. While Mr Andreessen was building on earlier observations, such as the author of this article, […]

IP diligence is a constant

By Peter Ackerman What do a Koosh ball and a tab of Viagra have in common? Aside from the pleasure they bring to millions, their economic success is premised upon the same type of IP protection. The company that makes Koosh balls – rainbow-coloured, plasma-filled rubber balls with protruding soft rubber spikes – and the […]

What is IP Strategy?

By Ralph Eckardt “Over the last 10 years, it has become imperative for CEOs to have not just a general understanding of the intellectual property issues facing their business and their industry, but to have quite a refined expertise relating to those issues… It is no longer simply the legal department’s problem. CEOs must now […]

Brand Licensing in Emerging Markets – Top 10 Mistakes

By Ben Goodger Mistake 1. Don’t take account of the local market The classic and most frequent mistake is to assume that a formula for the licensing or franchising of a brand in one market will work equally well, unamended and unadapted, in another market. This is well illustrated by the story of KFC in […]

When the IP Is Your Own

By Robert Cantrell For those who have not read previous posts under this title, I am working to sell a documentary that I financed and filmed.  Like any scenario to put IP into the market, because things are ongoing, I can’t get into the details of the discussions.  I can get into some of the […]

Invention Report Template

By Donal O’Connell One simple yet effective way to build a level of discipline into the invention handling process is to define a standard template for invention reports coming from the inventor community.  If the idea is of potential value and is patentable, then the inventor should complete an invention report.  An invention report is […]

Low R&D Cost Per-Patent is a Poor Indicator of Good Return

By Bruce Berman Patent Yield-Per-R&D Dollar Varies Widely by Industry, Technology & Business Model For most businesses obtaining patents and costly R&D go together like love and marriage – you can’t have one with out the other. Or can you? The cost of R&D that underlies a particular invention varies greatly by industry, business model […]