Losing the Jury

By General Patent Corporation Jury trials, statistically speaking, are usually a good thing for patent owners. But as patent litigation becomes ever more complex, and the technology underlying the patents ever more mind-boggling, what happens if the case in question goes right over the jurors’ heads? Recently, we’ve seen two cases-in-point: high-profile cases in which […]

iTunes in Asia – IP trumps Apple’s entry

By Nick Redfearn The iTunes Store has just opened to consumers with credit cards in Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. That’s most of ASEAN. But not in the biggest market, Indonesia or newly opening Myanmar. The latter is understandable given the lack of development. But […]

How Nokia plans to turn its implosion into a transition

By Erin-Michael Gill (Credit: Brian Glucroft) The news around Nokia has been understandably negative recently, with some calling its collapse “one of the most spectacular implosions in the history of business.” Last month, Nokia lost its top spot as the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer. Last week, it announced a reduction of 10,000 jobs globally […]

The core of an IP Strategists work…

By Duncan Bucknell “And the core of the strategist’s work is always the same, discover the crucial factors in a situation and design a way to coordinate and focus actions to deal with them.”  (Richard Rumelt  in the June 2011 McKinsey Quarterly.) I think this is a great summary – it gets to the heart […]

Patent Thickets, right or wrong?

By Severin de Wit Patents are instituted to provide an incentive to innovate, which is important considering that innovation is a key driver for economic prosperity. Yet, what happens if the company that holds the patent right does not want to produce anything, but instead holds-up other patent right holders? Certain combinations of patent rights, […]

Should you devote resources to monitoring your competitors IP?

By Leonid Kravets A successful business person understands that in order to stay ahead of the competition, he or she must stay informed about the competition. One way to stay informed is to monitor competitors’ publications issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”).  These publications include published non-provisional patent applications and issued […]

Avoid jointly owned intellectual property like the plague

By Donal O’Connell Not all the smart people work for you Traditionally, internal innovation was the paradigm in which most companies operated.  Most innovating companies kept their discoveries highly secret and made no attempt to assimilate information from outside their own research and development laboratories.  This was driven by the belief that “the smart people […]

New Patent Businesses are Diverse and Well-Capitalized

By Bruce Berman A wider range of intelligent businesses are achieving higher returns on patents by extracting direct profits or providing defensive leverage. The Patent Monetization Landscape below is a graphic illustration of these businesses developed by Brody Berman Associates in conjunction with the IP Investment Group at Coller Captial, a London-based private equity firm and one the of the leading independent patent holders. Patent Monetization Landscape […]

Understanding the IP Wars

By Erin-Michael Gill Today, technology companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are getting a scary wake-up call on the importance of IP issues. My personal wake-up call happened in November 2008. The financial crisis was exploding, the hot start-up computer company I worked for, OQO, was in the process of shutting down, and my 19-month-old […]

Eight Species of Patent Strategy – Part 1 the framework

By Bill Meade Introduction: When invited to give a talk for an American Corporate Council Association (which changed its name to the Association of Corporate Council) in 2004 I was asked to speak on “patent strategy.”  When I complained “That is a pretty big topic, can you narrow it down a little for me?”  the […]