By Jackie Hutter The Takeaway: For startups whose development efforts lag behind a looming US utility application filing deadline, use of the “Request for Non-Publication” in US patent filing can allow them to preserve the option of shoring up their patent protection for an extended period in the future, while still retaining the priority date of […]
Transfer Pricing and Trade Secrets
By Oliver Treidler and Donal O’Connell Transfer pricing is probably the most important issue in international corporate taxation. In taxation and accounting, transfer pricing refers to the rules and methods for pricing transactions between enterprises under common ownership or control. A transfer price is the price at which members of a group transact with each other, […]
Why I Still Help Small Companies
By Duncan Bucknell Almost all of my work time is spent working for multi-billion dollar clients around the world. So why do I still bother helping small companies and startups? Because I believe that collectively they make the greatest contribution to innovation and because every time I have a conversation with them, I get a […]
IP Strategy Excellence – are you ready to step up?
By Duncan Bucknell A lot has been written about IP Strategy, and most of it is vague and unhelpful. Over the past few months I have been designing a program to give you practical, concrete skills and insight into IP Strategy. (I have been thinking about a program like this for about 20 years – see […]
Need Broad Patents Fast? Try This.
By Jackie Hutter That title got your attention, didn’t it? It was meant to. After another successful round of patent application examinations for several clients in the last year, I thought others would like access to my proven patent acquisition methodology. Certainly, there’s a lot more than I can include in this post, and what […]
Alternative IP Strategies
By Nigel Ravenhill Don’t relinquish your IP rights if you don’t have to. It’s has been been almost a sacred cow in IP and a freedom to operate (FTO) necessity. Companies have long used defensive and offensive strategies to create and protect new markets, enter existing ones and monetize IP investments, typically resolving disputes through […]
How to determine the value of intellectual property in divorce cases
By Efrat Kasznik With approximately 50 percent of all U.S. (first or second) marriages ending in divorce, the proper identification and allocation of all marital assets is critical to the post-divorce well-being of both spouses. In a recent seminar sponsored by the Jewish Federation, financial advisor Tali Alon and family law attorney Esther Rosenfeld discussed […]
Music royalties – a siren song for niche investors seeking higher yield
By Bruce Berman A small but growing number of investors are buying the rights to musician’s future earnings, hoping to beat the fixed income returns and other markets. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Music Royalties Strike a Chord,” these fixed income investors are lured by future returns of 8%-12% annually, when […]
The Psychology of IP Risk Management
By Donal O’Connell The psychology associated with risk: There are a variety of psychological factors which influence how people react to risks. Research conducted on this topic has helped to understand people’s risk perceptions; how “rules of thumb” influence how people evaluate risk; how risk perceptions influence people’s concern about risk; and how optimistic biases […]
10 Reasons to Start a Patent War
By Nigel Ravenhill Patent wars have been part of the intellectual property landscape since the middle of the 19th-century and the frenetic innovation of the early days of the industrial revolution. Many of modern history’s most famous inventors were central figures, and their fortunes based on fortuitous legal decisions that concurred with their oral […]