By Bruce Berman Thomas Edison famously said: “I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” After hundreds of experiments with different materials for a long-lasting light bulb filament, Edison, as much as businessman as an innovator, zeroed in on carbonized thread. “At that point,” says James Pooley, author of […]
“Know-go” – negative know-how that can be protected as a trade secret is among IP’s most overlooked assets
February 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Music royalties – a siren song for niche investors seeking higher yield
November 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
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 […]
Will blockchain technology fuel a new patent war or prevent one?
October 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman The race is on to gain control of a new technology that has the power to reinvent banking and make transactions and other agreements between parties cheaper, safer and easier to complete. Like disruptive inventions that preceded it, blockchain has businesses, large and small, jockeying for leadership. This means that patents are likely […]
Fintech patent competition: fierce, diverse, growing
May 23, 2016 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman Among the most watched areas for new patent value is financial technology, covering inventions in areas like authentication, mobile payments and wealth management. Fintech is among the few bright spots in the patent landscape, with leading banks like JP Morgan, Bank of American and Wells Fargo, and credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard and […]
Quinn: Patent PERPs are the real bullies of the licensing world
January 25, 2016 by 1 Comment
By Bruce Berman A disturbing article by IP Watchdog’s Gene Quinn asks “Who are the real bullies of the patent world?” It’s not patent trolls. They are far less of a problem than Patent PERPs – Practicing Entities that Refuse to Pay. The founder and editor of IP Watchdog, one of the leading IP blogs, […]
Google’s patent buying program, an apparent success, is thinly reported
December 14, 2015 by 1 Comment
By Bruce Berman Better than one-in-four of the patents offered to Google for purchase as a result of its Patent Purchase Promotion in May were acquired by the search engine. The only article we could find about IP buying experiment’s results appeared in IEEE Spectrum, which is published by a professional association of engineers. IP CloseUp has […]
NPEs are winning 4.5x more in damages than opcos, new PwC patent litigation study shows
July 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman With patent litigation down 13% over 2013, and median damages awards just $2.9 million, the lowest in at least 20 years, NPEs are still besting operating companies in damages at trial by more than four fold. PwC’s 2015 annual patent litigation study, subtitled “A change in patentee fortunes,” is a useful overview […]
Higher R&D does not necessarily result in more or better patents
June 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman It is unclear that companies with the most significant increases in R&D spending are securing more, better quality or valuable patents. A random study of the R&D spending and U.S. patent granted three years following of 12 leading technology companies conducted by Brody Berman Associates shows that costly corporate research spending does […]
Some Licensing Companies will Likely Benefit from Higher Patent Hurdles
February 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman As businesses adjust to new judicial and legislative requirements public patent licensing companies will have to work harder and think smarter to compete against the stock market and each other. Some are better-positioned to succeed than other. Investors will soon learn which patent licensing companies are best-prepared to respond to the new […]
Copyright Monetization Business is Latest IP Enforcement Play
October 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
By Bruce Berman New IP licensing model is generating opportunity for content providers and investors; obstacles for file-sharers. Rightscorp is an IP licensing business model of a different stripe. It monetizes copyrights through widespread enforcement of consumers who download music and movies without paying. While some may consider Rightscorp the first public “copyright troll,” others see […]
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