Jan 31, 2009
Every once in a while I will read about a business venture that is so business-savvy, yet so simple, I pinch myself for not thinking of it, while applauding the ones who did at the same time. A recent post on IP Finance introduced a new business model that is currently being tested in the music industry. In short, bands and artists are asking their loyal fans (and those that just hear them and think they are good enough to make it) ... Read More
Jan 30, 2009
A recent New York Times article discusses the print magazine business and the rising number of casualties the recession has claimed. This month has seen 14 magazines go under, including Country Home, Arthur, Vital Source, Map Magazine, and Teen. Going down with the balance sheets, obviously, is each of those respective brands. Effectively, each demise takes with it that brand's intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, customer lists, subscription lists, vendor lists, and more.
Many smaller print-media magazines probably don't have much overhead. A ... Read More
Jan 28, 2009
After reading Jackie Hutter's (author of the IP Asset Maximizer Blog, a great read) comment under Joff Wild's post on IAM, I hastily posted a response (comment #15). Subsequently, I read some other responses, and after giving Jackie's words some more thought, I slightly digress from my initial response.
I still believe transparency is the key to standardizing IP valuation. However, when I speak of such valuation, I do so in the transactional context. Jackie's words, "valuation of intangible assets primarily by what ... Read More
Jan 27, 2009
At one time, it was believed that at least 70% of all corporate value was in a corporation's intangible assets. This percentage, while probably assuming too much for many companies, and also too little for others, has been agreed upon by numerous IP professionals. Apparently, the "average" is stumbled upon by subtracting a corporation's tangible assets from its market capitalization, the remaining assets presumably being IP. It is true that tangible assets have made up less and less of a corporation's market ... Read More
Jan 27, 2009
Barton Beebe, a copyrights and trademarks expert and professor at Cardozo School of Law, recently published an article titled "An Empirical Study of U.S. Copyright Fair Use Opinions, 1978-2005".[1] The Study is a thorough statistical examination of every federal court opinion that significantly involved fair use since 1978. The study was so insightful that it is important to summarize and share some of the key empirical data to the copyright law professional community. In short, much of the data went "against the ... Read More
Jan 26, 2009
The new issue of Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) was released with some fantastic features. One of note, written by finance editor Nigel Page, touches on the world-wide recession with a force of optimism for IP as a real asset class. Asserting that the financial meltdown is actually the very thing that will lead to IP as a tradeable asset, Page writes that, "[a]lthough everyone acknowledges that these are difficult and uncertain times, the general view is that IP and intangibles in general ... Read More
Jan 26, 2009
The success of "patent trolls" has been the root of a new anti-patent troll model implemented to defeat the patent troll movement and instill value in precious IP. RPX, a San Francisco-based start-up, is a "defensive IP aggregator". It is a firm that buys up free-market patents in an effort to safeguard tech companies from expensive patent lawsuits. The firm sells memberships to companies based on the company's operating income, and then turns around and buys patents on the market that relate, ... Read More
Jan 25, 2009
I might be stretching it a bit to call it a stock market (this early), but developments are on the horizon to push IP in that direction.
The success of public auction events such as the Ocean Tomo auctions has sparked a new concept that will continue the trend toward liquidity of IP value. The Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), of which Ocean Tomo is the founder and majority owner, is "the world's first financial exchange with an intellectual property focus." With its ... Read More
Jan 24, 2009
A somewhat recent phenomenon in the patent arena is the creation of "patent pools", where a number of dynamic companies with different agendas throw their patents onto a single licensing platform making their patents available under common terms. In effect, a company's IP is available to pool members, but barriers to enter the market are effectively erected, causing more prospective competitors to license from the patent pool. Therefore, even when a company's specific patent is not needed, it reaps the benefit. These ... Read More
Jan 23, 2009
This is the "have your cake and eat it too" scheme.
Companies often believe that core intellectual property only holds value in the competitive advantage it creates through its operational use. Although this may be true in some cases, a core IP sale and license-back model may be advantageous in other situations. If a company's IP is critical to its operations, but it needs cash to operate, it may sell its IP to another company in a transaction that allows the selling company ... Read More
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 