Apr 17, 2009
Days after the pirates of Somalia were defeated in the Red Sea, pirates of the internet were defeated in a Swedish court. Four owners of The Pirate Bay, the notorious internet file downloading site for music and movies that enjoys over 20 million in users, were sentenced to a year in prison and over $3 Million in damages to be paid back to the entertainment industry. Chalk it up as another victory for copyright owners, who have now built themselves quite a ... Read More
Apr 15, 2009
Despite the importance of intellectual property, and its protection and efficient management by the corporate world (and all IP owners), mass media seems to forget about it, or at least misunderstand it. The blame should probably not lie on the mass media, however. Instead, it is probably the fault of IP professionals, including myself, who do not educate these people on the critical effect proper protection and management of IP has on business success.
In the past week, the topic of IP in ... Read More
Apr 13, 2009
Last Thursday, in TransCore, LP v. Electronic Transaction Consultants Corp., the Federal Circuit held that three patents included under a covenant not to sue, and one that was not, were all covered by rights mirrored by a non-exclusive license of the patents, and therefore were subject to patent exhaustion.
A quick summary: TransCore had previously entered into a settlement agreement with a company called Mark IV. That settlement agreement included a covenant not to sue based on infringement of three specifically named patents ... Read More
Apr 10, 2009
Calling themselves an "intellectual property investment bank", Silicon Valley-based Inflexion Point Strategy, LLC "represent[s] technology companies and institutional investors in the acquisition and sale of patent portfolios having strategic value and in the sourcing and execution of IP-intensive M&A transactions." Inflexion Point grabs hold of the growing notion that IP is much more than a bundle of legal rights, and they are one of the leaders at the frontier of the IP market that continues to push the idea that IP is a ... Read More
Apr 9, 2009
As individuals and small businesses look to secure funding during a credit freeze, finance innovation has led to a jump in IP-based funding. In 1997, David Bowie opened eyes when he issued asset-backed bonds on the basis of future royalties, raising over $55 million. This year, Annie Leibovitz, the famed photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, secured $16 million in loans by pledging her life's work of copyrights. The practice is not exclusively available for stars, however, as companies are turning ... Read More
Apr 9, 2009
This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped to see the passage of an anti-piracy law he was attempting to push for some time now. The law, which purported to completely cut off the internet connection of consistent copyright pirates, would have been the most far-reaching anti-piracy law to date. France has had to deal with a stigma of having large copyright piracy and illegal music downloading problems, and Sarkozy had hoped this would show his strong position against such activities.
According to a ... Read More
Apr 6, 2009
Two blurbs published today, one by the New York Times and the other by the Wall Street Journal, highlighted the state of the M&A market. The Wall Street Journal material is a great graphic showing M&A activity, generally, in the first quarter of 2009. According to the piece, overall deals are down 21% worldwide from the 1st quarter of 2008 (but rose in the U.S.). The New York Times piece specifically indicates the status of the deal market in the technology sector. Apparently, the first quarter ... Read More
Apr 2, 2009
Technology Transfer Tactics, in partner with Intellectual Property Research Associates, Inc., has released 3 updated volumes of their Royalty Rate books, which are "dedicated to reporting detailed information about the economic aspects of intellectual property transactions including licensing and joint ventures." The books showcase data from IP transactions, categorized by industry, which provides empirical evidence of royalty rates used through recent years. Compensation terms are reported for actual transactions in the following industries: aeronautics, agriculture, automotive, chemistry, communications, computer hardware, computer software, construction ... Read More
Apr 2, 2009
When Marty Pichinson spoke at last week's Ocean Tomo conference in San Francisco on the topic of monetizing IP in distressed markets, I knew I wanted to feature his company next. The man exudes the combination of IP market knowledge and personable confidence that can win over a crowded conference room, as well as a potential IP buyer. Marty is the Co-Managing Director at Sherwood Partners LLC, which is a full service business consulting firm that deals in many markets besides just the IP ... Read More
Apr 1, 2009
Michael Martin raises an interesting question on his Broken Symmetry blog, and one that I just couldn't pass up: Are Tweets Copyrightable?.
Just last week, a Wall Street Journal article announced a business plan to monetize the popularity of Twitter, which means people now have an incentive to own their tweets, or at least control them exclusively. The question of copyrightability in this context comes down to whether a tweet is copyrightable subject matter. To this end, Martin writes the following:
That depends. The ... 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. 