Mar 2, 2009
A first-mover and current trend-setter in the intellectual property management and valuation fields, Ocean Tomo is changing the way the world looks at IP. First started in 1987 as a firm that provided IP valuation opinions, Ocean Tomo is now the nation's first intellectual capital merchant banc with a large bag of services. The company provides expert testimony services, IP valuation services, IP investment services, as well as general counsel and assistance related to any IP transactions. However, none of these, in my ... Read More
Mar 2, 2009
China's State Intellectual Property Office posted a statement today on their site titled "Turning More Patents into Profits", detailing some of the reasons why China has such a high patent application rate, but such a low transformation rate. Transformation, of course, means turning the patent into a product and a source for obtaining cash. Of note was a quick mention of amendments to China's Patent Law, which are currently in the works and expected to take effect on October 1. According to ... Read More
Feb 27, 2009
There is a discreet lending market in New York and few places beyond that trades cash for copyrights until the cash is returned with interest. To play in this field might actually be less of a risk than banks lending on collateralized real estate, based on the fluctuation of real estate values. Certain and valuable copyrights hold their value quite nicely, even in a recession.
A recent story in the New York Times (which also reached a few IP blogs such as IPKat) disclosed ... Read More
Feb 27, 2009
Annie Leibovitz, the well known celebrity photographer for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, has recently pawned her life's work of copyrights to all of her photographs in order to receive a loan from Art Capital Group, a NY-based lender, to pay off over $16M in debts. The loan was first reported by The New York Times, which went on to describe the work of the Art Capital Group and other lenders that do so on the collateralization of artwork and photography. According to the ... Read More
Feb 26, 2009
The article was published a couple weeks ago, and although short and sweet, it is a good reminder about the much-anticipated Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), which is slated to open its trading floors later this year. In the article, IPXI CEO David Silverman reminds us why we are so anxious for transparency in the IP market:
"Intellectual property is not a transparent marketplace. . . [c]ompanies spend billions on research and development and some of these innovations have the potential to be ... Read More
Feb 25, 2009
In an LA Times article published today titled "Patent Rules Out of Date, Inventors Say", IP think tank extraordinaire Mark Lemley was given some hefty sound bytes as he spoke out on the Bilski case. The article surrounds the inventors' petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider their case, which was decided recently in the Federal Circuit. VERY generally, the decision essentially held that patents should be reserved for mechanical innovations, and not for business methods. When it was Lemley's turn ... Read More
Feb 23, 2009
Headlines of late have concerned themselves with competition, or the lack thereof, created by certain adopted business methods or maneuvers. With the inauguration of a new President came a proposed tougher stance on antitrust issues. Obama appointed Christine A. Varney to head the Justice Department's antitrust division in a move that was meant to send a warning signal that the new administration was cracking down on companies vying for monopoly market positions.
Google is not new to the monopoly discussion. Varney has already ... Read More
Feb 22, 2009
PatentFreedom is a full service establishment offering subscription-based assistance in fighting the threat of non-practicing entities (NPE's). NPE's are a growing threat to operating companies with patent portfolios of their own, in that NPE's don't hold their patents for core operational purposes, but instead use strategic enforcement activities such as licensing and litigation to turn a profit. This use of patents has grown into a threatening phenomenon in the technology industries at an alarming rate. PatentFreedom sets out to educate operating companies ... Read More
Feb 20, 2009
This week, a U.S. District Court in New York has upheld a "hot news" claim under New York law against a motion to dismiss, finding that the US Copyright Act does not preempt the state law claim. The Southern District of New York is entertaining a case in which the AP has filed suit against All Headlines News Corp. (AHN) for allegedly copying and pasting the AP's news stories without expending the resources and time to actually research and uncover the stories. ... Read More
Feb 18, 2009
This past weekend marked the two-year time limit under the Webcasters Settlement Act given to Internet Radio Services such as Pandora to reach a deal with the recording industry on streaming fees. The deadline came and went without an agreement. Traditional broadcasting radio stations, which also stream music on their web sites, did reach a deal with record labels (the terms of which I have yet to uncover). The beef between the internet radio stations and the record labels is mainly over ... 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. 