Jun 24, 2009
Word came last week that the IP Auction platform that Ocean Tomo had pioneered and built into a world-renowned marketplace for high-profile intellectual property is now in the hands of another company, British information brokers ICAP. According to a press release:
ICAP (IAP.L), the world's premier interdealer broker, announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire the transactions division of Ocean Tomo LLC, the leading Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc® firm, for an initial consideration of US$10 million at closing, comprising $5 million ... Read More
Jun 23, 2009
While I regret that I did not make it to the IP Business Congress in Chicago this week, I did promise to relay some of the important moments of the 3-day conference. Fortunately, Joff Wild has posted an update on the IAM blog titled Seen and heard at the IPBC on some of the useful information flying around the conference rooms at the Four Seasons. The post covers important tidbits and soundbites from directors at the EPO, the USPTO, and the Intellectual ... Read More
May 27, 2009
The Chicago Tribune reported today that Facebook will be getting a $200 Million investment from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian firm. The investment is said to be in exchange for almost 2% of Facebook's stock, valuing the California-based internet social networking site at roughly $10 Billion. This is down from the $15 Billion valuation of the company represented by the $240 Million investment Facebook received from Microsoft for a 1.6% stake in the company, but it grossly exaggerates the $3.7 Billion valuation Facebook ... Read More
May 14, 2009
One of the more interesting, and important, happenings in the IP market is the emerging movement to fill a C-Suite (corporate exec. office) chair with an individual that understands and envisions IP as a potential asset class, and not a means to litigation. (For a good quote on the idea that we need to move away from the thinking that IP is only relevant for litigation, see the ipVA blog: "the earliest evolution of our market over-emphasises the link between IP value ... Read More
May 12, 2009
The rising tide of the recession has brought with it a wave of change in our approach to commerce, but perhaps no transition has provided as much optimism as the growing share of commerce involving intellectual property assets. Intellectual property has been increasingly recognized as a burgeoning asset class, an important financing tool, and a revenue-generating instrument for exchange. Acknowledging this phenomenon, the United States has joined a global initiative to help push a common knowledge of this use of intellectual property, ... Read More
May 8, 2009
The economic storm in which companies have found themselves has brought cost-cutting measures to every C-suite discussion table. Frequently, one of the first costs to go is the one which is associated with the most risk, R&D. However, as a recent BusinessWeek article points out, this may just be the time to increase innovative practices instead of cutting them. The best quote comes from Samuel Palmisano, the Chief Executive of IBM:
"Some may be tempted to hunker down, to scale back their investment in ... Read More
May 4, 2009
I have discovered a very interesting post from a couple of weeks ago on the 12:01 Tuesday Blog, written by Chicago IP attorney Aaron Feigelson. The post is titled "Patenting the Business of Patents", and discusses tangible evidence of the burgeoning IP marketplace by way of 14 U.S. patents (11 of which have been issued in the past 2 years) covering the method and business of valuing IP. Feigelson lists all 14 of the patents, which I will recreate the list here:
7,493,262
Method for ... Read More
Apr 30, 2009
I have been waiting for this sort of collaborative venture. According to a recent article on FindLaw, international law firm, Morrison & Foerster LLP, has entered into a collaboration with Northern California-based Ovidian Group, LLC, an IP asset management firm, to offer the kind of corporate IP management and consulting services that blend both law and business strategy. This has been coming. Clients are now demanding these sort of strategic consulting services that combine intellectual property and corporate management expertise with knowledge ... Read More
Apr 27, 2009
A New York Times article today (Losses in Good-Will Values Dog Bank Deals) attributes the massive write-downs occurring at banks these days to overvalued good will and the overpayment for companies during the "merger mania" of the last decade. The following part caught my attention:
Companies are taking billions of dollars in losses as they write down the value of assets known as good will - the amount they overpaid for a business compared with the sum of its parts. As the economy ... Read More
Apr 24, 2009
The discussion continues on the IP valuation front. Joff Wild added a reader response to his original "myth buster" post regarding IP valuation myths. The response is written by Nir Kossovsky, executive secretary of the Intangible Asset Finance Society and CEO of Steel City Re. The relevant part reads:
Our current markets are volatile because value is uncertain. International accounting standards suggest that all assets be valued at market. There is considerable push back in the US because the market is damaged and ... 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. 