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
Jan 22, 2009
(The following will be the first installment of a series called "Monetizing IP" that IP Prospective plans to run daily over the next week. The topics will cover conventional models such as sale, license-back, and outbound licensing, and then will move to new models, such as patent pools, IP auctions, IP stock markets/investing, and defensive IP aggregators.)
It is no secret that we live in an information society, but consider the following: according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, intellectual property in ... Read More
Jan 19, 2009
Transparency, or the lack thereof, has caused hopeful transactors in the IP market more frustration than Terrell Owens has caused General Managers in the NFL. The sell-side has never had a platform on which to market their rights to all potential buyers, and the buy-side has never had a platform on which complete information is disclosed. This is partly (and to some, wholly) due to the inherent character of intellectual property and its valuation.
The phenomenon of IP Auctions, however, has the potential ... Read More
Jan 17, 2009
Copyright and music publishers in Nashville have for years adopted and exercised a business model that was created decades ago. That model includes hiring songwriters, or buying the composition right to songs (as opposed to the sound recording right), and marketing those rights to record labels and artists for inclusion in an upcoming album (and the payment of performance and mechanical rights). Transactions in this business have been controlled and channeled by those companies that have been doing it for a long ... Read More
Jan 16, 2009
Good information on IP, IP management, and IP investing is surprisingly hard to find. MBA and Law school courses cover most issues dealing with IP recognition, litigation, and protection, but few deal squarely with the issue of IP management and the burgeoning investment market focusing on intellectual property.
When it comes to this niche field, there is one firm that is leading the charge. Based out of Chicago, Ocean Tomo, a self-proclaimed Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc® firm is at the frontier of corporate ... Read More
Jan 14, 2009
Currently, with the number of companies jumping under the Chapter 11 umbrella, one has to ask where all of the IP is going? Maybe even more importantly, it is very apparent that some small to mid-cap companies are selling their ever-so-important patents just to stay afloat. (For further reading on this topic, there is a great post on IP Finance today titled "Has the Great Patent Fire-Sale Started?", which recognizes this trend and ponders what this will mean for the respective patent markets). A ... Read More
Jan 12, 2009
IP Prospective will be a source of information and a medium for intellectual exchange at the intersect of intellectual property, law, investment, money, and corporate action.
It is my hope that this online magazine will serve as a center of information and ideas for those with a keen interest in the future relationship of intellectual property and business. Indeed, while some may measure the success of this weblog by the quantity of readers it accrues, it is the quality of readers that will make the success uniquely ... Read More
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. 