Aug 12, 2009
I've known about this online community of intellectual property professionals for a while now, but I've decided to make it this week's IP Market Player because of a recent discussion I had with a few IP strategists regarding the need for more discourse among large players in the IP transactions market.
Gathering 2.0 is an online community for all professionals involved in the management of intellectual property as business assets - or in, as they call it, I-stuff (all non-legally protected intangibles). It ... Read More
Jul 8, 2009
Invotex Group is a consulting company with offices along the Eastern shore in Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia. According to their site, they provide accounting, financial, economic and regulatory consulting services to the business and legal communities. Of course, I wouldn't feature them here if they were just a consulting company. They also have an extensive IP management and consulting service, performing intellectual property transaction, compliance and management services for inventors, IP owners and licensors. They do a significant amount of IP licensing work, including ... Read More
Jun 17, 2009
Producers of the Intellectual Asset Management magazine, among other publications and IP-related endeavors, the IP Media Group has made its mark in the IP transaction market. I read IAM magazine routinely, as it is truly the best source for IP transaction-related information. I posted recently on the IAM 250, the directory source for the world's 250 leading IP market professionals. This is just one of the great ideas coming from this IP "media" guru, meant to bring a little more transparency to ... Read More
May 18, 2009
When the line of traditional investment opportunities curtails, creative alternative investments must be found. I like to think that, currently, one of the most creative alternative investments that provides an option for great return (but with significant risk) can be found in commercial-stage intellectual property. Investing in inventors, universities, and start-ups involved in the innovation-to-commercialization process offer a unique but catchy investment opportunity, and Paul Capital has taken note.
The self-proclaimed "alternative investment firm" offers a branch that focuses on financing royalty products, ... Read More
May 6, 2009
Acacia Technologies LLC, or otherwise known as the licensing company under the umbrella of the publicly traded Acacia Research Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTG), is "in the business of acquiring, developing, licensing and enforcing patents." (from Acacia's website) With over 100 patented technologies in their repertoir, Acacia generates revenue through licensing patents for "primarily individual inventors and small companies with limited resources to deal with unauthorized users." According to Acacia's Fact Sheet, the firm has generated revenue through at least 52 different licensing programs, which ... Read More
Apr 28, 2009
For this week's IP Market Player of the Week, I am stepping away from the sector of the IP market focused on managing, exchanging, and/or investing in IP as a tradable asset, and stepping into the sector of the IP market focused on brand creation. While IP Prospective allocates a lot of its attention to the former, which covers patents and an occasional copyright, intellectual property in the shape of a brand name holds just as much or more value in many cases.
The ... Read More
Apr 17, 2009
I have chosen CONSOR as this week's IP Market Player of the Week because CONSOR was chosen this week by Washington Mutual to value WaMu's intellectual property for bankruptcy purposes. Besides IP valuation services, CONSOR provides IP litigation support by way of expert testimony, as well as services pertaining to licensing and other transactions, including M&A and restructuring events.
When it comes to picking apart a mess of a company like WaMu at the Chapter 11 stage and trying to put a value ... 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 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
Mar 23, 2009
You can't discuss the burgeoning market for IP investing without mentioning Intellectual Ventures (IV). Since 2000, IV has built a portfolio of thousands of patents alongside investments estimated at close to $5 billion from large Fortune 500 companies, among others, including Sony, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google, and eBay. Why do so many lucrative investors throw money at IV? It is simple. They have an inventory of dynamic and strategic patents and a team of prosecutors to enforce those patents, resulting in large ... 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. 