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 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 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
Mar 31, 2009
Ocean Tomo launched its new website, OTI.com, a site for global IP market data with a touch of community atmosphere to go with it. The site was introduced at the Ocean Tomo Spring 2009 Conference in San Francisco last week with a large display booth that attracted a lot of attention from conference attendees, including myself. The site adds easy patent search tools to a murky market, contributing greatly to the movement for transparency that Ocean Tomo continues to lead. The platform ... Read More
Mar 30, 2009
This has been in the works for a long time. Today, Google and over 100 record labels broke a lot of barriers, both cultural and legal, to start an online music downloading service available only in China. Negotiations to open the service have been carrying on for years. Apparently, over 100 record labels, including the largest (Warner, Sony, EMI, Vivendi) have licensed their music for free download in China. Ad sales in China will serve as Google's revenue stream.
This accomplishment breaks legal barriers, ... Read More
Mar 23, 2009
The clash beetween technology and music continues, as YouTube (Google) and Warner Music Group have failed to reach a licensing deal (to continue their previous two years of licenses), and Warner has asked YouTube to delete a number of videos using its copyrights. A New York Times article today reports that these deletions cause a big risk to YouTube, because some of its most viewed videos are professional music videos from large labels. In fact, 6 of the top 10 most viewed ... Read More
Mar 20, 2009
The annual South By Southwest festival is in the thick of things right now with the music stretch of the two week ordeal. It is a meeting place for burgeoning film, music, and technology industry participants, and many deals (or just handshake deals) are struck here. Films are screened, over 1,800 bands are showcased, and hundreds of new technologies are put on display for consumers and media cameras to swallow. Importantly, panels discuss industry norms, updates, and policy changes, which lead to ... Read More
Mar 18, 2009
Arizona State University and UPenn tech transfer offices have entered into a three-year agreement whereby the offices share the risks and rewards with the spotty tech transfer process. This is the first of such a deal that I have seen with as many of the formalities laid out in contract, including the distribution of revenues. Read more about the deal at Tech Transfer Tactics Blog. 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. 