The European Patent Office (EPO) has released a new tool to evaluate individual patents called IPscore, which was actually purchased from the Danish Patent Office. The process includes 40 assessment factors using predefined scales determining responses. It can be downloaded at the EPO site HERE, including a manual for direction. Read More
WIPO met yesterday to discuss the topic of IP Finance, and specifically "ways in which improvements in law or financing practices may assist IP rightholders to manage their IP assets for greater value, and thereby assist Member States in setting-up appropriate national strategies in the field of IP." (Press Release) If anyone attended or has information on the meeting, I would greatly appreciate a quick summary of the meeting or any updates. Read More
Big news from the pharmaceutical industry today, as U.S. pharm giant, Merck, plans to buy internationally strong Schering-Plough for $41 billion. This deal comes on the heels of the Pfizer/Wyeth deal, and proves yet again that a patent portfolio must continue to reinvent itself or else drastic actions must be taken. Merck was facing patent expirations on many of its largest profit-making drugs in the next 3-7 years. Schering-Plough apparently doesn't have the same exposure to patent phase-outs, and its sales are ... Read More
A Los Angeles jury on Friday found that rapper Eminem's former publisher was not entitled to a higher royalty rate for digital downloads than what it received for traditional sales. The publisher was suing Eminem's record label, Aftermath Records. The case was similar to a string of cases where music publishers have tried to prove that a digital download is akin to a license rather than a traditional sale. Royalty rates for traditional sales are set at a standard rate (mechanical rate) ... Read More
That seems to be the tone that was taken at the Billboard Music and Money Symposium in New York on Thursday, where venture capitalists voiced their concerns for putting money into ventures that were so susceptible to law suits. An article for the Wall Street Journal reported on the symposium. According to the article, digital music start-ups have only identified two revenue streams: sale of digital goods or advertising. The sale of digital goods has become burdensome because of increased licensing price ... Read More
A press release on Monday from Ocean Tomo announced a restructuring at its firm, most notably with the auction business. Andrew Ramer, former President of OT's auction business, seems to have been replaced by Dr. Dipanjan Nag and Michael Anglin. Dipanjan Nag previously developed the firm's patent bid/ask practice, and is touted to have significant experience in bio-pharm and life sciences. Anglin was previously the firm's Chief Operations Officer and has an accounting background; he will head the auction business going forward. The ... Read More
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
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
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
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
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Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with Wyatt, Tarrant, & Combs, LLP, and currently he is in-house IP transactional counsel with Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI). IPXI is the world’s first financial exchange focused on intellectual property. 
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. 
The world’s IP and financial markets are interconnected, turbulent and difficult to navigate. Luckily the International IP Strategists Association (INTIPSA) exists to provide guidance through rough, economic waters. Headquartered in London, INTIPSA is a professional organization with the desire to build a global community of IP strategists, including in-house practitioners, specialists, external advisors and students. The ... Read More
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