IP P®OSPE©TIVE

I have followed the developing story of John Desmarais and his reported purchase of 4,000 patents from Micron as covered by Joff Wild and the IAM Blog, among other bloggers.  A very nice recap of the story, the questions that have been raised, and the meaning of it all can be found HERE under an IAM Blog post titled "Why Micron Matters".  The better title, however, might have been "Why IP Matters", for this story truly brings to light (if all reported facts are accurate) ... Read More

The discussion of how best to create a liquid and transparent market for intellectual property rights never gets old, and every step taken to offer new and complete information to further that discussion is a step in the right direction. The discussion has morphed from ideas to talking points to individual and collaborative research and publications (See Mark Lemley of Stanford Law and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures' article "How to Make a Patent Market") . . . and now to the ... Read More

In a report yesterday, Bloomberg shed light on what PatentFreedom is calling the 2nd largest NPE in the country.  Second, of course, to Intellectual Ventures.  John Desmarais, a former big-firm lawyer and defender of large corporations in patent infringement cases, has taken the independent train to NPE-ville.  According to the report, Desmarais left his firm in May to form Desmarais, LLP.  But this wasn't the usual "big time partner leaves big firm to start small shop" deal.  No, Desmarais seems to have had a plan in place for ... Read More

I read an interesting article today in Network World titled "The Defensive Patent License makes patents less evil for open source".  The article describes the efforts of two law professors and directors of UC Berkeley's Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic to create a Defensive Patent License (DPL).  According to the article, the DPL is supposed to create protection mechanisms for open source practitioners in the software industry from NPE's.  While the article reflects archaically upon NPE's as "trolls" and states ... Read More

I've spoken a lot on IP Prospective about preparing for intellectual property issues before they arise, and the reallocation of business client demands with regard to intangible assets.  This week, an article that I authored on the subject was published in The Federal Lawyer, the Federal Bar Association's magazine. You can read the article HERE. Read More

I've been tipped off by the IAM Blog to these interesting statistics released by the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China. 30,626 civil cases related to IPR at first instance were received by the China national court system in 2009, up 25.49% Of the 2009 IP cases counted, 4,422 involved patent infringement, 6,906 involved trademarks, 15,302 involved copyrights, 747 involved technical contracts, and 1,282 involved unfair competition While a direct comparison to U.S. IP cases is not available (I'm not aware of ... Read More

I have discussed in other posts the direct link between quality patents and shareholder value. Now, we have proof that a favorable patent ruling at the hand of the CAFC can help a stock price surge. Yesterday, the CAFC ratified the district court's contempt order in Tivo, Inc. v. EchoStar Corp.  The case, which focused on television simultaneous recording technology patents, was well-watched by the IP community.  According to IP Watchdog, Tivo, Inc.'s stock price surged at the news of the hearing: "On ... Read More

Consider a hypothetical:  Imagine you are the CEO and sole owner of a new business enterprise.  You hire a few employees who will have some innovative roles within your business model, whereby they may have some opportunities to create original work product that will be important to your business' success.  This work product may be a process, a technology, a marketing plan, a human resource protocol, a work of art, or a memorandum.  Now assume that, a few years down the road, ... Read More

I'd like to first thank all of the faithful IP Prospective readers over the last 12 months.  IP Prospective will celebrate its first birthday next month! 2009 has been quite a year - for good and for bad. The financial market was consumed by a somber mood for most of the year, with just enough shining moments near the end of the year to lead U.S. consumers and investors into 2010 with an optimistic vibe. The intellectual property market did what most expected ... Read More

Chicago-Kent Law School, a member institution of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), will offer the first multidisciplinary Masters program in Intellectual Property Management and Markets in the United States. The IAM blog first broke the news to me, as Joff Wild wrote last week that Ron Laurie, long time advocate of and expert on the CIPO movement, apprised him of the new offering.  I had caught wind of such an interdisciplinary program in the works at an institution in the UC system ... Read More