Message from the Battlefield: Properly Secure Intangible Assets Before Managing Them

By: Ian McClure
masterlock-main_full

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

Categories: Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects

Top Stories of 2009 in Intellectual Property Management and Monetization

By: Ian McClure
2009-calendar

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

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects, Portfolio Potential, Trademark Trends

Chicago-Kent Law to Offer First Masters Degree in IP Management and Markets

By: Ian McClure
0-chicago_master

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

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects, Trademark Trends

Two Takes on Intellectual Property Rights: Academic vs. Legal

By: Ian McClure
laffercurve

The debate rages on. This is an oral argument with very different closing statements and a hung jury. The case is argued by the plaintiff, "Fair Use", and the defendant, "Don't You Dare Use." It is a vicious cycle: do Intellectual Property Rights encourage innovation or stifle it? The side that dedicates their career to research sees an impediment to new research. The side that dedicates their career to protecting the right to an economic advantage created by innovation sees a means ... Read More

Categories: Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects

The Significance of Intellectual Property Auctions Today

By: Ian McClure
auctiop

An interesting piece by Jackie Hutter over at the IP Asset Maximizer Blog uses some narrow empirical data offered by Marcus Malek of the Intangitopia Blog to dispell the notion that intellectual property auctions have provided any benefits for individual inventors or patent holders.  The piece was written in response to this NY Times article by Steve Lohr, which claims that "patent auctions offer protections to inventors."  Ms. Hutter "wonder[s] if the fact-checkers took a break when this article was presented for publication," adding that ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Patent Prospects

Tiny Technology . . . Large Licensing

By: Ian McClure
tessera2

An interesting article in the New York Times today discusses a Silicon Valley company called Tessera Technologies that creates packaging technology that allows for the production of miniature electronics products.  The intrigue of the article to most readers, and to the author, is two-fold: (1) the miniature technology products envisioned by the company's leaders, and (2) the ability of the company to avoid the demise that many Silicon Valley companies have met over the last few years.  A certain few last paragraphs ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Patent Prospects

The Future of IP: Notes from the ICAP Ocean Tomo Summer 2009 Conference

By: Ian McClure
oceanicap

I apologize for the break in action. I have been on the road almost continuously since attending last week's ICAP/Ocean Tomo "IP Markets 2009" Summer Auction and Conference in Chicago.   Thanks to those who have messaged or emailed in search of the "full report" I promised before the event, I have not been derailed from my mission and will hereby "give the people what they want." We all know the results of the auction.  For the second straight auction, the numbers were disappointing.  ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Investment Intelligence, Patent Prospects

Intellectual Property and Eminent Domain: A plausible combination?

By: Ian McClure
5th-amendment

Recently I had a conversation with two other attorneys that reinvigorated an interest in this topic: Whether the government could take intellectual property whenever it deemed appropriate, use it for a public purpose, and pay the previous owner just compensation. In other words, could IP become subject to the government's eminent domain powers (or limitation on its powers, however you decide to view the 5th Amendment), similar to real and other personal property? I had spent a long time mulling over this ... Read More

Categories: Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects, Trademark Trends

Judge Sotomayor: Adding Intellectual Property Experience to the U.S. Supreme Court

By: Ian McClure
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Every appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court elicits a whirlwind of scrutiny. While the current nomination of the 2nd Circuit's Judge Sonia Sotomayor has proved to be just another high school debate competition on civil rights issues for political activists and politicians, it has also proved to be unique in the fact that it brings, for the first time in a long time, considerable experience in intellectual property law to the highest court in the U.S. The 2nd Circuit is no stranger ... Read More

Categories: Copyright Caucus, Patent Prospects, Trademark Trends

Proof of a Burgeoning Market: Patenting IP Valuation Methods

By: Ian McClure
evidence

I have discovered a very interesting post from a couple of weeks ago on the 12:01 Tuesday Blog, written by Chicago IP attorney Aaron Feigelson.   The post is titled "Patenting the Business of Patents", and discusses tangible evidence of the burgeoning IP marketplace by way of 14 U.S. patents (11 of which have been issued in the past 2 years) covering the method and business of valuing IP.  Feigelson lists all 14 of the patents, which I will recreate the list here: 7,493,262 Method for ... Read More

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Monetizing IP, Patent Prospects