Invent for Humanity – A Transparent Marketplace for Humanitarian Tech Transfer & IP Licensing

By: Ian McClure
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It has been some time since I have posted, but I thought that this matter is of high interest and importance to the technology transfer community and its profound impact on global development and humanitarian concerns. Today the Licensing Executives Society International, Inc. (LESI) and the Center for Applied Innovation (CAI) Announced the Invent for Humanity™ Technology Transfer Exchange Fair, a first-ever event bringing together a renowned collection of technology leaders, humanitarian organizations, and IP licensing & tech transfer professionals. Invent for Humanity ... Read More

Categories: Monetizing IP, Patent Prospects

New NPE on the Block: From Corporate Defender to Business-Savvy Aggressor

By: Ian McClure
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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

Categories: Burgeoning Business, Patent Prospects

The Defensive Patent License: A Clash Between Protection and Open Source

By: Ian McClure
pottery

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

Categories: Patent Prospects

Putting the Spotlight on NPE’s, “Invention Capital”, and Disclosure

By: Ian McClure
eureka1

"If everybody in the industry does it, I'll be right there," said Nathan Myhrvold, leader of Intellectual Ventures, to the New York Times in an article yesterday titled "Turning Patents Into Invention Capital".  Myhrvold was alluding to the public disclosure of patents and license agreements, something that has been the topic of conversation in the IP market over the last few years.  The article was actually a literary review of Intellectual Ventures, the NPE that so many love to hate, but so ... Read More

Categories: Portfolio Potential

Valuing a Brand License Based on Risk of Dilution

By: Ian McClure
The Golden Brand

As a lawyer, it is generally not my job to come up with a price to be paid for a license to use a client's trademark. Sure, I might be given some ballpark figures by the client and set out to negotiate based on these figures, but I don't come up with these ballpark figures. I could if it was asked of me, but it is usually left to the client to figure out what it thinks its brand is worth for the ... Read More

Categories: Trademark Trends

Tiny Technology . . . Large Licensing

By: Ian McClure
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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