Perpetual Innovation

Author: BizMan

  • The Toll of the Patent Troll by any other name: Intellectual Property – Bloomberg

    Symantec, Microsoft, Blue Cross: Intellectual Property – Bloomberg:

    A patent troll, by any other name, may not be called a “patent troll” in court.

    This would be funny, if it weren’t true. The often called “patent troll” company Intellectual Ventures LLC, can not be disparages by such names as “patent troll” in court the presiding judge says. IV — a play on the vampire concept of draining all the blood from the body of otherwise living and productive entities — does not produce anything and has a monster war chest of patents which it brings out only during the stealth of night.

    In the case of an entity that buys up patents but doesn’t invent and doesn’t produce anything, the company is often referred to unkindly as a “patent troll”. In the real world, like cell phone makers, someone producing a product is exposed to other producer’s patents, and vise verse. The players are forced to work together, license and cross-license in order for anyone to produce anything.

    But the troll has a wonderful vantage point. Any product produced is fare game, and the real players in the game don’t have much recourse if they want to produce anything and run a productive business.

    Non-Practicing Entity (NPE) is another name for the troll, but it is not nearly so accurate.

    IV was rated #1 troll in 2012 in the kingdom of patent trolls: here.

    And, of course, the targets of the NPEs are larger and more innovative companies like AT&T and Google. In 2013 the “troll” toll in terms of law suites were up 19% from the prior year. (Fortune article on this topic.) It will be interesting to see what the stats for 2014 are since there has been a big drop in several types of law suits based on benchmark legal rulings.

    For now, a patent troll, by any other name, will have to be by a nicer name, at least in court. I wonder if Patent Vampire, or intellectual property parasite is acceptable?

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Business method patent issuance has plummeted since Alice | Managing Intellectual Property

    Business method patent issuance has plummeted since Alice | Managing Intellectual Property:

    Trends in Business method patents has seriously dropped since the Supreme Court ruled on the Alice v CLS Bank case in June. The court ruled that an abstract idea is not necessarily a business method and saying that it will be done on computers (network/cloud) doesn’t assure it to be a valid claim either.

    This ruling knocks back business method (and software patents).

    So the major drop in business method patents could well be attributed to this case. The charts are rather telling but looking at a few more moths in 2015 should really crystallize the picture.

    This should also setback those questionable entities that camp out under the economic freeway, with a bundle of patents, and charge everyone coming and going a toll.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Anti-Counterfeiting… Should be more than one day of the year…

    Here is an article from the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI)    June 5 is World Anti-Counterfeiting Day   (http://www.ipi.org/policy_blog/detail/june-5-is-world-anti-counterfeiting-day)  It is a scary message counterfeiting of medications.  Note the opening sentence abut the deaths in 2012 from a false medication for malaria treatment.  Then, note that in some parts of the world about 1/3 of all medications are counterfeit.!

    As the author indicates, there seems to be no limit to what can be counterfeited from fake brake pads to fake batteries.  There are serious potential hazards and consequences in these forgeries — far worse than pirated CDs.

    Here in the US, counterfeiting takes a back seat to patent infringements and copyright theft.  At least, from a public awareness perspective that seems to be the case.  But, maybe that low cost product on eBay or Amazon is not licensed and is suspect.

    The old adage, if it looks too good to be true… it is too good to be true. Probably most of the books on Amazon and eBay are not legal. We have had experiences were our printed books were available for sale, but there were no physical copies of the book in distribution yet… Hmm…

    At least, when you buy the ebook on Amazon in Kindle format you know that it is a legal copy and the majority of the payment goes to the creator/author, not to the pirates.
    Minor edits: 12/17/2014

  • IP Monetization Yearbook from IAMmagazine.

    Intellectual Asset Management magazine (http://www.iam-magazine.com/Intelligence/IP-Monetisation-Yearbook/2013) publishes a set of reports each year.  One is the “IP Monetization Yearbook.”  The 2014 issue has 11 articles- one of which is Monetization of Royalties and Revenue Streams.  As the techniques for monetization of the enterprise’s asset leader, IP, mature, the ways in which to monetize it should evolve to keep pace.  Here, the subject is the multiple ways in which to monetize royalties and other revenue sources from the IP portfolio.

    As with most things, there are risks as well as benefits.  This makes due diligence and risk assessment mandatory.  A sample of the risk factors:
    –  Revenue stream sensitivity to changes in consumer preferences
    –  Technological, product or market obsolescence
    –  Infringement risks
    –  Risk of invalid IP

    These factors potentially impact royalty interest purchases, IP securitization, multiple licenses, etc.

    The article summarizes the basic structure of the licensing techniques, the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages.  What the article does not explore are the internal demands on the enterprise to develop the business strategies and revenue potentials against other internal revenue sources. (Product Management)  These licensing techniques  have much in common with a financial line of business requiring sophisticated financial plans.  This is not your IP Father’s Patent Licensing Agreement from decades ago.

    Already, IP Law and corporate finance are seated at the table.  Business Development and Strategic Planning need to join along with IP business managers.  And, once the royalty agreements are implemented, someone will have to manage the royalty collection and certification processes.

    What organization in the enterprise owns these license agreements?

  • Automation Makes Us Dumb – WSJ

    Automation Makes Us Dumb – WSJ:

    So, it would seem, the sequel to being yet more dumber, is Dumber to.,,

    In this article (and associated books, it appears) Nicolas Carr offers up the argument (and some evidence) that computers and automation are making us dumber.

    One example is that pilots can lose their edge for flight if they let the auto-pilot (no, not Airplane 1,2, 2.5, 33 1/3) do virtually all of the driving.

    It seems that psycho-motor skills are best practiced occasionally if you have a plane load of people and you might actually need to manually fly that bird to safety. Especially since the times when the actual pilot will need to take over the controls area likely to be under unusual or pending disasters circumstances.

    Here’s an interesting counter perspective from Carlos Alvarenga (via LinkedIn). He questions several aspects of the points posed by Carr.

    Interesting discussion and counter points. The direct tie in to imagination and innovation is rather weak.

    But definitely the focus of new systems and automation should be on the human side, not the machine side.

    In the meantime, pilots should practices doing some of the actual flying to make sure that they can effortlessly do it if/when then need to.

    ‘via Blog this’