Unemployment rates of major economic powers include:

Country - Jul./∆ Jun.-Jul. (%)

Japan – 4.4/0.1
Germany – 6.6/0.0
United Kingdom – 7.9*
United States – 9.1/-0.1
France – 9.5/0.1

(US Bureau of Labor Statistics,  All figures are adjusted to U.S. concepts and factor seasonality,*May 2011)

Nevertheless, these figures are rosy compared to Spain’s unemployment rate of approximately 20%. While many citizens of countries with lower unemployment rates may believe such a level of unemployment would manifest itself in utter economic and social disarray in their nations, Spain proves the contrary to this belief.  Although economic issues are ostensibly apparent, Spain continues to host some relatively financially competitive, innovative companies, such as Telefónica S.A., Repsol YPF, S.A., and Zara España, S.A. Accordingly, the question which begs to be asked is how these companies can innovate in a national with a fifth of the workforce unemployed. I challenge readers to take a few moments to consider how 20% unemployment rate could appear in their communities, and role innovation would play in such an environment.

Feedback and opinions are welcome.

To improve the status of the aforementioned indicators, government officials, business professionals, and thought leaders have called for a change in the muddle through, economic status quo.  This desire for change has resulted in two schools of thought:  (1) America’s Main Street (i.e. small to medium sized businesses (SMEs)) must be revitalized and (2) America must bring innovative products into the marketplace.   While these notions are commonly discussed separately in main stream media outlets, little attention is given to how the philosophies work in conjunction (i.e. innovation increasing the performance of SMEs, driving improvements in economic indicators).  Accordingly, this entry and the next two to follow seek to uncover how inventions are conjured in SMEs, and what they mean for long term, economic health.

I start the series with highlights of a recent discussion I had with Dr. Dave Smith of Richmond, Indiana.  Dr. Smith is a passionate developer of medical products; including hydrocolloid wound dressings and adhesives.  These products are currently produced in his Richmond-based company, Xennovate Medical, LLC, which was founded in 2006 from a patent sale of hydrocolloid technologies developed at The University of Akron.

In addition, Dr. Smith is in the process of developing a physiological device, based on the principals of slosh dynamics, for the reduction of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in conjunction with Julian E. Bailes, M.D. of the University of West Virginia and Joseph A. Fisher, M.D., FRCP(C) at the University of Toronto.  Recent device study, accepted into The Journal of Neurosurgery, demonstrated 82.7% reduction in brain injury in an internationally accepted rat model for concussion (and TBI). As a result of his findings and collaborative efforts, Dr. Smith was granted an honorary faculty position with West Virginia University’s Department of Neurosurgery.  The group of researchers hope to monetize its IP through TBI Innovations, LLC, a Richmond-based start-up.

Listening to Dr. Smith speak about his innovative efforts, I found myself asking how he became successful in developing marketable products and forming start-ups in a small town environment. After two hours of discussion and several cups of coffee, it became clear that his success was based off a number of factors (i.e. axioms), which repeatedly arose during our conversation:

1. Fail fast, adapt or die - learn from past mistakes, but do not dwell in the past
2. Immersion- dive into the issue head first, reviewing the breadth of available information
3. Control - seek control, locating assets geographically close for ease of oversight
4. Opportunity and advice - search for beneficial information and collaborative opportunity inside and outside the immediate environment (specifically important for start-ups in small towns)
5. Models - develop models and telling graphics/texts to share your insights with the
uninformed
6. Passion - develop a strong desire to push forward in your field

By simply observing the walls of books, countless stacks of academic papers, and the preserved head of a woodpecker, an animal whose physiology can be used as a model for his device, I realized Dr. Smith’s success was driven by above all, passion - passion to learn about the medical field, passion to understand principals of physics, chemistry, and biology, and passion to share his findings with others.

Perhaps all of these factors are necessary for Main Street start-ups to monetize their IP. Additional research is required to provide evidence for this hypothesis, but, nevertheless, Dr. Smith’s factors of success could lend advice to the US in jump-starting the economy.

I look forward to keeping readers abreast of Dr. Smith’s innovative progress and what venture seeking SMEs can learn from his experiences.  Interesting insight will surely follow.

Financial analysts this week are aflutter with opinions regarding the announced US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (MMI) by Google, Inc. (GOOG).  Unlike most billion dollar acquisitions, the deal is seemingly focused on one asset class: patents. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will gain ownership of Motorola Mobility’s approximately 17,500 patents and 7,500 applications, teaching telecommunications technologies, notably relating to the popular Android mobile operating system. To comprehend this deal, many analysts are focused little beyond the quantity of these assets, unfortunately ignoring the fact quality trumps quantity as a driver of IP value.

Analyzing patent quality is an intensive exercise.  Patents must be grouped; read; analyzed for value indicators, such as claim depth, age, and jurisdiction; and considered in respect to the relative IP landscape. In addition, patent histories, including results of patent litigation and assignment changes, must be considered. Working with publicly available information, analysts likely find these tasks daunting when considering Motorola Mobility’s portfolio, especially given the number of assets and recent split of Motorola, Inc. Fortunately, a number of public indicators can guide these tasks, shedding light on the innovations supporting the value of Motorola Mobility’s portfolio.

1. Patent Power Scorecards by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a global association focused on the advancement of technology, provide an interesting perspective of patent quality. These scorecards measure the relative innovative nature of patent portfolios in certain technology sectors. In a 2010 study, Motorola, Inc. ranked third, behind Cisco Systems, Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent in the Telecom/Communications Equipment category.

2. Boliven.com, an online service of Cambridge IP, an UK-based consultancy, allows users to review Motorola, Inc.’s patent portfolio characteristics. Interestingly, the number of grants has trended down throughout the 2000’s.

3. Freepatentsonline.com, a provider of patent information database, allows readers to gain an understanding of the non-US issued Motorola Mobility patents. Upon recent review, the company appears to have access to several thousand European Patent office issued assets.  Additionally, a read of freepatentsonline’s non-patent literature collection for key terms relating to Motorola may shed some light on how the company’s innovations are utilized and considered in technical fields.

A reflection of these sources, in conjunction with Motorola Mobility’s financial statements, begs the question: Is Motorola Mobility worth $12.5 billion, considering the price represents a premium of 63% to the closing price of its shares on Friday, August 12, 2011? Perhaps only time will tell; however, in the interim, I look forward to your answers and additional reports and analyses examining Motorola Mobility IP assets. Hopefully these texts will add to Wall Street’s understanding of how quality drives IP value.

]]> http://www.ipprospective.com/investment-intelligence/quality-over-quantity-examining-google%e2%80%99s-acquisition-of-motorola-mobility/feed/ http://www.ipprospective.com/ip-market-players/navigating-ip-strategy-intipsa/ http://www.ipprospective.com/ip-market-players/navigating-ip-strategy-intipsa/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:31:55 +0000 Trevor Blum http://www.ipprospective.com/?p=1260 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 group’s agenda includes raising awareness and professionalism of IP strategy and fostering a marketplace of strategic services.  Interestingly, the organization was cultivated in late 2009 by UK-based individuals listed in IAM magazine’s IAM Strategists 250 – The World’s Leading IP Strategists.  These professionals recognized the need for IP to become integrated into management strategy and, as such, set out in 2010 to create INTIPSA.  During this time, significant support was given by, among others, Coller IP, a UK-based IP consultancy, and IAM magazine, which provided coverage of the group’s founding.

Albeit an international focused organization, INTIPSA is seemingly rooted in the UK.  A majority of the group’s board members and supporting partners have professional ties to Britain.  Nevertheless, INTIPSA’s growing number of international members and recently formed partnerships with non-UK based organizations, such as International Institute for Intellectual Property Management (I3PM), suggest the group will expand beyond the British Isles.   INTIPSA’s decision to headquarter in London, an international hub of culture, will likely also support the group’s global reach.

I truly look forward to INTIPSA’s membership growth, especially among young professionals.  Hopefully, the organization will develop a group of IP thought leaders to sail the future, uncharted, international economy.

This week’s non-sequitur is Mark Cuban’s blog entry on patent law—an interesting read.

My summer travels have taken me from the shallows of Lake Manyara to the shores Lake Mendota. Both these lakes, interestingly, host interactions between members of their surrounding communities; animals at the former and the public of Madison, Wisconsin at the later.  Nowhere does the community of Madison seemingly interact more than at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID) facility, a 10 minute walk from Lake Mendota. WID is a public-private partnership, focused on, inter alia, fostering “new approaches to biological and medical programs at the convergence of biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology” and facilitating “the invention of technologies that can be transferred to the marketplace and create jobs.” These objectives are enabled through WID’s technology/science themed facility (note the double-helix shaped staircase in the photo to the right), which provides public environments in which to host discussions between scientists, entrepreneurs, financiers, and lawyers - four groups of individuals which provide a solid base upon which to foster IP. Nevertheless, such discussions may appear rather dull to the general populace.  WID accounted for this problem by marketing innovation and technology as  modern and hip, drawing the public’s attention.  Upon a recent visit to the facility, I was delighted by the building’s touch screen information kiosks which intermingled with 3-D printing demonstrations and interactive Fibonacci chime insulations. Hopefully more communities, specifically those in economically depressed areas, will recognize the potential of community interaction at WID’s facility to create job-enabling IP and develop similar environments in their towns and cities.

I leave readers with a non sequitur : How will S&P’s downgrading of long-term U.S. debt affect the “build-up” method commonly used in IP valuations?

Thanks to Joff Wild and IAM for allowing me to republish the article in its entirety.

The 1990s was the decade of information technology (IT) - a decade where information was important, but the use, disposition, and security of information became paramount.  The 2000s was the decade of intellectual property (IP) - a decade where an idea was royal, but exclusive rights to an idea became king.  Continuing the natural progression, we currently reside in the decade of intangible assets (IA) - a decade where innovation is the door to success, but monetizing innovation is the key.

The above bit comes from a recent article that I co-authored with Jim Malackowski, Chairman and CEO of Ocean Tomo, LLC, which navigates the short history of the development of IP as an asset class and the various monetization models that have become popular.  The article is titled “The Next Big Thing in Monetizing IP: A Natural Progression to Exchange-Traded Units”, and was published in the American Bar Association’s Landslide, Volume 3, Number 5 (May/June 2011).   You can read the entire article HERE.

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 is a two day event (January 24-25, 2012) held concurrently with the LESI Global Technology Impact Forum (GTIF) in Geneva, Switzerland. Pairing the event with GTIF creates the opportunity for participants to interact and collaborate with the senior leadership of 20+ global organizations, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the International Chamber of Commerce.

Please see the Featured post on Invent for Humanity for more information, or contact Bree Miller.

Follow @Invent4Humanity on Twitter, Like Invent for Humanity on Facebook, or check out Invent for Humanity videos on YouTube.