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  • The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers
    The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers
  • What is the Real Value in Real Options?
    What is the Real Value in Real Options?
  • International or foreign patent filing strategies
    International or foreign patent filing strategies
  • Year of the Patent Bull Market
    Year of the Patent Bull Market
  • Patent Perishables
    Patent Perishables

The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers

The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers
Posted by ipeg on January 21st, 2012
The valuation of intellectual property (IP) such as patents, or of non-patented technologies, is still considered by many to be more of an art than a science. While IP valuation might appear to be a routine task for a technology/patent broker, in fact most of the time it can be really difficult to value a patent or technology even for those who work with those assets on a regular basis. In this blog, we set out to explore the usage of standard valuation methods by IP brokers, with the hopes of shedding some light on why brokers rely or...

What is the Real Value in Real Options?

What is the Real Value in Real Options?
Posted by ipeg on January 15th, 2012
Winston Churchill may have characterized real options as a riddle, wrapped inside a mystery in an enigma. Intellectual property portfolio managers from some of the world’s largest companies insist that they can only evaluate the merits of research projects with the help of real options. Other patent managers quite simply believe that real options is a bunch of hocus pocus.  The Real Options Discount Calculator bridges these diverging opinions on real options by deflating traditional calculations of real options value by a host of...

International or foreign patent filing strategies

International or foreign patent filing strategies
Posted by ipeg on January 8th, 2012
Every once in a while it makes sense to reconsider one’s international or foreign patent filing strategies, basically asking in which jurisdictions should I try to obtain patent protection, and on what basis should I make such decisions. To do this we pulled together comments from IPR colleagues in corporate IP departments, in academia, in intellectual property private practice, in some IP service providers as well as our own experiences and learnings in this space. As far as international or foreign filing strategies are concerned,...
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Patent Law & Regulation

Patent Law Treaty, Promises Not Delivered

Patent Law Treaty, Promises Not Delivered
Posted by ipeg on December 9th, 2011
On 19 December 2011, Cees Mulder will defend at Maastricht University a PhD thesis entitled: “On the Alignment of the European Patent Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty with Requirements of the Patent Law Treaty”.  The Patent Law Treaty (PLT) was drafted with the aim to “streamline and harmonize” formal requirements set by national or regional Patent Offices for the filing of national or regional patent applications and the maintenance of patents. The PLT provisions refer as much as possible to the provisions of the...

ECJ rules on validity and infringement test under European design law

ECJ rules on validity and infringement test under European design law
Posted by ipeg on November 8th, 2011
On October 20, 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe’s final authority on Community design law, rendered its long-awaited decision in PepsiCo v OHIM – Grupo Promer (Case C-281/10 P) with the central issue being the manner in which differences or similarities between conflicting designs are established under the Community Design Regulation (“CDR”). The underlying products were small metal plates, also referred to as “rappers”, playthings inserted in product packages, and the validity of the Community design...

EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal decides on disclaimers for disclosed embodiments

EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal decides on disclaimers for disclosed embodiments
Posted by ipeg on October 24th, 2011
The case was decided on August 30, 2011 (The Scripps Research Institute) by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office. The invention underlying the referring decision T 1068/07 (OJ EPO 2011, 256) concerns certain DNA molecules. Each of the claims at issue contains a disclaimer excluding molecules by a functional feature defining a property of the molecules. According to the referring Board, the claims with the disclaimer are directed to embodiments the subject-matter of which was disclosed in the original application. In...

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IP Management & Licensing

International or foreign patent filing strategies

International or foreign patent filing strategies
Posted by ipeg on January 8th, 2012
Every once in a while it makes sense to reconsider one’s international or foreign patent filing strategies, basically asking in which jurisdictions should I try to obtain patent protection, and on what basis should I make such decisions. To do this we pulled together comments from IPR colleagues in corporate IP departments, in academia, in intellectual property private practice, in some IP service providers as well as our own experiences and learnings in this space. As far as international or foreign filing strategies are concerned,...

Year of the Patent Bull Market

Year of the Patent Bull Market
Posted by ipeg on January 1st, 2012
2001 showed us a world economy in turmoil, financial instability in  the European Union and a looming recession in most of the major EU countries, falling prices on major stock markets.  How different the market for strategic IP was in 2011. The patent market did no less than transform itself into an astounding bull market, showing a true patent monetization frenzy in 2011. The dramatic  increase in patent acquisitions should not be exaggerated, as the trend can only be seen in the mobile handset technology market, whereas more traditional...

IP Service Providers, An Underexposed Group

IP Service Providers, An Underexposed Group
Posted by ipeg on December 2nd, 2011
The International Conference “IP Service World“, by the Germany based “Management Circle”, organized its 2nd conference this week in Noordwijkerhout (near Amsterdam). Where most IP conferences target IP trial attorneys, trademark practitioners and patent attorneys, this conference aims to provide companies that deliver software tools, search databases, IP publications and other IP products that support IP maintenance and prosecution, a rare opportunity to showcase their products and provide an overview what the...

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Valuation

The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers

The Use of IP valuation in IP transactions, a Global Survey of IP Brokers
Posted by ipeg on January 21st, 2012
The valuation of intellectual property (IP) such as patents, or of non-patented technologies, is still considered by many to be more of an art than a science. While IP valuation might appear to be a routine task for a technology/patent broker, in fact most of the time it can be really difficult to value a patent or technology even for those who work with those assets on a regular basis. In this blog, we set out to explore the usage of standard valuation methods by IP brokers, with the hopes of shedding some light on why brokers rely or...

The Value of Withheld Indemnifications

The Value of Withheld Indemnifications
Posted by ipeg on August 29th, 2011
A senior licensing executive from a prestigious technology transfer office posed the following question to me: “Our TTO is not willing to grant an indemnification to our licensee. In view of this position, to what extent should we discount the value of our licensing agreement? Should we reduce our demands for upfront payments? Seek lower running royalty rates? Waive part of our first milestone payment?” Upon reflection, we can build an argument as to why no discount need be granted. There are three strategies we would employ to support...

Valuations Soar on Smartphone Patents and Stocks

Valuations Soar on Smartphone Patents and Stocks
Posted by ipeg on August 10th, 2011
Speculation is boosting some companies for now; the shortsighted are paying a premium to compete. What hath the Nortel auction wrought? Never before has it been so apparent that the right patents in the right hands (at the right time) are valuable financial assets. InterDigital’s stock had been up 73% since July 18, a period which saw a better than a 15% across the board market correction. As of this morning InterDigital (IDCC) is stil up an astonishing 57.5% year-to-date. After bidding $4 billion for Nortel Networks wireless patents...

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China & IP

India’s New Policy on open Standards for e-Government

India’s New Policy on open Standards for e-Government
Posted by ipeg on January 14th, 2011
India’s government has recently voted through a new directive on the application of open standards in e-Government. Barely a year after China’s SAC (Standardization Administration of China) drafted its proposal on a Standardization Policy (see our earlier blog: “China drafts all-out national standards IPR policy“) and defined what is meant by a FRAND-licensing approach concerning standard essential IPRs in their opinion (i.e. royalty free or at least marginal royalties for patents included in standards) also India jumps...

China’s Challenge to Western’ Concept of Innovation

China’s Challenge to Western’ Concept of Innovation
Posted by ipeg on January 6th, 2011
At the 3rd Global Forum on Intellectual Property held in Singapore today and tomorrow Prof Peter Williamson of the Judge Business School, Cambridge, UK, presented his interesting view[1] on Chinese costs innovation and how that challenges the main stream, mostly Western, concept of innovation. Prof. Williamson’s thesis is that although we have considered the Chinese threat mainly to be one of low-cost manufacturing, the more apparent threat is he calls “cost innovation”: the ability to exploit their low costs in radically new ways...

Does Chinese academic fraud result in unreliable patent data?

Does Chinese academic fraud result in unreliable patent data?
Posted by ipeg on December 14th, 2010
In Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad of December 11 Oscar Garschagen wrote[1] about massive fraud in Chinese academia.  NRC cites Fang Shimin, a freelance writer and self-appointed watchdog of research misconduct who was recently brutally attacked, initiated by Professor Xiao Chuanguo, one of China’s most well known urologists. The magnitude of fraud reported is consistent with a survey administered by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, showing that one third of 6,000 scientists surveyed admitted to “plagiarism, falsification,...

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