Our Intellectual Property Conference - Maximizing Returns on Your IP Portfolios Summit was a superb forum for discussing the best strategies for valuing, monetizing and managing corporate IP portfolios. The following are just a few of the highlights from this San Francisco Executive Summit:
1) American investment banks are rapidly filing patents and trademarks for their trade processes. This may result in European investment banks being forced to make large royalty payments to American firms. These royalty payments could be so large that they would result in the European banks becoming uncompetitive in various business lines compared to their American counterparts.
2) There are disadvantages to companies maintaining tight exclusivity on their patent portfolios. It is often better to license core technologies because royalties can be earned, the given technology will become more pervasive and may cause competing firms' research prowess in the given field to atrophy as they become dependend on licensing in the given technology.
3) Companies will pressure their managers to derive revenues from their IP portfolios because of the exorbinant cost of developing IP and for litigating in defense of their IP.
4) Companies must vet the IP status of the products that they source from outside vendors. Buying a product that is later the subject of accusations of infringement could force the buying company to cease using that product which could shut down a production process or information technology function.
5) Lawyers are often investors in patent trolling companies which is one reason that these entities are highly litigious. (That is, individual lawyers stand to profit from the blackmail that the patent trolls receive.)
Our next IP - Maximizing Returns from Intellectual Property Portfolios Conference is scheduled to take place in San Francisco on January 16-17, 2007.
To find out more on IncreMental Advantage's Intellectual Property Conference Series, visit www.incrementaladvantage.com/conferences.
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