Tag Archives: Microsoft

Center for IP Understanding is started by leading IP execs to raise awareness, improve attitudes

February 21, 2017 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

The Center for Intellectual Property Understanding (CIPU), an independent, unaffiliated non-profit dedicated to increasing IP awareness and improving negative attitudes towards patents, copyrights and other rights, was launched in New York last week. 

As reported in IAM, Law 360, World IP Review and other publications, the non-profit Center for IP Understanding was founded to address the uncertainty among audiences regarding patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets — especially who do they benefit and their impact on new ideas and jobs.

“[The Centre’s] creation is in many ways a response to the battering that IP’s public image has taken over the last several years,” reported IAM blog, “particularly in the US. In that time a series of Supreme Court cipulogodecisions are widely seen to have undermined patent rights; the idea of efficient infringement has taken root; and the ‘patent troll’ narrative has gained wider traction in many parts the media.”

Outreach

Executives and advisors involved in CIPU on the board of directors or as informal advisors include Marshall Phelps (Microsoft, IBM, retired), Brian Hinman (Philips, active), Keith Bergelt (Open Invention Network, CEO), Harry Gwinnell (Cargill, Eastman Chemical, retired), and trade secret expert James Pooley (Orrick).

Also helpful in getting CIPU underway were Judge Paul Michel (Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, retire), David Kappos (Commissioner of the USPTO, retired) and film producer and author Irv Rappaport, former chief patent counsel at Apple and Medtronic, who has generated more than 20 patents, and Jonathan Taplin, a film producer, author and Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab a the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Among the CIPU’s goals for 2017 are a survey of IP awareness and attitudes among the general public and business owners; a research report on trends in media coverage of patent disputes; and a possible joint conference with Duke University on Innovation Policy.

The Center for IP Understanding also plans to provide outreach to educators, parents and business that help to facilitate better IP behavior.

Cultural Shift

“We have entered the ‘free-information’ era, where online content and patented inventions are readily pocketed by those who would never dream of shoplifting,” said Bruce Berman, CIPU Chairman, and CEO of Brody Berman Associates. “Products like music, books, novel designs, inventions and counterfeit goods appear to be there for the taking – or feel as if they should be. Uncertainty about what IP rights cover and their appropriate use compound the problem. CIPU will address these and other issues.”

“IP confusion is costly for consumers and businesses alike,” said Vice-Chairman Marshall Phelps, who is a member of the IP Hall of Fame. “Free-riders – unauthorized users of IP-protected products and works – come in many shapes and sizes. They impact performance and investment, as well as job creation. IP awareness and acceptable behaviors are too important to be left to audiences to decide on their own.”

For the IAM story go here.

For the Law 360 article go here.

For the full launch announcement go here.

For more information about the Center for IP Understanding, please visit www.UnderstandingIP.org. 

Image source: The Center for IP Understanding

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New measure of success challenges traditional brand valuations

October 19, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Measures of a brand’s power can differ dramatically, depending on performance criteria.

A new success index believes that in an increasingly connected world, traditional measures of brand equity are outdated. Criteria like social media strength can be overlooked and under-rated.

The D100, a new brand index from a division of a global advertising agency, believes that some strong brands are less meaningful, while others are not receiving the recognition they deserve.

IPG Mediabrands, the media holding arm of Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG), in partnership with Jonah Berger, Associate Professor, The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania and New York Times best-selling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, has launched the inaugural D100, ranking the 100 most dynamic companies in the world using new world metrics.

USA

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The D100 marks the first time that brand success is measured with “new world” metrics, specifically:

  • AGILITY: the degree to which brands adapt to changing market conditions.
  • RESPONSIVENESS: the degree to which a brand listens and responds to customer needs and feedback.
  • INNOVATION: the degree to which brands leverage new technology and creates innovative products and services
  • SOCIABILITY: How large and engaged a brand’s audience is on social media.

Global

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Counter-Intuitive 

There are some notable disconnects within the D100, whose ranking can be viewed nationally or globally. For example, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has a dynamic score of 59.89, ranking it 20 globally. Its USA score is just 94. Fitbit is 15 globally, with a 62.75 D rating, and just 62 in the USA.

BMW is ranked 7 globally, 16 in the USA and a lowly 99 in Germany.

Each one of these surprises raises questions about methodology and value.

Germany

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It is interesting to compare the D100 top 10 with InterBrand’s and Forbes’. They are somewhat similar with a few surprises. Those rankings focus more on value. When we get farther down the list we begin to see more significant disruption. Rather than focus on corporate brand, the D100 metrics places more emphasis on brand names associated with specific products.

A branded product may have greater performance value at a given point in time than say an established corporate brand, which may have a high financial valuation.

InterBrand

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To see the global D100, as well as some national rankings, go here. (Tap on the upper right of the screen to pull down the menu.)

UK-based InterBrand’s ranking valuation-oriented brand rankings can be seen here.

Forbes’ top 100 brand values can be found here.

Forbes Top 100

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1,200+ Brands Examined

To construct the D100, over 10,000 consumers were surveyed across four global regions in five major markets including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, and India. Consumers were asked questions on both global brands and market specific brands; in total over 1,200 brands were examined.

Image source: various websites associated with indices

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Tech cos use patents to turn up the volume on smarter hearing devices

October 3, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Aging baby boomers, exposed to a lifetime of loud music, are more demanding than past generations about the quality of what and how they hear.

Don’t expect them to sit by idly watching Mick Jagger mouth the words to Satisfaction.

A group of leading technology companies familiar with consumer lifestyle preferences are helping to reshape the emerging hearables industry. A cross between a tiny wearable and smart prosthetic, it would be unfair to call these devices hearing aids. They are tiny, but powerful, information processors which, 13892-32c56cdb6fd37fccfbd10d1ffb425f54if properly programmed to individual users’ needs, can do far more than merely amplify speech.

Some will be able to offer simultaneous foreign language translations and are fully customizable with a phone app.

360 Million Hearing-Impaired 

Companies vying for leadership in the field include Samsung, Apple, Qualcomm and Google, as well as those already in the business – the so-called ‘big six’, each with decades of practical experience.

For the whole story see “Turning up the volume on hearables,” in the Intangible Investor in IAM magazine’s November issue. Subscribers can find my fully linked report here.

A Google search for hearing-aid–related patents by Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm showed zero patents 20 years ago but 816 in 2015— slightly more than half of the total patent activities by the Big Six in the same period.

For the “Complete Guide to Hearing Technology in 2016” go here.  For “New Patent Applications: The Sound of Hearables to Come,” go here.

Sound Play

Apple has teamed up with Starkey Hearing Technologies to provide support for the company’s advanced Halo 2 smart device; Daymond John – founder and CEO of fashion brand FUBU, star of reality TV series screen-shot-2016-02-12-at-9-29-50-pm-e1455334928779“Shark Tank.”  He told CNN that the technology has changed his life (see video here.)

Google is working on commercializing a high-end in-ear computer, according to press reports based on patent filings. The technology is reportedly part of its secretive new wearable tech initiative, known as Project Aura.

If hearables reach their market potential, vision, memory and other human-assist devices will not be far behind. Forgot what you stated for entertainment on last year’s tax returns? An assistant far smarter than today’s Alexa, Siri or Cortana (Microsoft), and swifter than Google, will be able to find what you need.

Yesterday’s iPod is looking like today’s iHear and tomorrow’s iKnow.

Image source: wearable.com; anewdomain.net

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Will blockchain technology fuel a new patent war or prevent one?

September 8, 2016 by Bruce Berman 4 Comments

The race is on to gain control of a new technology that has the power to reinvent banking and make transactions and other agreements between parties cheaper, safer and easier to complete.

Like disruptive inventions that preceded it, blockchain has businesses, large and small, jockeying for leadership. This means that patents are likely to play a significant role.

Blockchain is a shared database of transactions and other information, which is open to all and controlled by no one. It also can function as an autonomous semi-private network.

Blockchain began life as the trading infrastructure that permits secure recording of payments for bitcoin, the fledgling crypto-currency. But in the right hands the technology is capable of much more. A blockchain can handle complex transactions, even entire contracts.

IP Windfall?

It is no surprise that competition is building for patents that go beyond bitcoin and cover inventions that support a distributed public ledger. Call it blockchain 2.0. The race among a variety of disparate players is not likely to be a repeat of the smartphone wars, but it does have the potential to create an IP licensing windfall for early movers, leaving some volume users to pay unanticipated royalties.

The shared nature of blockchain (see diagrams below) makes it unlikely that any one or two players will explicitly control the technology. However, that will not prevent some patent holders from trying to profit.

The blockchain is a public database that by-passes money-based payments by recording all transactions screen-shot-2016-03-04-at-42158-pmdigitally. It forms the core of bitcoin and other crypto-currencies by maintaining a decentralized record of all transactions. Proponents say it has the potential to disrupt financial services by making payments and the settling of securities transactions, in particular, far cheaper. Reuters reports that financial institutions alone are expected to invest $1B this year and next in developing blockchain.

Some companies, like IBM, are hoping for a more open system, in the vein of Linux, while others, mostly software developers and some banks data carriers, are looking to have an IP leg up on the competition and to keep the technology at least somewhat proprietary. This would give non-financial and other players a chance to profit from licensing and encourage more investment.

Mysterious Origins

The story of blockchain and its early promotion as the technology underlying bitcoin is fascinating if not mysterious. It appears to start with Craig Wright, who claims to be the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright, an Australian, recently announced that he has filed 50 blockchain technology and crypto-currency related patents in the UK. Why the UK? That’s another question. And why has Wright announced his applications rather that wait to for them to issue or publish?

Where there are bitcoins and other crypto-currencies, reports, CoinDesk, an industry publication, there are patents, which could be worth far more than the currency if found to be valid and infringed. However, these patents will be difficult to prove valid. The USPTO and most courts (after the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice) are now taking the position that most software is not inventive, and merely automates previously established inventions.

However, not everyone agrees. Two Hogan Lovells attorneys say that “Viewed as providing an improved computer data structure, [our] proposed bitcoin method claim should be precisely the type of improvement to computer functionality that is still patentable under Alice.”

Blockchain patent applications have generated an unusual amount of publicity. Whether these patents will issue or if they are capable of sustaining validity upon PTAB and district court scrutiny is unclear. Business Insider obtained a copy of the US patent, filed on May 10, for a passcode blockchain that Verizon has apparently been working on for three years.

“There is quite a bit of excitement about having digital rights on a blockchain-type system. It could allow for pay-per-usage, for example, while smart contracts — the contractual clauses that form part of a transaction — could provide automatic payment distributions,“ according to a Moody’s Investors Service report.

“A blockchain of digital rights for consumer products — music and news articles, among others — could ensure that artists or authors are paid immediately once a consumer reads an article or listens to a song, with funds proportionally distributed as per contractual clauses.”

Goldman Sachs is among the big banks excited about the blockchain. Thirty banks have now signed up to the R3 or R3CEV partnership. R3, based out of New York, is trying to establish industry-wide standards and protocols for using the technology, as well as exploring potential use cases.

Business Insider’s coverage of blockchain is very useful for getting a handle on how it works and may be applied. Go here for a stream of articles with useful diagrams, including the triptych in this post.

Establishing Blockchain Standards

Establishing standards for blockchain will also be difficult.

R3 CEV, a startup working in blockchain which launched in September 2015, reports the Wall Street Journal, named the project Concord for the harmony it hopeblockchains to build among more than 60 banks participating in the project. The consortium originally started with nine multinational banks. The group currently includes Barclays PLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

“Perhaps the most important difference between Concord and bitcoin and ethereum is the way transactions are recorded. With bitcoin and ethereum, every transaction is recorded, verified and disclosed immediately in their public, distributed ledgers. With Concord, while the transaction is verified via a distributed ledger, it isn’t publicly disclosed. The details are shared only by the parties involved.

“Figuring out the best way to use blockchain-based tools in the financial-services industry has become a hot topic. A number of firms, including Digital Asset Holdings, HyperLedger Project, Ripple, Microsoft’s Azure, and others are all working on products to take advantage of the new technology.”

A number of companies of various types and sizes have filed blockchain or related crypto-currency patents. The emphasis on patent applications, as most people in the IP world know, is more style than substance. CoinDesk reports eight companies filing and Quatrz comments on ten Bank of America’s patent applications publishing on December 17.

Leading patent recipient IBM is taking a more holistic approach to blockchain, integrating it under a recently announced new business unit, Industry Platforms, that includes cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and that will work closely with the financial services and other industries.

Industry Platforms will have company-wide responsibility for blockchain research and development, according to CoinDesk, in addition to helping foster open technology standards with the stated goal of accelerating market adoption. Project-based innovation leveraging open source technology has had great success in avoiding litigation in the core technology generated by these projects.

The new unit represents the next phase in IBM’s blockchain initiative, building on past activities that have resulted in a range of prototypes, and play a leading role in the Linux Foundation-led HyperLedger Project. In parallel and with the support of R3, HyperLedger is the largest and most organized Blockchain initiative.

“Truth Telling” Design

“Blockchain’s design prevents the owner of a currency token from committing fraud by spending it twice,” reports Bloomberg Business Week. “The first spend is recorded for all to see, so no one would ever accept a second spend.

alaindelorme-murmuration03“The truth-telling feature of blockchain makes it enormously useful to banks, which have been among the first to start testing it. Microsoft launched blockchain as a service last year. Smaller companies are building dozens of apps on blockchain, such as one for musicians to track and collect royalties on their works.”

“The poetic vision of a blockchain society is a flock of starlings at dusk: decentralized yet perfectly coordinated. Blockchainers like to show video clips of murmurations—those enormous clouds of birds that pivot and wheel, climb and dive, split and merge with amazing grace. Blockchain, in this vision, could replace gobs of bankers, accountants, and lawyers, as well as escrow accounts, insurance, and everything else that society invented pre-21st century to verify payments and the performance of contracts.”

Benefits for IP Holders 

The promise of blockchain to streamline important, voluminous tasks is uniquely important to IP holders. It could provide an opportunity to copyright and other IP dependent businesses and individuals (patent holders, too) to track and receive incremental payments that in the past were difficult to comprehend; blockchain could serve to minimize disputes in ways that the courts and PTAB have not.

Right now, no one really knows what blockchain has wrought or what it is capable of, but there is a strong feeling that the distributed public ledger technology can be a catalyst for new ways of doing business, and that IP rights will play a role. There are a lot of businesses pulling for blockchain to succeed, and hoping that it will be will be readily shared.

__________________

UPDATE:

A Goldman Sachs patent application, published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Sept. 8, 2016, was originally filed in March 2015. It outlines a distributed ledger that can process financial transactions in the foreign exchange market, reports Quartz. It’s Goldman’s first blockchain-related patent.

Image source: Goldman Sachs Global Research; businessinsider.com; mnn.com (Alain Delorme)

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A record number of major holders were granted far fewer US patents

July 6, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Many significant tech companies experienced dramatic declines in US patent grants, fueling speculation about the reasons why. 

While total patent grants were virtually flat, according to USPTO data, down just 53 patents from 326,032 to 325,979, and utility patent grants and applications were up, many top US holders received significantly fewer US patent grants in 2015. Patent reform and uncertainty are the most likely reasons why.

Notable declines in patents received include Microsoft, off 17.2%, Sony, down 23.8% and AT&T, which dropped 31.3% after increasing 14.4% in 2014. The immediate result has been a noticeable drop in US patent grants received in 2015 by information technology companies, both domestic and foreign based. Japanese companies led the foreign declines.

Businesses of foreign origin were issued a record of 52.8% in 2015 US patents. US company patent applications abroad was likely up.

Digesting the Declines

Fifteen of the top 26 US patent recipients (58%) were granted fewer patents by the USPTO in 2015 than in 2014.  Even IBM, a leading patent recipient for more than two decades, was down by 0.5%. (See IPO top 300.)

Bucking the trend with net increases among top ten patent recipients include Qualcomm, Google GE , Intel and Samsung Display. Biggest percent increases among the top 300 were from NXP Semiconductor (147.9%), Amazon Technologies (53.3%) and Ford Global Technologies (49.1%).

These are in contrast to 2014, when top US-based patent recipients were all up (see 2014-2013 chart below).

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Litigation Down, Too

It is too early to be certain about why the issuance declines among major IT holders are occurring, but if it is in keeping with the recently announced 30.7% drop in patent litigation for the first half of 2016 (see IAM story), a pattern may be emerging.

What this means for some major technology companies is that patent quantity is no longer king. The arms race may be abating, somewhat. It also indicates that US patents mean less today to many companies than in the past, and paying to secure and enforce all but the best few may no longer makes sense. (I will try to cross-check this with US company foreign filing in a future IP CloseUp.)

Decreases in IT company patent filings can be interpreted in several ways.

The Intellectual Property Owners Association (ipo.org) list of top 300 US patent recipients for 2015, published recently, illustrates a downward trend, with some exceptions noted above. It is difficult to tell whether NXP, Amazon and Ford are playing catch up or see an opportunity that others do not. Also, is it that semiconductors, e-commerce and financial transactions, and automotive are inherently more innovative and potentially combative.

“A combination of factors”

Clearly there are many IP rights in portfolios that should never have been issued, and would be invalidated under further review. Also, patents are less reliable than ever, so why bother? It may be that some companies want to rely on fewer, better quality patents, for freedom of action, but it also may be that they see less value in obtaining them or in identifying new inventions.

“It is a combination of factors,” one veteran patent attorney and analyst told IP CloseUp. “Businesses are seeking better patent quality, and chartoftheday_4260_top_10_patent_recipients_n
USPTO examinations are getting somewhat tougher. Also, there is pressure on software patents from the courts, frequent PTAB invalidity rulings, and a general anti-patent environment. Weaker corporate balance sheets also have led to cost cutting.”

The America Invents Act and PTAB reviews have made it much more difficult to license patents, and have diminished their defensive value, too. Patents role in some businesses’ corporate strategy and ROI is under scrutiny.

Interestingly, despite the 2015 drop in patents to top holders, corporate patent buying activity was relatively high. Rock bottom prices may have made portfolio purchases attractive to some.

Patent-dubious Google, which has been an active buyer through various programs (e.g. experimental Patent Purchase Program), as well as a more active filer, experienced a 10.9% increase in patents received in 2015. In 2014, it was up by 31.6%.

Image source: patentdocs.com; aulainip.com; statista.com

 

 

 

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Symantec acquires Blue Coat, a leading IPR filer with a $289M loss

June 16, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Cybersecurity firm Blue Coat Systems has decided to opt-out of an initial public offering and sell itself to software security leader Symantec for $4.65 billion. 

What has not been widely reported in the press is that Blue Coat, a relatively small cybersecurity company with a loss of $289 million in 2015, is a leading filer of United States Patent and Trademark Office Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) that are designed to invalidate patents that are being asserted by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) and others.

According to patent research firm Patexia, Blue Coat is a top-ten IPR filer for 2016, along with Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and GE. The firm filed ten IPRs, a higher numbers than H-P for the period.

*****

“Blue Coat has been at war with Finjan,” Gaston Kroub of Markman Advisors, LLC told IP CloseUp.  “Like Blue Coat, Symantec has been fighting with Finjan too, so these IPR’s may be of value to Symantec as well.”

Top 10 IPR Petitioners_2

Finjan (FNJN) is among the leading targets for IPRs. It could be that Symantec finds Blue Coat attractive not only for its cybersecurity products, but also for its adversarial position with regard to Finjan and others which could assert their patents against it or Blue Coat.

In a 2015 verdict in Finjan Inc. v Blue Coat Systems, a jury awarded Finjan more than $39.5 million in damages, reports IP Watchdog. The lawsuit alleged that claims from a series of Finjan patents were infringed by several Blue Coat products, including Malware Analysis Appliance (MAA), Content Analysis System (CAS), and WebPulse.

*****

To help finance the transaction, Blue Coat’s existing majority investor, Bain Capital, will invest an additional $750 million in the deal. The private equity firm Silver Lake, which invested $500 million in Symantec in February, will invest an additional $500 million.

Bain had acquired the company for $2.4B in 2015.

According to The New York Times, “The deal will create a big provider of security products, both the traditional antivirus kind that has long been Symantec’s focus and the newer online protection services in which Blue Coat has specialized. Executives see little overlap between the two businesses.”

“With this transaction, we will have the scale, portfolio and resources necessary to usher in a new era of innovation designed to help protect large customers and individual consumers against insider threats and sophisticated cybercriminals,” Dan Schulman, Symantec’s chairman stated.

In its I.P.O. prospectus, Blue Coat said that it lost $289 million on top of the $598 million in sales for the 12-month-period that ended on April 30. That compares to a $271 million loss on top of nearly $569 million in sales for the same period a year before.

Image source: twitter.com/symantec; patexia.com

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Financial patent summit to focus on IP and cybersecurity, July 20-21

May 23, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Fintech, or financial technology, is a rapidly growing industry with more than $15 billion of venture capital invested to date and even more on the part of financial institutions.

An array of banks, e-commerce businesses, product developers, and software companies are vying for a leadership role in financial transactions and cybersecurity.

Those interested in IP rights in the context of authentication and transactions should consider attending the 13th annual Patents for Financial Services Summit in New York at the Sheraton Times Square, July 20-21. Many of financial services’ leading patent holders and advisers will be present.

Major Players Attending

IP executives and counsel from top banks and services providers are participating this year, including those at Visa, Time Warner, Royal Bank of Canada, Barclays, TD Bank, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Google, Microsoft, AST, LoT and Red Hat.

Top patenting organizations: exchanges and stocks

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Patent and IP counsel from the financial services industry and patent attorneys from leading law firms will participate in this year’s Summit, says conference producer World Congress, “to discuss recent rulings and strategies to protect patents against NPEs, successfully file patent applications post-Alice, and foster innovation.’

IP CloseUp readers who use the conference code IPCNYC can save $100 off of registration.

New for 2016:

  • Updates on the Alice decision and understand its impact on patent applications
  • Discussion about prosecuting business method patents
  • Analyze recent patent cases including, Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics; Stryker Corporation v. Karl Stroz Endoscopy-America, Inc.; Media Rights Technologies, Inc. v. Capitol One Financial Corporation, et al., and more
  • Hear in-house counsel views discuss pending legislation, including The Innovation Act, The Patent Act, and The Strong Patents Act
  • Evaluate their impact on PTAB and post-grant proceedings
  • Protect patents from NPEs and understand approaches to successfully defend against trolls
  • Improve patent quality and drive innovation within your organization
  • Explore the interplay between patents and cybersecurity

extThe Summit was approved in 2015 by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board for 12.5 CLE credit hours in the areas of Professional Practice. In 2016, World Congress are programming for and anticipate approval for 13 CLE credit hours.

The full conference agenda can be found here.

For a list of speakers, go here. This year’s location is the Sheraton Times Square on Seventh Avenue.

To register, click here.

Image source: worldcongress.com; thomsonreuters.com

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The “new normal” is focus of IP Business Congress in Barcelona

April 27, 2016 by Bruce Berman 1 Comment

With traditional patent strategies under pressure to show that they are still relevant, business as usual in the IP space is no longer the same.

Patent-adverse laws and more circumspect courts have forced owners worldwide to rethink how best to obtain, evaluate and utilize patents. The added scrutiny also has encouraged new, more collaborative IP business models and to reconsider ways of generating ROI.

This year’s IP Business Congress (IPBC Global) at the Arts Hotel in Barcelona, June 5-7. 6a00d8341c1ad253ef019aff9b0225970d-800wi 2016 will be host to more than 75 presenters and 600 attendees. It marks the ninth IPBC Global, the leading event for the business of IP value creation.

The keynote session, “Welcome to the new normal,” will feature the head or co-head of IP at Microsoft, SAP, LG and Google, and the former director of IP business at Sony. An IP executive from Ericsson will moderate.

Rapid Evolution

“New challenges posed by a rapidly evolving global IP market have caused many affected by IP to re-think ways of doing business,” said Joff Wild, Editor of IAM magazine and lead IPBC Global producer. “Developments in Europe and Asia are creating a more international ecosystem, and assertion-based monetization programs are becoming harder to implement in the U.S.”

This year’s IPBC Global sessions include:

  • Welcome to the new normal
  • Meeting the Chief IP officer challenge
  • Peace not war
  • Insider the inter partes review regime
  • Quality trumps quantity
  • Adapt or die
  • The Alice effect
  • Europe’s chance to lead
  • Buyers’ market
  • Debate: Patents as an asset class

Bruce Berman (yes, me) has been asked to moderate a debate on a controversial topic, “Patents as an asset class.” I will have my work cut out for me: It has frequently been claimed that patents are an asset class and should be treated as such by owners and investors. However, others vehemently disagree. They argue that promoting them in this way does more harm than good. Who is right?

Make Your Voice Heard

Readers who plan to attend the conference are encouraged to stop by the IP asset discussion. Members of the audience will be equipped with devices that permit them to cast their vote for against patents as assets at the end of the debate.Logo120x60

IP CloseUp readers who register will receive as 20% discount if they use the registration code IPBC16IPCU.

As usual at IPBC, there will be a host of good networking and private meeting opportunities, and the Catalan back-drop ought to make things even more intriguing. Barcelona is one of Europe’s top technology hubs, and recently was named the world’s “Most Wired City.”

For program and speaker information go here. To register go here.

Image source: ipbusinesscongress.com; http://superflat.typepad.com/

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Automobile industry convergence is the focus of Detroit IP conference

April 19, 2016 by Bruce Berman 0 Comments

Over the past ten years or so the motor car of the 20th century has been transformed from a mechanical conveyance to a high-speed information technology platform.

Cars today draw upon networks of complex inventions and intellectual property rights that are destined for licensing and disputes.  

IP in the Auto Industry: Challenges and Opportunities in a Converging World will address these and other issues at an event that will take place at the Ford Motor Company Conference Center in Dearborn on May 3.

Speakers include Nick Psyhogeos, President of Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC, Kevin Rivette, co-author of Rembrandts in the Attic, and a former Apple, IBM and Nissan advisor, and William Coughlin, President of Ford Global Technologies.

IP CloseUp readers are being offered an exclusive discount of $150 off the full delegate rate. Register here by April 29 for an opportunity to network with over 100 thought and market-leaders. Use code IPCLOSEUP3 to receive the discounted rate of $745.

On April 12, Ford made public plans to build a state-of-the-art world headquarters campus designed by SmithGroupJJR, the same architecture and engineering firm that designed offices for Google, Microsoft and Tesla.

The redesign comes as automakers compete with Silicon Valley and Seattle to hire engineers, designers and other tech-savvy workers who will design the autonomous and electric cars of tomorrow.

Ford’s corporate-campus overhaul comes as Toyota is preparing a new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, and as General Motors continues a $1 billion renovation of its Tech Center operation.

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“The focus on IP in the auto industry has intensified at all levels,” said Richard Lloyd, conference producer and North American Editor of IAM Magazine. “Issues such as branding, reputation management and counterfeiting are moving up the corporate agenda, while technological convergence means that patent protection and enforcement, licensing and collaboration have become more important than ever.”

IP in the Auto Industry will feature contributions from over 25 industry-leading companies, addressing the following issues:

  • Securing 360-degree protection – featuring representatives from Cooper-Standard Automotive, Harman International and Tenneco
  • The implications of convergence – Ford, Microsoft, Panasonic, United Technologies
  • The impact of new market players – 3LP Advisors, Unified Patents
  • The development of robust policing programs – Cellport Systems, Harley-Davidson, Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association
  • Spare parts and the after-market – Ford, General Motors
  • Managing brand reputation – Dezenhall Resources, Marx Layne

For the final conference program and the full speakers’ list go here. To register go here.

IP in the Auto Industry is produced by IAM in conjunction with World Trademark Review. 

Image source: autoalliance.org; globebcg.com

Events, News, People, Places, Transactions
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Samsung is the leading US patent holder, 24,000 ahead of IBM

April 6, 2016 by Bruce Berman 1 Comment

Of the top eleven active US patent holders, only four are American companies.

But who gets the best return on their innovation rights is less clear. 

It is no surprise that many foreign companies are significant US patent holders. The leader in active US patents, Samsung, with 63,434, is now more than 24,000 issued invention rights ahead of the American leader, IBM, with 39,436. But US patentees are learning that they do not all need to be top banana to succeed.

What this tells us is that for some companies – especially foreign ones – the quantity of US patents still counts, even if quality appears to be somewhat of a moving target. And besides, big technology companies seldom put their patents to the test. US-Patents

“Depending on the stage of a corporation’s development, intellectual property may be a primary value driver,” according to an article, “The largest US patent portfolios are shrinking,” by Michael Chernoff of MDB Capital in the May IAM magazine.

“This list provides insight as to whether a company’s portfolio has been growing and the impact that those assets appear to be having within their technology verticals.”

Big and Growing

Of the top 100 holders, Alphabet (Google) had one of the highest three-year compound annual (patent) growth rates (CAGR), 16%. They were outdone only by Apple, 19%, Ford, 19% and Taiwan Semiconductor at 22%. Huawei’s CAGR was a 26%, but on a lower base.

Alphabet is #12 and Apple #26 on the top 100 active US patentees list. Microsoft is now four, displacing Panasonic.

Seven entities moved up the ladder and made it onto the US Patent 100 list during the last year: Avago Technologies (36), Kyocera (81), Merck (84), Huawei (86) Caterpillar (97), EMC Corp (98) and Halliburton (100). While most of these new entrants won their place as a result of sustained IP development, some are due to significant acquisitions, as noted in Chernoff’s article. (I understand that Google also, has been an active acquirer.)

Getting vs. Having 

While IBM has received the most patents granted by the USPTO every year for the past twenty years, or so, it does not have the most active US patents. Samsung does, and Canon has inched ahead of IBM.

2015-Patents-Top-Ten-IBM

This is one area where lack of leadership can be strength. IBM allows many patents to lapse once it knows that rivals will not secure them or they are not likely to provide much value. The company also generates many defensive publications that prevent others from securing patents on inventions it may wish to use or build trade secrets (consulting “know-how”) around.

Because IBM is more selective and may have a greater number of quality assets than some of its foreign rivals, the company’s patent portfolio is likely more relevant for out and cross-licensing, and occasional sales, which in past years it has engaged in with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google. Fewer active US patents also means lower maintenance costs.

Image source: http://www.diyphotography.net; www.thenextsiliconvalley.com

Litigation, News, Places, Research, Uncategorized
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Fintech patent competition: fierce, diverse, growing

February 1, 2016 by Bruce Berman 3 Comments

Among the most watched areas for new patent value is financial technology, covering inventions in areas like authentication, mobile payments and wealth management.

Fintech is among the few bright spots in the patent landscape, with leading banks like JP Morgan, Bank of American and Wells Fargo, and credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard and American Express deeply involved and competing with a broad range of new entrants, including:

• Traditional banking industry vendors such as Fiserve and IBM

• Scores of venture funded start-ups, some supported by former banking executives

• Established technology players such as Apple, Google and Amazon looking to capitalize on their   consumer recognition by expanding into banking and payments.

Close behind is leading Korean bank Shinhan and Bizmodeline Co., Ltd, a Korean company with a total of 2700 patents, 1000 patents related to Financial and Billing, 1400 patents related to Mobile, Ubiquitous, RFID and NFC, 300 patents related to authentication and other technologies. A host of Japanese companies, like Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony and NEC, have become more active in identifying and developing inventions in the transaction space; Microsoft, too.

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“Start-ups, big tech and… banks,” in the current IAM magazine, The Intangible Investor, looks at the diverse competition in this space. (Subscribers can find the piece, which I wrote, here.)

*****

For more good background, “FinTech: An IP Perspective,” is a comprehensive report from IP research firm, Releclura. It outlines the players in the space and details the patents they have accumulated and in which areas of banking or transaction. The report can be found here.

A summary of the Relecura research compiled by IP consulting firm Aistemos, with charts and graphs, can be found here.

Execs Poised to Profit

According to The Financial Times, former banking executives are all over fintech startups, hoping for a big payout. See “Former Wall Street titans shake-up banking with fintech investments.” 

In the Wall Street Journal, “Banks and Fintech Firms’ Relationship Status: It’s Complicated,” discusses how disrupters and big lenders, often seen as rivals, are finding some success playing together.

Top holders

Fintech upstarts have attracted more than $50 billion in investments on the premise that they will disrupt banking and finance the way Uber or Airbnb have the taxi and hotel industries. But despite a decade of stumbling the banking industry has proven a tougher business to crack than some had thought. The American Banker speculates that the fintech sector may be overheating.

“’It’s too simple to say all these banks are stupid,’” says Qasar Younis, a partner at the Silicon Valley seed fund Y Combinator.

Like Big Pharma

The banks, much like some of the pharmaceutical companies, are smart enough to know that they will not be able to come up with all of the technology solutions they need to succeed, and that they have the capital, markets and regulatory savvy that others need.

For more information, Forbes’ top fintech stories for 2015, go here; their “Fintech 50” also provides a good overview of the up-and-comers, here.

Image source: americanbanker.com; CB Insights; Relecura 

 

Litigation, News, Research, Transactions
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IP Dealmakers Forum will host 200+ patent monetization bigs in NY

November 23, 2015 by Bruce Berman 1 Comment

The second annual IP Dealmakers Forum, December 7 – 8, will bring together leaders from the finance, legal and business communities to discuss the issues affecting patent licensing, sales and value, and to facilitate transactions.

New this year is a separate workshop for institutional investors that focuses on understanding IP as an asset class. This invitation-only, closed-door workshop will address the characteristics, market size and scope of patents as business assets, discuss practical investment issues, and examine the current investment universe. For additional information, go to here.

Luncheon Keynote

This year’s luncheon keynote is Edward Jung, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Intellectual Ventures, which holds more than 70,000 patents.  After leaving Microsoft where he was Chief Architect, Jung founded IV in 2002. As CTO, Jung sets strategic technology direction and new business models for the company. He holds more than 750 patents worldwide with has an additional 1,000 pending in the areas of biomedicine, computing, networking, energy, and material sciences.

The keynote topic is “Driving Deals Through the Patent Storm”ip-dealmakers-logo-2015

Other speakers, at the New York event which will be held at the Apella event center overlooking the East River, include chief or senior executives from leading IP holders, both NPEs (non-practicing entities) and operating companies, institutional investors, financial institutions and PIPCOs (public IP licensing companies), including

France Brevets, Techquity, EverEdge IP, Finjan, Royal Philips, Gerchen Keller Capital, Fortress, IP Bridge, Northwater Capital, Wood Creek Capital, Allied Minds, WiLAN, American Express, nXn Partners, Bridgestone Americas, Swiss Alpha, Freescale Semiconductor, Ericsson and Marathon Patent Group.

For this year’s IPDF agenda and speakers, go here.

IP CloseUp readers can still save $200 on Forum registration by using promo code “IPCloseUp_Special”.  A special landing page has been created for IP CloseUp reader registration: http://www.ipdealmakersforum.com/ipcloseup/

Apella-Lounge-Daytime-e1439319412266

Actionable Insights 

“The program is dedicated to providing attendees with actionable insights from successful dealmakers,” says Wendy Chou, co-founder and producer of IP Dealmakers Forum. Session topics include:

  • Boom or Bust: The Public IP Market One Year Later
  • All About Patent Quality – How to Invest in Powerful Patents
  • New IP Businesses, Investing for Innovation & Growth
  • The Evolution of IP Litigation Funding & Insurance Markets
  • 2016 Presidential Election Perspectives on Patents
  • How IP Drives Corporate Reinvention, M&A and Investments

Last year’s inaugural event connected diverse intellectual property monetization experts with public and private market investors, and was attended by approximately 200 investors, IP executives, and advisors. Due to popular demand, expanded space will be provided in 2015 for private one-on-one meetings.

Changing Times

“These are changing times,” said Ashley Keller, co-founder of Gerchen Keller Capital, and a scheduled speaker at this year’s Forum. “As the market shifts, understanding the increased importance of due diligence expertise, the changing perceptions of risk and valuation, and the sources and expectations of those with investment capital, is a prerequisite for anyone who intends to succeed in this arena.”

Image source: IP Dealmakers Forum 

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