Lawyers Advisers 2 - The Hutter Group LLC

Protecting Your Company’s Value – Think Beyond the “Usual IP Suspects”

June 12, 2015June 4, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 0

It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to think about what I call “the Usual IP Suspects”--that is, patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets--when they consider protection of their company’s value. I learned working as patent attorney at a prestigious IP law firm, and later in a corporate environment, that often a company’s value can exist in forms other than these most recognized forms of IP protection.

Protecting Your Company’s Value – Think Beyond the “Usual IP Suspects”

Indeed, for many companies, a great deal of value can reside in the broad class of “intangible assets.” It is then important for company leaders to identify and protect these less recognizable forms of company value. The B-School types say, “what

Patent Early? Maybe Not

January 15, 2015June 4, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 0

Patent lawyers almost always instruct inventors to file for patent protection at the earliest possible date, but maybe this is not the best advice for many startups. To the contrary, I think this conventional advice is flawed--at least when it applies to inventions involving unproven products with no known customer base.

Ask the right business questions to succeed from a position of lesser bargaining power

Put simply, unless customers show that they care about the product that will be covered by the patent such that they are willing to pay more than it costs to make the product in volumes that will lead to sustainable profits, the patent will provide value only for the attorney

Strategic Patenting 4: A Case Study of Success

August 12, 2014May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 1

The Takeaway: In the 4th post in this Strategic Patenting Series, a case study is presented of a company that created durable market-making patent protection for a successful consumer product innovation using a disciplined patenting strategy. The strategic patenting efforts of Procter & Gamble undertook with its market-leading Swiffer Wet Jet® floor cleaning system allowed the company to create strong protection of the function of the basic product. This, in turn, resulted in protection of the underlying consumer benefits provided by this innovative floor cleaning system, a fact that allowed the company to prevent functional aspects of its system from being included in knock-off products. Moveover, P&G leveraged its ongoing consumer insights to continue to grow its patent portfolio. In short, the company's successful strategic patenting efforts have "made it cheaper to go through them than around them," thus contributing to its market leadership for this innovation for the past

Strategic Patenting Part 3: Why (Almost) Every Innovator Fails to Maximize Patent Value

July 17, 2014May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 4

The Take Away: Those seeking to generate market-making patent coverage for new innovations must recognize that patent coverage should focus not on how the problem is solved but instead on the benefits provided to the customer. Most patent coverage is directed to a specific solution to a customer need that is characterized in the form of an invention. Patents that cover only one solution to a broad customer need will permit competitors to solve the same customer need with a non-infringing substitute product, thus leaving the patent holder with no legal recourse against their competitor. On the other hand, market-making patent coverage focuses on the benefits provided to the customer, which means that competitors cannot sell the same benefit. Accordingly, patent coverage that emphasizes benefits over features will make it more difficult for competitors to provide the same solution to the customer. Innovators must

Strategic Patenting Part 2: It’s Not Your Patent Attorney’s Job to Get it Right

February 12, 2014May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 1

From the last post, we see that it is very rare for patents to create value for their owners. Moreover, if the "big guys" with pockets deep enough to hire the best lawyers can get it right only 5% of the time, there should be no doubt that smaller companies and individuals should re-examine the advice they are getting from their IP counsel. This is not to say that smaller companies and individuals cannot be successful in creating market-defining patent protection. To the contrary, it is my strong belief that small companies can create solid patent protection at a reasonable cost, but to do so will likely require patentees to recognize that their IP counsel likely has no clue how to do what you need done. And, even if she does, it is not her job to make

Strategic Patenting Part 1: Why So Few Patents Create Real Value

January 24, 2014May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 3

Many business people are surprised to find out that all patents are not created equal. A recent study of Fortune 500 companies reported in Suzanne Harrison's Edison in the Boardroom Revisited indicates that only a very small number of patents--namely, 5%-- obtained by these top patent filers created strategic value for their owners. If only 5% of the most sophisticated companies, all of which have veritable armies of patent professionals on their teams, can get patent protection right, it must follow that less resource-rich companies have an even lower probability of gaining strategically valuable patent protection. This and the next few blog posts will aim to help improve the odds for business people seeking to learn how to generate more valuable patents. The first issue to clear up is what "strategic patenting" means. Those of us in the IP Strategy business define a "strategic patent"

Free and Low Cost Patent Search and Analysis Tools: Who Needs Expensive Name Brand Products?

June 18, 2013 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 0

(NOTE: At the end of this post is a detailed spreadsheet that lists the free and low cost tools that I use regularly in my IP strategy practice. At the request of a group of IP strategy professionals with whom I network, I will be giving a presentation on these tools at a local event. I thought that readers of this blog would also appreciate learning about how these tools can add high value at a low to minimal cost.) In private conversations, some of my corporate peers inform me that they pay $1000's per year (or even per quarter for larger companies) for access to "name brand" patent search tools that nonetheless do not contain accurate and up to date information. For example, a client tells me that one of these expensive tools fails to update USPTO records on

Why the IP Law Firm Business Model is Broken And What I Am Doing About It

May 23, 2013 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 1

As a former IP law firm shareholder and senior corporate lawyer, I know all too well the expense required to start and maintain an IP law practice. Not only are IP lawyers of all levels of experience paid handsomely, but so are the highly skilled paralegals, docket clerks and administrative professionals traditionally required create the infrastructure needed to handle the myriad of details involved in an IP law practice. Of course, this expensive infrastructure must be sustaining, so while a lawyer serves today’s clients, her eye must also be on finding the next client because payroll and rent obligations don’t take a holiday when clients do. This "feed the beast" nature of the IP law practice model was a primary reason that I decided several years ago that I would not again work in the traditional practice of law. How could I? The standard legal service framework required me to build

The Apple vs. Samsung Verdict Actually Demonstrates that Patents Do Promote Product Innovation

August 28, 2012May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 1

In the time that the Apple vs. Samsung patent fight has been underway, we have been inundated with an untold number of articles on how Apple is stifling innovation in the SmartPhone world. (Haven't seen these: just do a Google search for "Apple stif . . ." you don't have to type any more than this--the search auto-completes itself.) I often take a contrarian view from that stated by most "expert" commentators--be they members of the press or actual patent professionals, and the Apple v. Samsung verdict is no exception: I think the result actually demonstrates that the patent system is working just fine in this instance, thank you very much. But how can this be when Samsung got hit with more than a BILLION US DOLLAR jury verdict last week?!? Doesn't the fact that Samsung could not make a product without infringing Apple's multitude of patents mean that

False Marking Lawsuits are Real Problem for Business and Make Little Sense When Applied to Expired Patents

March 7, 2011May 20, 2019 by Jackie Hutter, IP Strategist 4

The threat of false marking lawsuits has garnered much attention in the IP business press in the last couple of years. Companies of all sizes have been hit with qui tam actions (that is, suits brought by an individual or company on behalf of the US government to right wrongs done to the government, not the individual) where the basis of the action is the mis-marking of a product with an incorrect or expired patent number. Like a gold rush, these lawsuits have resulted in a number of legal entrepreneurs seeking out products that are incorrectly marked--usually by identification of expired patents, which is an easy thing to find--and their bringing suit against the offending companies. Indeed, there were over 500 false marking lawsuits filed in 2010, making this cause of action seem almost like a

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