One of the under-utilized aspects of available US patent data is the business information effectively "hiding in plain sight" in the U.S. Patent Office Assignment database. While it used to take weeks or months for assignments to be recorded, in recent years, the USPTO has implemented a very efficient electronic filing functionality that results in assignments being available for review almost immediately after being presented for recording. (This is arguably the most efficient process today in the USPTO.) Because most patent owners appear to avail themselves of electronic filing option when recording their assignments, one can find a wealth of information in the USPTO Assignment Branch.
To this end, I recently uncovered an intriguing tidbit of information related to the Automobile Bailout when performing a wholly unrelated patent monetization marketability study for a client. In confirming that a patent was
Looking for Inside Info on the Automotive Bailout and Other Business Issues? It May Be Hiding in Plain Sight in US Patent Assignment Database
50% of Venture Capital Investment is Lost: How Your Clients Can Improve These Odds by Using the Right Patent Analytics
THE SKINNY ON THE QUALITY OF VENTURE CAPITAL-RELATED INVESTMENT DECISIONS
If you are a counselor of venture capital firms or entrepreneurs who owning start-up companies that are targets of venture capitalists, you might already be familiar with the high rate of failure associated with such investments. Nonetheless, you may be surprised to find out that 50% of all money invested in venture capital is a loss. This figure, which is based upon separate research projects by a Chicago Graduate School of Business (“GSB”) professor and a former Chief Economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicates that the actual return on venture capital investment is not much different from the average annualized returns on the smallest NASDAQ stocks. In particular, the return on venture capital investment from 1987 to 2001 in these smallest stocks was 62% as compared
How a Patent Strategy Focused Only on Obtaining the Lowest Cost Patents May Reveal a Company’s Future Inability to Remain Viable
Commentators like me frequently rail against what we view as the often unnecessarily high cost of obtaining patent protection. In truth, many patents are overpriced and provide questionable business value to their clients. Over-priced patents do not form the basis of this article, however. Instead, this is about the opposite phenomenon, i.e., under-priced patents. Specifically, in this article, I describe a company's desire to obtain low cost patents and what such a patent strategy may reveal about its long term viability. I was recently contacted by a large printer manufacturer ("PrinterCo" for the purposes of this discussion) to see whether I was interested in preparing patent applications for the price of $1300 each. This price seemed somewhat ridiculous to me because even the most "bargain basement" patent preparation prices that pop up on my Google sidebar advertising do not seem to dip beneath a threshold level of $2800. And, as a
Investors in the Green Economy: You Could Lose Your Investment in Green Innovators by Failing to Identify the Green Inventors that Came Before Them
With President-Elect Obama's announcement that he will establish an "Apollo Project" to develop a Green Economy, there is no doubt that "the Green Technology train has left the station." Indisputably, investors will start to invest heavily in companies that appear to possess commericializable Green Technology that will enter the marketplace as the US embraces the Green Economy and develops the necessary infrastructure to make this happen. Before staking a claim to one or more of these companies, however, investors should understand whether existing patent rights owned by third parties could undermine the investment potential of even the most promising Green Technology innovators. Anyone seeking to capitalize on the Green Economy and its attendant Green Technology must recognize a fundamental reality of US patent law: in granting a patent, the Patent Office cares only that an invention is useful, novel and nonobvious. Significantly--and this is the rub for investors in Green
Existing Sources of Investment Information Failed Us: Patent Landscaping Analytics Provide a Necessary Innovation for Investors
As global stock markets continue to struggle, smart investors seeking to capitalize on relatively cheap stock prices are searching for promising investment opportunities. Unfortunately, however, most investors are likely relying on the same sources of investment information that failed to accurately predict the current stock market situation. If the predictive nature of this information has been wrong time and time again, why do investors continue to rely on it? The answer is pretty simple: investment professionals lack knowledge that alternative sources of information exist. One such alternative approach to making investment decisions involves using patent landscaping analytics to assess existing investment in a particular product or technology area. My research demonstrates that properly conducted patent landscaping analytics can effectively allow one to predict the future trajectory of product development by companies. For example, as I have written about here and here, the fact that Google and Yahoo intended to significantly
Investors Can Predict the Winners of the Alternative Energy Race: Follow the Patents
It seems that in just the last few months, reduction of US dependence on foreign oil has moved from an occasionally discussed aspirational goal to becoming a critical public policy mandate. Indeed, there is much talk about the energy policies of both John McCain and Barack Obama, each of which focus substantially on increasing the amount of energy obtained from within the borders of the US. As an interested observer, it appears to me that the publicity associated with The Pickens Plan announced in July 2008 (which I previously wrote about here) served as a significant impetus for increased public awareness of alternative energy as a public policy concern. There can be no doubt that the alternative energy "train has left the station" and that we will begin seeing an ever-increasing amount of corporate investment in both wind and natural gas technology. This investment will be directed toward
