Intellectual Ventures, the patent holding company started by the former CTO of Microsoft, Nathan Myhrvold, has begun obtaining payments from licensees in the $200 million to $400 million range, according to a recent front-page Wall Street Journal article (Tech Guru Riles the Industry by Seeking Huge Patent Fees, by Amol Sharma and Don Clark, September… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Patent
Strategy at the Edge of Intellectual Property
Imagine working in an industry with no intellectual property protection at all. Unlike the book, music, and high tech industries, you couldn’t use the law to shut down an infringer who was ripping off your products. How would you stay in business? Ask the fashion design business. That’s what BusinessWeek did. According to BW, garment… Continue Reading
Patent Factoids
Some factoids about patents: Typical cost to obtain a U.S. patent: $5,000 to $25,000. Cost to invalidate a patent: Legal fees average $4.5 million in patent disputes where more than $25 million is at risk. Cost of obtaining a patent versus invalidating one: You do the math. Number of inventions under active patent in the… Continue Reading
Size of the Intangible Economy
How large is the intangible economy in the U.S.? U.S. businesses invest about $1 trillion in intellectual property and other intangible assets, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Board. That’s as much as they invest in equipment and other tangible investments. Intangible assets, including intellectual property, constitute nearly 1/3 of the value of… Continue Reading
Tension between Quality Methodologies/Six Sigma and Innovation
Business Week ran an interesting cover story about the tensions between quality methodologies such as Six Sigma, and innovation and creativity. In sum, "while process excellence demands precision, consistency, and repetition, innovation calls for variation, failure and serendipity." According to Management Professor Vijay Govindarajan, "the more you hardwire a company on total quality management, [the… Continue Reading