Alactel-RPX Patent Licensing Venture is Short on Details

Deal is Said to Worth as Much as 1B Euros When Alcatel-Lucent announced recently that Rational Patent Exchange (RPX), the defensive patent aggregator, would be presenting its 29,000 patents for license to RPX’s some 50 blue chip clients, it received notable attention. What was not detailed is how the revenues will be generated and sustained. [...]

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Perfect Storm is Set to Slam IP Rights, Holders

Everyone Will Take a Hit Broad and largely unfounded disdain for intellectual property rights and holders has gone beyond bickering between operating companies and NPEs, or Hollywood (old economy) and Silicon Valley (new economy). It  is starting to have an impact on innovation and investment, and how stakeholders view intangible property, like music, software and [...]

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Occupy IP: New Economy Businesses Clash with Old

It May be Too Much, Too Late for Content Providers Finally Trying to Tame the Internet; a Fresh Approach is Needed [The following appears as an "Insider Views" commentary on Intellectual Property Watch] Have copyright holders become their own worst enemies? Poorly drafted bills in the U.S. Senate and Congress designed to curb music and [...]

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Anti-IP Story Tells Only Part of It

Patent Suits are Declining, Not Increasing A recent Reuters BreakingViews story that ran in The New York Times that says the United States Supreme Court should reverse the “mission creep” in patent law that is stifling innovation has misrepresented several key facts. What ran on page two of Business Day in the November 18 print edition of The [...]

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C-Level Execs, Investors Play a Bigger Role in Patent Calls

“Build, License, Buy or Steal?” For many businesses abundant R&D and patent filings provide a good foundation for innovation and sales freedom. But that may be changing. Information technology companies are learning what Big Pharma realized some years ago: a strictly internal pipeline rarely is sufficient to fill all of most business’ IP needs. This is [...]

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Dilbert: “I think we can win this patent infringement”

Beating Big Technology with a Good Attitude Scott Adams’ Dilbert is one unique comic strip. In it Adams regularly regards innovation, technology, and (mis)management, and is not afraid to occasionally take on IP rights, especially, patents. First published in 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micro managed office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character. The strip has spawned several [...]

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U.S.-Funded Alternative Energy Patents Fall into Foreign Hands

Solar Subterfuge By Daniel Scotto, Whitehall Financial Advisors LLC The value of energy assets has taken a giant leap backward. What used to be simply bricks and mortar has transformed into billions of dollars’ worth of Research and Development that can now be acquired for nominal cost. U.S. Companies invested vast sums in developing intellectual [...]

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Patents – The Rights We Love to Hate

A Misunderstood Symbol of Control, Patents are the Rodney Dangerfield of Assets: “They Can’t Get No Respect” – Recent record prices for patent sales and shares of selected technology businesses (e.g. Nortel, Motorola, InterDigital) have turned up the volume on angry anti-patent rhetoric. Patent owners of all shapes and sizes, including some operating companies, continue [...]

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“Patent Failure” Fails to Recognize Danger of Too Much Repair

A Reply to Professors Bessen and Meurer’s Book About the Difficulty of Perfecting the Patent System By Roya Ghafele and Benjamin Gibert The publication of Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk (Princeton University Press, 2008) by James Bessen and Michael Meurer challenged the conventional wisdom on the relationship between patents [...]

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City of Brotherly Love Ranks High in IP Holders, Advisors

iPlaces: Patents Pave Philadelphia Freeway Often overshadowed in technology and finance by the likes of San Francisco-Silicon Valley, Boston and New York, Philadelphia is right up there with the very best when it comes to intellectual property rights. The City of Brotherly Love is rich with leading IP advisers, holders and service providers. IP players [...]

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