Value of Microsoft’s Facebook Stake Drops Below $1B

MS Supports FB’s Success; Promotes It’s Own Facebook has been shedding market value like a wet collie its winter coat. With Facebook’s share price down to just $72.7B as of May 22 from $104B three days after its IPO, Microsoft does not appear to be too concerned. Its $1.2B stake has decreased just a few hundred [...]

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Irresponsible Op-Eds Distort IP Facts, Promote Mis-Information

These Writers Don’t Improve Innovation, They Trample On It Why are bright people uncharacteristically dense when it comes to understanding patents? Ignorance about a simultaneously technical, legal and commercial discipline is a factor, but there may be something else going on. IP CloseUp refrains from investigative journalism. We leave that to the specialists. Its mission is to [...]

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Bold Patent Moves Bolster Facebook, MSFT

Cash Rich, IP-Savvy MSFT Embraces Role of Patent Dealmaker After acquiring 800 patents and scores of applications and licenses from AOL for $1.1B just two weeks ago, Microsoft has said that it has flipped the bulk of the portfolio, 650 patents, to Facebook for $550M, securing the IP assets and licensing MSFT needs while recouping [...]

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Could AOL Patent Sale Have Netted More Than $1B?

Investor Pressure May Have Triggered a “Too-Quick” Sale It was widely reported yesterday that AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) on Monday agreed to sell more than 800 patents and related products to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) for $1.056 billion. It was also written that the struggling online services provider was under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, holder of [...]

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Tensions Rise Between USPTO and Court of Appeals

Patent Office is in Defiance of CAFC Mandate on Inequitable Conduct, says former Chief IP Executive A former head of IP at a Fortune 100 company has told IP CloseUp that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is undermining the authority of the highest patent court, the Court of Appeals for the Federal [...]

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UK Inventor Burns: Torches Patent He Can’t Afford to Use

The High Cost of Enforcement Compels Him to Destroy His Rights Before Parliament Without the funds to enforce a patent it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. We’ve all heard that before. But never was this more dramatically illustrated as when UK inventor, Michael Wilcox, recently set fire to his patent for an innovative color [...]

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Wall Street Discovers Patents

Experts Gather in SF for IP-Finance Forum Patents, abstract and esoteric, remain largely a mystery to those on Wall Street. At the same time, the financial community’s perspective on IP value, grounded in the capital markets, is not something that patent holders and professionals readily understand. To bridge the information gap the Licensing Executives Society [...]

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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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