Negotiating Patent Purchase Agreements

Randomly saw this in my twitter feed. Actually useful overview:

Invention extraction made simple

Hello everyone. 

Just posted the below to twitter regarding how to grow a companies IP, thought it was useful and wanted to republish here: 

Stay simple - focus on the 5 core stages in invention extraction: brainstorm, synthesize, prioritize, expand, protect.

Brainstorm w/ individuals or groups, look for both whitespace ideas and current development projects. Critical point - ID the right problems

Synthesize ideas by generalizing and grouping to focused themes. Remove the unnecessary. Ask if X is a specific example of Y. Find the Y's.

To prioritize ideas 1) set the criteria 2) choose a ranking schema 3) assemble a diverse ranking team 4) rank in private 5) discuss together

To expand inventions - take every descriptor in the synthesized idea, and treat it as an axis about which an invention can be developed.

To protect ideas, understand the strategic landscape from a business, tech, and legal perspective, then apply the best IP tool (patent, etc)

Hope this is useful. 

Best,

Erin-Michael

Good reporting

(Reporter Sara-Jayne Adams of the UK's Intellectual Asset Management and Erin-Michael Gill)

Sara-Jane Adams has pulled together a number of IP professionals for this months cover story (registration required) on fighting back against the IP backlash, especially with respect to international perceptions of IP. Interesting topic and bit of a surprising read.

Also, I recently started Twittering (http://twitter.com/gillip_com). While it is not exactly an outlet for the kind of in depth IP journalism one might find in IAM, it is a good place to park small interesting insights from time to time. Here's my latest tweet:

gillip_comNote the portfolio license option - MSFT offered all YHOO's IP at a discount b/c of search deal. Good value for both -http://bit.ly/13yQ4m

The longer point is that the IP provisions in the Yahoo search deal could seed a broader collaboration with Microsoft. Allowing MSFT to incorporate YHOO technology - even at a discount - would at least be new revenue into YHOO, and could be a valuable test drive of sorts leading to something far more significant down the road.

Anyway, if you would like to follow my feed, feel free.

Cheers,

e^(ip)

plenIPotentiary discussions at 2009 IPBC

An international working group, assembled and tasked by the UK's Intellectual Asset Management Magazine, met for the first time late last month to discuss and define the role of Chief Intellectual Property Officer for attendees of the IP Business Congress in Chicago.

The results of these discussions were shared at the IPBC and will be further developed into articles and other publications by both IAM and the session facilitators (Ron Laurie and Rob Sterne). Great overview here by Joff Wild and key point summary here by Duncan Bucknell. At the end of the conference, they held a brief roundtable and recorded a few of us answering questions related to the CIPO role.

Full CIPO working group:

Carl Horton, GE

Sherry Knowles, GSK

Ruud Peters, Philips IP & Standards
Marshall Phelps, Microsoft
Todd Dickinson, AIPLA

Peter Cicala, Shire Pharmaceuticals
Damon Matteo, PARC
John Squires, Chadboure & Parke (Goldman Sachs)
Scott Frank, AT&T
Erin-Michael Gill, OQO

Beatrix de Russé, Thomson

Bill Elkington, Rockwell Collins

Duncan Bucknell, Duncan Bucknell Company
James Malackowsi, Ocean Tomo

Bo Heiden, CIP Gothenburg
Shinjiri Ono, Yuasa & Hara
Ian Harvey, IP Institute
Anne Culotta, Halliburton
Wayne Sobon, Accenture

$25,000 Reminder

(image courtesy of Flickr)

Just a quick note: While a patent is one of the most useful incentives to invention, direct financial incentives work too. If you know any promising collegiate inventors (graduate or undergraduate), please help them submit their work to the National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Invention Competition. They are giving out over $50,000 in awards with the winner receiving $25K. Application info can be found here: www.invent.org/collegiate