BlueIron IP / About
A business advisory practice for IP as a management function.
Engage us two ways: transactionally for a specific instrument (IP-backed lending, portfolio acquisitions and sales, IP insurance, enforcement), or continuously as Fractional Chief IP Officer. For operating companies whose patents have grown into something the business needs to use.
IP is a management function, not a purchasing function. Built deliberately, patents produce results the company can name: capital using the IP, licensing income, leverage with competitors, and favorable acquirer diligence. Built reactively, they become an expense line with a 20-year tail. Which one the company gets depends on whether IP is run as a function of the business.
Engage us two ways.
Pick a transaction, or pick continuous management. Either way, you walk out with outcomes the business can use.
Transactions.
An IP-backed loan. A portfolio valuation or analysis. An assessment of a company that may be copying your product. A portfolio acquisition or sale. IP insurance placement. We've done each one from every side of the deal: buyer, seller, lender, insurer, and rights holder.
Fractional Chief IP Officer.
Every patent decision, from what to pursue and what to retire to what the portfolio is for, comes with a business-first framework.
The decisions stay yours. You gain the confidence to make them, and we take the day-to-day load off your plate.
Your attorney handles the drafting. You get patents that point at business outcomes: capital using the IP, leverage when negotiating, and options when a competitor moves.
Portfolio map, follow-on application planning, a written thesis for each patent, and outside-counsel coordination, all handled.
The transactional path works for a defined deal on a known timeline. The ongoing path suits companies building IP assets that call for an experienced hand.
The principal.
Outside patent counsel to Fortune 10 companies earlier in the career. That work was over a decade ago and informs everything since.
In-house IP counsel at an IP-heavy venture-backed startup with around a hundred patents under management, running the docket and follow-on application strategy from inside the company.
Since: years of IP-collateralized loans structured and underwritten as the lender. Working with patent portfolios from the lender’s side, where ownership history, the link between patents and revenue, and survival through a workout decide whether a deal closes.
Founder of BlueIron. Engineer first, patent attorney second. Registered with the USPTO. Author of Investing in Patents. Host of the Patent Myths podcast.
- Education Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — BS & MS, Mechanical Engineering University of Denver, Sturm College of Law — JD
- Credentials Registered USPTO patent attorney CPVA · Certified Patent Valuation Analyst
- Recognition IAM Strategy 300 — top patent strategists worldwide
- Published Investing in Patents — the book Patent Myths — the podcast
One role. Three company stages.
How the role adapts as the company grows.
Build the portfolio that holds up in next-round diligence.
The moment the portfolio gets built is the moment the architecture sets. Early applications drafted under investor pressure, without strategy, are how companies arrive at a Series B with patents that cannot be enforced and a budget question they cannot answer. The role sets drafting priorities, shapes the application architecture, and points each patent at a business position the company will still want a year later.
Curate, retire, and focus around what the business sells.
Revenue makes the business comprehensible. Patents drafted before that clarity, usually a lot of them, get sorted: kept, narrowed, sold, or retired. Done well, the work sharpens the portfolio around the products that earn.
Run the IP as the financial asset it has become.
At scale the IP can be used as collateral, insured, licensed, or sold. In-house counsel is usually present and capable. What is missing is the function that runs the IP as a financial instrument: collateralization, IP insurance, cross-licensing, acquisition positioning, and reporting at the altitude the CFO needs.
Who a Chief IP Officer engagement fits.
Chief IP Officer engagements are built around three things.
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01 · Annual patent commitment
A commitment to spend $200K or more per year on patents. That spend funds the program a Chief IP Officer runs: new applications, patent-office work, and portfolio decisions.
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02 · A strategic portfolio
You want your portfolio to be strategic and you are ready to invest in it. The most value comes when you are writing new patent applications. Your issued patents and pending applications are the starting point.
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03 · US corporate structure
A US corporate structure is strongly preferred. International companies with a US subsidiary are a fit.
Who IP-backed lending fits.
IP-backed lending is built around four things.
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01 · Revenue
Revenue of $5M or more. Most lending clients run $20M or more.
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02 · Issued patents
Issued patents are the collateral, and US and EU patents are preferred. Pending applications join the loan base as they issue, and we plan that path with you.
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03 · Revenue that maps to patents
Your own revenue is preferred. Competitor revenue from products that use your patents without permission carries value in a loan as well.
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04 · US corporate structure
A US corporate structure is strongly preferred. International companies with a US subsidiary are a fit.
Companies building strong products.
We work with companies whose IP supports a product in the market. Independent inventors, licensing-first models without a product, and patent trolling sit outside this practice. If you are bringing a product to market, come back when that is true.
Thirty minutes, principal to principal.
Most engagements start with a call. No form and no intake queue: you will talk to Russ directly, and by the end you will know whether a second conversation is worth having.
BlueIron IP is a business advisory practice. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice.