Curating a Portfolio
Patents that are Bad Stand-Alone Investments
How BlueIron Evaluates Patent Investments. We do not invest in technologies where we don’t think there is a market for the patents alone. BlueIron treats client’s patents like collateral for loans. Our investment is protected only by the value that the patents would have on the open market, if the client walks away from the…
Read MoreBlueIron’s Patent Rating Checklist
A Patent Checklist to find out: How good is your invention? The spreadsheet contains many of the parameters discussed in BlueIron’s blog posts on patent due diligence.Please let us know if you have any suggestions/comments to make the checklist a better tool.
Read MoreThree Prongs to Find Patentable Ideas that Support Your Business Plan
Sophisticated patent owners take a very proactive approach to managing their patent portfolios. Patents are assets with a 20 year lifespan. They will almost always outlast the products and services that were the inspiration for the inventions, but their usefulness may not actually be realized until many years after they are filed. Because of the…
Read MoreDue Diligence for Patents – Licensing Potential
In many cases, the licensing potential of an invention is the best way to see its complete value. When rating inventions for patenting, the licensing potential of an invention is a key component. In this analysis, we are interested in the maximum potential uses of the invention. Technologies that are transportable or applicable to different…
Read MoreActor Analysis for Patent Infringement
Due Diligence for Patents – Actor Analysis tells who is the likely infringer. Actor analysis is often overlooked when valuing inventions for patenting, or for valuing patents once they are issued. With actor analysis, we want to know who is the actual actor that infringes the invention. This analysis often identifies patents that you would…
Read MoreCalculating the Economic Value of a Patent
Due Diligence for Patents – The value of an invention is proportional to the ECONOMIC impact it has on a product or market. The economic value of an invention is notoriously hard to estimate, but such analysis can be used to compare different inventions to stack rank the inventions – or to highlight the advantages/disadvantages…
Read MoreMapping an Invention to Competitor’s Products
Due Diligence for Patents – Comparing Inventions to Competitor’s Products. Inventions with external business value will map to competitors or to potential outside licensees. These patents might not map directly to your products, but are assets that make your company more attractive to acquisition, and give you leverage in negotiating with a competitor. These assets…
Read MoreMapping an Invention to an Internal Product Roadmap
Due Diligence for Patents – Comparing your invention to an internal product roadmap. Inventions with internal business value will map to your internal product roadmap. These patents are used to protect your products from direct copying and create a defensible space for you to operate. There are two main factors to consider for this analysis:…
Read MoreConsidering Constraints When Evaluating Patentable Ideas
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Every invention has a set of constraints, and it is imperative to uncover and evaluate them when considering patenting. This applies to an inventor or business manager who is trying to ferret out ideas contained in a new product as well as the…
Read MoreCurating Inventions in the Invention Disclosure Meeting – Myopia
Since BlueIron has a vested interest in the quality and economic value of your patents – it is the only collateral that BlueIron uses – we NEED patents to be high quality. The single biggest event that determines commercial value is the invention disclosure meeting. If inventors see their inventions as too small, the resulting…
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