Category: Patent Strategy
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Patents Age Like Fine Wine
Patents reach peak valuation around year 12. Why is that? We like to think about patents as call options on technology. With a call option, you have the opportunity, but not the obligation, to cash…
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Trading on the Differences
Uncertainty is not a Bad Thing, it is Opportunity. Every time you see a news story or read a blog about a topic you know very well, it is amazing that the stories have lots…
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IP Valuation in a Regulatory Framework
When an invention requires regulatory approval, a patent is a secondary element of intellectual property protection. Regulatory requirements trump patents as the primary form of protection or moat[1] against a business. Medical devices and pharmaceutical…
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The Government is the Worst Customer – and the Worst Investor
The Invisible Hand versus the Regulator’s Pen. We will always invest where Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is pushing things forward, and avoid businesses where the regulator’s pen can wipe it out. We avoid regulatory risk,…
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Handing the Keys to the Drunken Sailor and Hoping You Get Home
Letting the CTO manage patent policy is bad for business. Some CEOs abdicate their IP policy to the CTO. The CTO spends lots of time with the patent attorney, so it just makes sense to…
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Pitching Investors is Not “One-and-Done”
Spend some time “riding the bus” in the Minors before getting to the Big Leagues. I have the enviable position of seeing lots of inventors who bootstrapped their companies along before they take outside investment…
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Registration Numbers
Due diligence in patents requires looking at the patent attorney. When I review patent applications, I always download the full prosecution history of the patent from the USPTO. The prosecution history is the formal, legal…
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Waiting Room Inventors
“Moonshots” and Abdicating Responsibility as an Angel Investor. A friend who is an angel investor asked my opinion on a company. I did not like it for a number of reasons, not the least of…
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Technology is always about firing someone.
The value proposition of “technology” is usually that an employer can fire someone. It is always about doing more work with fewer people. This typically has a short term advantage for a business owner, but…
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Patents: An Imperfect System
The system is arbitrary, but it works. And it is unlikely to change. Some technologies just are not suitable for patents. The patent system is a clunky, one-size-fits-all system. It does not work for every…