Presented by: Vincent Pluvinage

Summary: R&D is both strategic and expensive, and most technology companies invest heavily to produce innovative products. Yet, patent portfolios are rarely recorded on the balance sheet or viewed as a source of predictable earnings.
 
Intellectual Ventures has designed and begun deploying two IP financial products that are likely to appeal to CEOs and CFOs, turning what is traditionally viewed as a mostly illiquid asset class into something that investment bankers, private equity firms, and savvy board of directors can easily leverage to create shareholder value. Find out how Intellectual Ventures is using its multi-billion IP investment fund to help companies during the current credit crunch.

Archives: Slide Deck

The Troll Problem: NPE's, PatentFreedom, and Allied Security Trust
Date: Today, May 12th 8:30am PDT, 11:30am EDT

Presented by: Daniel P. McCurdy, CEO, Allied Security Trust I

Summary:  Over the last decade, patent litigations in all industries launched by Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs), sometimes called “patent trolls”, have increased from approximately 3% of all patent litigations filed to more than 17%. This percentage is dramatically higher in high-tech industries. While a significant increase, this statistics obscures the fact that the number of operating company defendants named in these litigations has increased in the same period from approximately 250 a year to approximately 1,500. PatentFreedom has identified more than 230 distinct NPEs, with more than 800 subsidiaries. More troubling, of more than 1,700 litigations launched by NPEs in the last five years, only 50% have been initiated by the top 20 most active “trolls”. This Webinar will focus on analysis of the NPE problem, and offer detailed recommendations on actions operating companies can take to reduce exposures to “patent trolls,” including the role of PatentFreedom and Allied Security Trust in reducing such threats.

The spotlight is on Kent Richardson, EVP, ThinkFire

1. Describe the optimal organizational structure to extract value from intangibles.

At ThinkFire, we're often asked to help our clients with their IP value extraction process and organization. For example, patent monetization organizations have evolved reflecting significant changes in both licensor and licensee practices, the law, and patent management best practices. Today, we see successful organizations operating patent monetization as an integrated business unit with a broader spectrum of skills. These organizations have not only patent development, reverse engineering, and licensing capabilities, but also, marketing, PR, government relations, finance, business development and sales capabilities. We see successful organizations shifting away from patent monetization being an insufficiently supported, legal department only task. We also see best practices focus on metrics the break down ambiguous terms like "quality" into measurable and actionable criteria.