 Patents:
Sleeping Beauties.
Awaken the potential inside your
intellectual
property.
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PATENTS: SLEEPING
BEAUTIES
Patents.
Yawn. Have insomnia? Read Hewlett Packard’s U.S. Patent Number 4,669,051
some night. (It’s over a thousand thrilling pages, including drawings.) Need
a laugh? Check out British Rail’s GB 1,310,990 ("Space Vehicle.") How many
of you have passionately debated the value of patents at your last cocktail
party? Please question your sanity in quieter moments. But don’t stop
reading, because these seemingly dull, dry, documents of doom are being
seen, in the words of none other than Bill Gates, as "the new gold rush." |
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Consider:
- National
Semiconductor "found" $250 million when Gilbert Amelio pushed the
company’s licensing arm to be more aggressive. Steve Jobs then wrangled
$150 million more from Microsoft for cross-licensing fees.
- IBM has annual revenues of more than $1 billion
- nearly a fifth of its total profits - from patent licensing.
- Two-thirds of the estimated $7 trillion market
value of all publicly-traded U.S. companies lies with their patents and
other intellectual property assets. (This data is from Coopers & Lybrand
now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
who have recently, like other major consulting firms,
initiated a patent-utilization practice for its corporate clients.)
Patents: What Good are They?
As but one example of so-called "intellectual property",
patents are a convenient way to "package technology." For those of us who
have worked with patent documents, we know how to search them and what kind
of information resources they can be. But what can you do with them?
Don’t they merely prevent others from doing something? In fact, most
patents are not particularly interesting or valuable by any standard.
However, with the right combination of technical, business, and legal talent
to evaluate them, certain properties can be well worth the cost of
obtaining, maintaining, protecting, and leveraging them. This is what
technology transfer and licensing are all about.
Trends in technology transfer
Three clear trends have emerged in
the technology transfer business:
- Technology that is not vital to the core
business is being licensed or sold.
- Patent portfolios are increasingly used to
assess intellectual capital.
- Companies are realizing value from their
technology through patenting, partnering, or licensing out, in addition to
using it in their own home markets and sectors.
Why? Activities that transfer use
of technology can be translated directly to the bottom line. Plus, patents
are expensive to prosecute and maintain.
A conservative estimate, based merely on filing,
maintenance, and other fees, pegs the price at $10,000 per patent. The
extent of this cost is further appreciated when one considers that there are
more than 1000 organizations that have received at least 100 U.S. utility
patents since 1985. When the classic "make vs. buy" decision says "buy", a
"carrot" or market-based approach can be very attractive to organizations
looking to bolster an existing product or position, or enter an entirely new
market. Although it carries a much higher cost, exclusive licensing
literally can buy almost instant viability in a given product line or market
segment.
Does it work?
You bet it does. Here are a few examples from our
experience at First Principals, Inc.
- A major manufacturer of automotive, electrical,
and temperature controls had a "messy" patent portfolio. The same law firm
that was writing an abundance of patents with Jepson-style claims language
was managing the maintenance program for the portfolio. After an extensive
analysis and organization, the portfolio was lean, mean, and truly well
managed. Result: Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings.
- A global powerhouse in the computer industry
enlisted our help with analyzing and evaluating market opportunities for a
selected set of robotic-related patents. This led to an introduction to a
customer that licensed the patents on an exclusive basis. Result: Several
million dollars in new, "found" money for our client.
I can do that…
Yes, you probably can. Given enough time -- not just to
climb, but attack the learning curve -- you may be able to do several parts
of the technology transfer and licensing process yourself. But look at the
swiftness (or not!) of the results. Keep in mind that licensing deals can
take years to conclude. Then think about what else you could be doing.
Remember that it’s not a binary "either/or" science; there are lots of
variables and gray areas which we at First Principals have learned to
navigate.
So before getting lost in the details and complexities of technology
transfer, take the time to learn more about it and find your way around --
or ask someone who already knows.
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