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Licensing's In ... Lawyer's Out
Licensing is too important to be left to lawyers. Or so goes the current thinking at Hewlett-Packard Development, L.P., where the only thing less popular than a long-lasting inkjet cartridge is an attorney brainstorming royalty deals. For years, Stephen Fox, the company's longtime chief intellectual property lawyer, had been the champion of a ramped-up licensing strategy: mining the company's intellectual property for revenue opportunities, pushing for a less ad hoc, more systematic approach to licensing, delivering what he often publicly called a “more entrepreneurial view” of the company's IP portfolio. But entrepreneurship, HP ultimately decided, was best left to entrepreneurs. In January, when the company announced a new licensing organization designed to increase royalty revenue, it gave the green light to Fox's ideas ' and put the brakes on Fox himself. The new licensing group would be run by a veteran HP manager.
Some lawyers might call that a raw deal. Fox, who has spent 36 years at HP (18 as its chief IP lawyer), calls it “optimum effectiveness.” That may sound like team play by a guy with nearly four decades on the team, but Fox is adamant that a separate organization, run by someone else, who will do the strategizing he used to do is exactly what he had in mind. Licensing, Fox says, “works well when placed in a business activity that is accountable for profit and loss, rather than in the legal department, which is an expense center.”
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs
A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.
Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.