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Portfolio Management: Locating, Organizing, and Communicating Patent Information
Patent portfolio managers face a number of logistical challenges in developing, analyzing and deploying their organizations' patent assets. First, they need to be able to define the scope and content of portfolios under management or review. Second, they need to be able to organize and store information about those portfolios in a way that is repeatable, durable, and accessible. Finally, they need to be able to aggregate and communicate that information to drive budgeting, reporting, and strategy development.
The logistics of identifying, organizing, and communicating patent information are complicated because:
- Patents are unique. Every patent and every claim of every patent is different, so abstractions, summaries, and generalizations run the risk of missing or obscuring the true value of any given patent asset.
- Patents are prolific. There are millions of patents currently in force and more than 150,000 new patents are granted annually in the United States alone; many organizations are managing patent portfolios of hundreds to tens-of-thousands, as well as monitoring competitor portfolios.
- Patent knowledge is expensive. Highly trained legal, technical, and business experts are required to find and extract useful information from patent documents and their supporting contexts.
- Patent and business management resources are in short supply. The patent function of most organizations is lean, lacks the best tools, and receives little (or negative) attention from senior management, which regards patents as an arcane cost center and source of business uncertainty.
The central tension in managing large patent portfolios is that a single claim of a single patent ultimately decides an infringement suit, but numerous patents with numerous claims must be aggregated for product protection and licensing. Deep information about a patent, its claims, its technical context, and its applicability to the market is expensive to acquire. That information can also be very difficult to maintain as it grows and changes over time. Many organizations lose track of the patents they own, the reasons they were gotten in the first place, and the ways they could be applied to today's business challenges. Their portfolios and those of their competitors are just too big to be managed on a claim-by-claim basis, and they have no way to know what information is worth tracking for future use. Patent management is done on an ad hoc basis as the cost of acquiring information (often for the second time) can be balanced against a clear and present business need.
Beach Boys Songs Written Decades Ago Triggered Current Quarrel With Lawyers
There's current litigation in the ongoing Beach Boys litigation saga. A lawsuit filed in 2019 against Nevada residents Mike Love and his wife Jacquelyne in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada that alleges inaccurate payment by the Loves under the retainer agreement and seeks $84.5 million in damages.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Transfer Tax Implications on Real Property Leases
The real property transfer tax does not apply to all leases, and understanding the tax rules of the applicable jurisdiction can allow parties to plan ahead to avoid unnecessary tax liability.