Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on TechCrunch Patent assertion entities (PAEs or trolls) regularly engage in the practice of sending patent demand letters to unsuspecting startups and small businesses in preparation for going after much larger entities. A patent demand letter is typically sent by a patent holder to a company it believes is infringing [&hellip
Strategy Archive
Software patents called out in New York Times
This weekend, the New York Times ran an article on patents in the new economy. There are some interesting bits in there, but it probably isn’t anything new to those already following the patent space. One quote in the article really got me thinking though: In the smartphone industry alone, according to a Stanford University [&hellip
Patent valuation an art or a science?
I wrote previously at TechCrunch about patent valuation and the prices paid for large patent purchases such as the Nortel and Kodak acquisitions. Today’s New York Times Deal Book article, With Smartphone Deals, Patents Become a New Asset Class, expands on this topic. many factors… go into pricing patents. Timing, competitive forces, regulation and court rulings [&hellip
Thinking about design patents
Interesting piece at Tech.Pinions today looking at the purpose of design patents and the Apple V Samsung decision. While the article is a bit thin on patent law, it is an interesting take on the strategy behind Apple enforcing the design patents: The goal again of these “rounded corners” is to maintain a unique, consistent, [&hellip
Patents Are Worthwhile For Startups To Pursue In the US, But Not Abroad
Editor’s Note: Please excuse my long layoff from posting to this blog. Other work-related matters have made focusing on writing difficult. My latest article appeared in TechCrunch over the weekend, and I think it is very relevant to my audience so I am reblogging here as well. A recent TechCrunch guest post by Jeffrey Shieh suggests that startups [&hellip
Facebook’s Patent Acquisitions? They’re More About Google Than Yahoo
Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted in TechCrunch. In the past few months, Facebook’s patent portfolio has grown exponentially as a result of acquisitions of patent portfolios from IBM and Microsoft. After acquiring 650 AOL patents and patent applications from Microsoft, the company now has approximately 1,400 patent assets. Amazingly, only 46 of these assets (24 issued patents and22 [&hellip
The Twitter IPA: What does defensive really mean?
Twitter is an innovative company, and today’s introduction of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement shows that their legal department can be innovative too. The Innovator’s Patent Agreement, a draft of which was released on GitHub, will allow inventors to retain control of their inventions to make sure that they are only used for defensive purposes. This [&hellip
Should you devote resources to monitoring your competitors IP?
A successful business person understands that in order to stay ahead of the competition, he or she must stay informed about the competition. One way to stay informed is to monitor competitors’ publications issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). These publications include published non-provisional patent applications and issued patents. Generally, non-provisional [&hellip
Twitter appears to be getting into the Patent race
I have written previously that Twitter only has a single published patent application to its name and no patents. The application is the famous pull down to refresh application which was acquired with Twitter’s acquisition of Tweetie. While it is possible that Twitter has other unpublished patent applications pending at the USPTO, it is clear [&hellip
Guest Post: Mobile Apps and Trademarks – a Startup Weekend experience
This is a guest Post from Margaret Theranger, student at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, based on her experience at Startup Weekend Philadelphia law clinic last fall. Recently, I attended Startup Weekend Philadelphia, a 54-hour startup event for entrepreneurs to meet and form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The [&hellip