Economic policy - IP commercialization as a stand-alone discipline

Below is my opinion piece from Innovation Magazine published by the Irish Times, reproduced with permission:

We need to develop a specialised competency in commercialisation to build this route to the market

HOLLYWOOD has perpetuated the myth that any inventor with a patent is on the road to great riches.

In the UK, James Dyson is a poster-boy for inventors. Many see him as the man who struck it rich with a vacuum cleaner that he started manufacturing in 1993. The romantic image is one of overnight success.

Innovation Dublin 2010

Last week, as part of the Innovation Dublin 2010 festival, I was invited to give a lecture to the MBA class at Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

I spoke on the topic of IP commercialization with the title "Invention or Innovation?"

Now THAT's smart

If I had a hat, I would raise it to the principal of St. Aidan's primary school in Wexford, Ireland.

His contribution to developing young minds is not to just accept the laptop and projector for each class, as offered by the Government. He said he needs to get an iPod into the hands of each pupil. He went about raising the funding and had educational software loaded in each unit.

The verdict of the students is that it is "cooler than laptops and a deadly way to learn." (If you know Irish colloquialisms, you will know that "deadly" is high praise.)

The article in the Irish Independent is here.

No doubt: China is a World Power in Patents

I saw it reported in the Economix blog of the New York Times that China is about to take the global lead in patent application filings.

There is nothing surprising about this.

The case for commercialization

I was asked to write an opinion piece for Ireland's Sunday Business Post with the title "Working smarter, not just harder" making the case for IP commercialization a key element of the Smart Economy strategy.

The edited version is a bit sanitized, but the main message gets through.

As always, I welcome and enjoy your feedback.

IP in Divorce

Of course it stands to reason, but it was interesting to see in a blog from Indiana (USA) that intellectual property can be considered "as marital property for purposes of dividing property" in divorce cases.

Sources of growth - Part 4

(This is part 4 of a 4-part series. If you want to view the series from the start, click here.)

In previous parts, I have described 2 sources of growth from IP commercialisation activity, namely managing and growing existing licensees and recruiting new licensees.

To round out the discussion, there is another source that is often underestimated.

Sources of growth - Part 3

(This is part 3 of a 4-part series. If you want to view the series from the start, click here.)

Part 2 of this series dealt with maintaining and growing business from existing licensees. The next source of growth is the glamour area – recruiting new licensees.

Because of natural attrition of licensees, it will always be necessary to recruit new licensees to replace them. Recruiting new licensees refreshes and extends the scope of the business.

It is also the most visible activity in business development.

However, in contrast to maintaining and growing business from existing licensees, the results often take longer to show and are more difficult to predict.

Packing for Munich

I am getting ready for my trip to Munich, Germany this weekend.

I will be speaking at the 2010 IP Business Congress.

If you are going too, be sure to pop over and say "Hello".

Blinding flash of light - why people don't "get it"

Why have they not “got it”?

In a post at the end of last year, I wondered why I had got it wrong. I searched for reasons for companies not jumping into IP commercialisation.

However, there is another explanation of why governments, policy makers and even sophisticated companies have not “got it”.

First let me set the scene:




Often I have quoted the Ned Davis Research that found that in 1975, 16.8% of the market value of the S&P 500 companies was attributable to intangible assets. By 2005, the ratio had grown to 79.7%. This is an impressive change in economic structure over a relatively short period.

But the story does not stop there.

Curious newspaper article

It was surprising to see myself quoted so extensively in Ireland's Sunday Independent newspaper today.

I was never interviewed for the article, but it was reasonably consistent.

Ah well, it is always good to see IP being promoted in the mainstream press.

Sources of growth - Part 2

In Part 1 of this series on sources of growth, I mentioned that if licensing business is not managed well, the stream of income could fall through such factors as natural attrition, royalty erosion, underreporting of royalties.

The corollary is also true. That is, if licensing is well managed, income from existing customers can be maintained and even grown.

Ahead of the times?

Ahead of the times?

I had an opinion piece in the Finance section of the Irish Times back in January. It was intended to be mildly provocative to stimulate debate. I have heard that there was a lot of feedback, so it served its purpose.

A few people in Ireland who understand IP told me that the idea was “ahead of its time.” That phrase conjures up images of Leonardo da Vinci or musician John Cage.

In truth, it is more often used as a polite dismissal of a nutter.

Sources of growth - Part 1

Sources of growth for IP management

When a company has managed an established program of licensing IP, it generates a stream of income from its intangible assets.

This is not a guaranteed stream.

Economic Policy - IP commercialization as part of national economic strategy

I had an opinion piece in the Finance section of the Irish Times with the title Overcoming R&D's Law of Diminishing Returns (republished here with kind permission).