Lack of posts does not mean I have not been busy! On the contrary, I have a new publication coming out soon in the form of a book chapter.

IP Strategy: A Practical Management Guide will be out for publication shortly by Globe Law & Business, in the UK. As the co-author of one of twelve chapters, we address both what strategic portfolio management aspects need considered, and how they interact with the larger business strategy of an organization.

In practice IP managers and CIPOs oversee a process that addresses the critical aspects of IP management: ensuring the IP is codified and secured as legal rights where possible; decisions on types of IP asset protection from the numerous risks they face; managing the assets in alignment with stated business strategy; and keeping stakeholders focused on the long-term creation of value from IP.

Written for the IP manager or CEO, it provides practical applications and best practices on managing the IP environment within the corporate business. While it is just as important to generate an overall IP strategy for a business to execute on, it is also critical that there is follow-through on the portfolio development, supporting processes, and IP team.  As such the chapter covers the fifteen portfolio management influences within a typical organization, and how they need considered by an executive for successful portfolio alignment with the business direction.

My thanks to Stephen Robertson at Metis Partners for inviting me to contribute, and my co-author Paul Kallmes for putting up with the endless rounds of edits.

 

IP is on the mind for growing manufacturers and exporters in Canada – This week I spoke at the CME-STEP Export Insight series where I focused IAM and IP Monetization.

The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) and the Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership (STEP), in collaboration with HSBC Bank Canada, brings together senior business leaders from throughout the province for intimate, high-impact, and executive-level discussions, aimed at providing the knowledge necessary to compete and win in global markets.

The CME-STEP leadership had identified IAM as a critical topic for membership and had asked me to speak on the IP strategy based steps a company needs to have as a foundation for successful and applicable patents in a license program.

My thanks to HSBC for sponsoring the event, as well as CME, STEP, and their membership for inviting me to speak.

I have posted the slides below: Continue reading →

Last week I attended the ACCT Innovation Partnerships conference, which was focused on The Changing Landscape of Partnerships and Commercialization.  I spoke on both Tech Transfer Commercialization and IP Strategy for IT based inventions. For those interested my slides are posted below:

Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Changing Landscape of Technology Commercialization

As North America recovers from the 2008 recession, emerging trends in technology commercialization include significant changes in the ways that research institutions,companies, and services providers engage, interact and collaborate. Large corporations from across many industry sectors have significantly downsized their internal research activities while increasing their focus on acquiring IP from external sources and financially supporting selected institutional research programs. Research institutions are moving away from their traditional approaches to protecting and disclosing innovations and industry engagement. Non-practicing entities (formerly referred to as “patent trolls”) have emerged as significant players in the acquisition and deployment of commercially useful intellectual property. The role of service providers to both sectors are evolving from only the protection of IP, to include counsel for strategic IP deployment, acquisition, and divestments.

The Case for Protecting I.T.: When it Makes Good Business Sense

In recent years, the focus of courts on patentable subject matter has generally been in the biotech area – Mayo and Prometheus come to mind. However, protecting information technology has also become a veritable minefield, with courts in both Canada and the United States struggling to define what is patentable subject matter in the IT field. This seminar will address the difficult task of how best to claim, prosecute and manage IT patents throughout their life cycle.

Many thanks to the ACCT, the speakers, and my c0-panel members on both discussions.