The Supreme Court's "alice decision" is having a marked impact on software patents, NPEs and litigation  Alice corporation owned four patents for electronic methods and computer programs for financial-trading systems on which trades between two parties who are to exchange payment are settled by a third party in ways that reduce settlement risk.  (wikipedia.org)  CLS Bank International began to use similar technology in 2002 and Alice notified CLS of its likely infringement.  In 2007, CLS sued Alice seeking a declaratory judgement that Alice's patents were invalid.  The Court, DC District Court, declared each of Alice's four patents invalid because the clains concerned abstract ideas which are not eligible for patent protection.  The court followed Bilski v Kappos 2010 precedent.

Alice appealed and the US Appeals Court for the Federal District  reversed the lower court in 2012.  This year (2014) the Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court, citing the patents were invalid because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea and implementing those claims on a computer was not enough to transform that idea to a patentable invention.  Hence, this assessment
(http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=dadf4dce-0f75-45dc-9339-dacb0f7bb465) 

To Incubate or not to Incubate

Marshall Goodman: Ex-administrator For USF Helping Collier County | TheLedger.com:

This answers the age-old questions: To Incubate or NOT to incubate?

A: Incubators definitely have advantages for cluster development and rapid business startup.

But, that doesn't assure that it is a great investment for that governments to jump into.

Where do old business incubator guys go when they get old?

A: They go to Collier County, of course. Think Naples and Big Cypress National Preserve.

Here's a longer version of the story by Maria Perez in the Maples Daily News (and TBO.com).

During that time about 2010, we were trying to meet with Goodman to springboard off of the wild success he was having with 3 incubators. No success, for us on a meeting. All three incubators were rumored to be full and hugely successful. In Highlands County, we were aiming to advance the inventions from USF that were better commercialized in the heartland of Florida, not the cities.

Well let's see how far $3.8M goes in Collier county. With an assurance of 10 to 15 companies within 6 months, how can they possibly go wrong?

Can't wait to see where this one goes.

Keywords: Business Incubator, Economic Development
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"By now, there should be no argument that intangible assets have become the key and irreversible underliers to success and profitability for most companies.  Remember, it is an economic fact that 80+% of a company's value and source of revenue evolve directly from intangible assets."  (Click to http://kpstrat.com/blog/?cat=2587)

This comes close to the end of the post as you see but it could very well be the lead in.  The situation at issue here, however, is the Business Plan and its "rigid structure and sequence."  In other words, how is a company to solve the conflict of adhering to its intellectual property based Business Plan when current events mandate change?  Global activity, predatory competition, government intervention, mergers and acquisitions and corporate alliances form a roiling terrain hostile to following a prescripted plan.  However, for most lending institutions, a well crefted Business Plan with a competent management team remain an essential.

It appears too much emphasis is placed on the "rigidity"/inflexibility" of the BP strategy and tactics- a condition at odds with the new normal of IP dominating the asset base.  When a product or service emerges from the R&D cycle with strong market potential and patent protection (pending), a thorough BP Strategy points to options sensitive to the market to be entered;  a) as a patent- protected product, b) a an asset to be licensed for royalties, c) as part of a technology transfer, d) some combination near term/long term of the options.

The onus is on the BP authors to complete a due diligence that includes market research, competitive analyses, business development strategic planning, product planning and a large measure of "what if" scenario planning.  The Plan should be done as close as possible to market entry with any of the options to maximize the revcenue potential and protect the IP.  This provides the flexibility needed with meeting the realities of the marketplace.

Intellectual Ventures: Patent Troll plans to Start actually making things, not breaking things.

Intellectual Ventures: Patent Troll Funds Startups, New Products - Businessweek:

The worlds largest patent troll, apparently, has decided to go legit. Kinda.

This company, aptly abbreviated IV as in a vampire draining blood, is the largest holder of patents with some 70,000. More than IBM with more than 20 years as the world's largest patenting company, by far.

With such a war chest of patents, it is hard for anyone to make anything that doesn't violate their patents. This is especially the case if you don't actually make anything, as a perfect troll would do.

So IV has been drawing blood for the economy on a rather endless basis. But, if you pay the blood money for a few of their patents, you get "protection" where nobody else can mess with you without having to fight the entire war chest of IV.

It seems like the perfect business model based on pirates and Somalian entrepreneurs.

So why break such a tried and proven business model?

I think on the tax returns, where you put our line of business, entering "Patent Troll" is likely no problem for the IRS. They will take the taxes on those profits just the same as for the companies that actually produced a product.

We have a few ideas why the patent troll would change his stripes, but we would like to hear what others have to offer?

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Assumptions in recent trademark studies slammed.  "How Many Jobs Does Intellectual Property Create?"  Here is the link to a paper by Eli Dourado and Ian Robinson from George Mason University.  http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=a6321d86-0de2-4edb-8f15-e541f27a5086

The challenge here is to a USPTO & Economics and Statistics Administration report, "IP and the US Economy: Industries in Focus" and the USCOC Global IP Center campaign called "IP Creates Jobs for America."  The authgors take issue with some of the claims about how powerful IP is in the US economy with respect to job creation and the inpact of infringement on revenue losses.

How many jobs does Intellectual Property create?  It is a complicated response- some are easy to indentify, others not so much.  In today's global economy,  IP is the only remaining competitive advantage.  It is the Safe Harbor if managed appropriately.  (That is, the owner has to be diligent in protecting it from infringement, piracy.)  That in itself, frequently means new jobs that do not create new output, but protects what exists.

As to jobs created by IP, the authors suppositions and examples tend to reinforce the the assumption that they are academics who never worked in private industry.  Jobs, as they say, are not ends in themselves, but, how is that relevant?  Jobs are created to meet defined needs in many areas of an enterprise.  A janitor's job would rarely be associated with IP but an electrical engineer hired into Bell Labs would be expected to have some involvement with IP in his/her career.  Which, or both, is the IP counted job?

IP, be it a utility or design, trademark or an instruction set for a new dance, is a result not a precurser.  Are those associated jobs counted as IP or is it 'when' they are counted?  Most jobs are filled based on need and relevant skill sets.  The newly hired patent attorney is an immediate count.  The new IP data base manager and the new retail store phone salesman who just handled a defective product?

The authors state that "it is fallacious to equate employment within an IP intensive industry with an economic benefit of IP."  Huh?  Why then does IBM get more patents every year than any other enterprise and how do they annually gain nearly a billion dollars in royalty revenues?

To summarize, IP is the only Safe Harbor left and it would be irresponsible of leadership not to protect it by any and all means.  And, dealing with infringement to recoup some lost revenue is a valid cause for job creation that does not result in economic gain but minimizes loss.  The authors should claim valid skepticism  in job numbers based upon what appears to be oversimplifying assumptions.  Rather than levy criticism at the results, it would have been far more meaningful to scrutinize the assumptions.

Building a Business Plan: The basic components video, and IP too.

Building a Business Plan: The basic components - YouTube: "

Here's the basics about a business plan by yours truly, Dr. Elmer Hall, President of

Strategic Business Planning Company. We help develop the plans that every business needs(tm).

"
A business plan helps to plan out the future of the business and estimate its profitability. Also, as the company grows quickly it may outgrow itself. That is, you can fund the growth with profits, but if you exceed that rate then outside funding will be needed. Look at the sustainable growth rate model in finance.

This is the basics of a business plan, but we modify a basic business plan to accommodate Intellectual Property protection (read, sustainable competitive advantage). As you watch Shark Tank to see how venture capitalist think, you will see how seriously important intellectual property is to the success of a business -- and the likelihood of a shark investor taking a BIG bite of the action.

A business plan would likely include these component, as shown in the video, and then have some modification to show the (potential) strength of the IP. We call this IP-centric plan a Patent Business Plan., or for larger companies an IPplan.

Look at the Patent Primer to get an idea of the various aspects of IP and how to build a strong patent competitive advantage.

• Patent Guide 2.0 & Patent Primer 2.0: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan
• (Primer 2.0 Kindle eBook: www.tinyurl.com/IPPrimer2e) 

As it pertains to environmental sustainability -- triple bottom-line planning -- look at discussions over at www.SustainZine.com. The plan here would be a specialized business plan we call a Sustainability Plan. This would be a business plan that also maps out moving to full zero foot print over time: say 5, 10, 20 years, depending on the business/industry.

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Software Patents, soft patents, Hard Litigations

This article from the Institute for Policy Innovationhttp://www.ipi.org/ipi_issues/detail/what-software-patents-have-wrought-a-lottery-ticket-to-a-lawsuit comments on yet another issue in the turmoil of today's IP landscape- one that resembles a war zone.  Because software has become such a vital part of today's tech and semi-tech products and services, it makes sense to provide some real protection for the originators if the invention is unprecedented and provides value.  The flood of software patents has opened Pandora's box however and the box is in a coutroom.