IP Zones – Creating Communities to Monetize Intellectual Capital

Jackie Hutter’s IP Maximizer Blog has a great post that introduces the Manhattan Empowerment Zone which is a way of leveraging a community to create jobs while providing a critical mass of services to corporations looking for markets for their IP.

The focus is very much on the sale of patent rights:

• Discovery: Determining what patent rights may be suitable for sale to third parties
• Cataloging: Itemization and presentation of patent rights for sale
• Engagement: Meeting and initial discussions between patent sellers and potential buyers
• Transaction: Conducting the actual sale, license or other disposition of the patents
• Post-transaction: Reporting and monitoring of royalties or other ongoing obligations

I think that there is real potential for adding on to this mission over time. Because the real value of patents and all intellectual property is in the creation of a scalable business model around it. The power of this zone would probably be increase exponentially if resources were also available to help buyers design and implement business models around their purchases.