IAFS Call on IP Metrics, Innovation Strategy and Metrics

On Friday (6/5/09) at noon EDT, I’ll be hosting the June call for the Intangible Asset Finance Society. This month, Andy Gibbs, former CEO of Patent Café and now CEO of Andy Gibbs IP CXO, will talk about IP metrics, innovation strategy, and value: you can manage what you can’t measure. The call is free. Recording is available for a small fee. Sign up at IAFS Events.

I’m looking forward to this conversation as Andy takes a very aggressive stance on IP. He feels the intellectual property will become “the core product” in the future. I’m an advocate for the power of seeing IP in the context of an organization’s full intellectual capital. But we share a passion for helping companies understand the power of the intangible. Hope you can join us!

Surprising Research on Corporate Intellectual Capital Management

IAM Magazine recently published an article that I wrote with Peder Hofman-Bang of Intellectual Capital Sweden entitled The Weakest Link in Corporate Intellectual Asset Management.

The article examined the combined results of over 430 intellectual capital ratings that have been performed using the IC Rating tool. It found that the ratings of the companies’ IC portfolios and the strength of their IC management shook out as follows (from strongest to weakest): Read more

The Dangerous Myth of IP Value

For quite a few years now, many folks in the IP world have been hawking the idea that IP is a hidden treasure that can be monetized immediately in the market. Here’s the latest angle on it from CFO Magazine: Those Lucrative Intangibles.

The idea goes like this: companies have this unseen trove of treasure that is sitting unused inside corporations (one book called it Rembrandt’s in the Attic–like a corporate version of Antiques Road Show). In this way of thinking, licensing and sale of the IP is found money, a great way to get fast cash. Read more

Who is in Charge of IP and IC?

I have really enjoyed getting to know Andrew Watson and Jordan Hatcher at ipVA over the last few months. I met with Jordan on my recent trip to London and he sent me a new article that he and Andrew wrote called Fix Your Broken IP Structures from www.managingip.com.

The article makes a case for a position called the Chief Intellectual Property Officer (CIPO) who is outside the legal department. They use color-based Insights Discovery Learning System to look at the personalities of different departments. Legal departments, they assert, are blue (accurate, ordered and cautious), not the red traits that are needed to exploit IP (decisive, risk taking and results driven). This means that the CIPO would need to be in the sales or strategy areas. It’s a compelling case. Read more

Even the Movie Industry Having Trouble Monetizing Its IC

In the context of the problems facing media like newspapers and radio (see my post here), it isn’t surprising that Hollywood is also being challenged by changes in our economy.  Richard Florida has a fascinating post here on the threats to the Hollywood financial model.

It seems that digital media and the proliferation of television channels are sapping the movie industry’s traditional channels. These changes and the troubles in the financial sector mean that even Steven Spielberg is having trouble raising money. Read more

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. Read more

Strategy Should Not Revolve Around IP

There’s a new book out called The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property.  It reflects the authors’ deep knowledge of the IP space–Mark Blaxill and Ralph Eckardt, both formerly of Boston Consulting Group.

Their website includes some of the patent visualizations used in the book that were developed using a system that Eckert helped develop at BCG. There is real power to the drawing which show the network of intellectual property rights in specific industries.

But looking at these visualizations Read more

Intangible Definitions

One of the most frustrating parts of working in the “intangibles” management business is the lack of accepted definitions and (more importantly) shared understanding of what we mean.

Just the name is challenging. Here are a few of the most common: Read more

The Role of Intellectual Property in M&A

It is clear in this very thoughtful article in Mergers and Acquisitions that there is a growing appreciation of the role of intangibles in business. The article features a discussion among eight figures from the world of Intellectual Property (IP). Some of the themes that I saw in this discussion include:

Role of patents as a protector of value in acquisitions – IP represents the legal right to specific inventions or know-how. This is becoming an important feature of mergers and acquisitions. Acquiring companies need to Read more

Two Thumbs Up for Roger Ebert

My first two entries in the category “A Smart Company” were behemoths JP Morgan Chase and IBM…Now for something completely different, I’ll highlight the power of a couple thumbs from Chicago.

One of the reasons my husband and I originally bought a DVR was to record Ebert and Roeper, which was the successor to our long-time favorite Read more

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