Product Development Best Practices.

In this posting, the Uriel Corporation Think Tank shares some of its Product Development Innovation best practices and insights. Uriel Corporation embraces and encourages best practices for innovation to reduce the barriers innovators face in implementing them. Innovation requires a mindset that requires change and commitment within an organization.

The innovation mindset requires out-of-the-box thinking and an openness to collaborative and alternate sources of innovation. Innovation breeds innovation. Collaborative efforts between engineering teams, manufacturing, marketing and finance to induce creative thinking, brainstorming and cooperation between departments is now a trend. This allows companies to expand on key product development efforts. As these collaborative efforts are more greatly embraced, such efforts can allow and lead innovators to produce better products that can solve one or more problems or that make life easier. Unique products can result that can help remove the heavy yokes and burdens of every day life.

Open & Free Brainstorming.

Through open and free brainstorming, out-of-the-box thinking allows product developers to:

• magnify design variations,
• engage in more product tweaking,
• improve products,
• use alternative components,
• explore different materials, shapes, and features.

Through product modeling and iterative rapid prototype development, innovators can come to see or visualize product designs that have added unique new-twist functionality that might be patentable over the prior art.

Further, when innovators use best practices to look at product design from multiple angles they may find ways to reduce cost. This  leads to creating products that have more marketable design elements. The aim of developing new or unique marketable design elements is to develop new-twist patentable products to address specific niches or to target or create even larger markets that were previously unattainable.

Further, new-twist patentable functionalities developed through such brainstorming can also allow innovators to overcome prior art constraints. Such products that are developed might also be awarded new patents. Frequently, when there is a good solid foundation for a unique concept, a portfolio of patents can be developed to target and to protect a broader market share.

Product Development Brainstorming.

Development brainstorming is geared to produce a new twist product. Brainstorming includes immersing and guiding multiple departments of a company to participate in the development process. This, in turn, allows product inventors and engineering teams to tweak products to embrace new innovative design twists. Invention, engineering, and product design takes into account thoughts from marketing, manufacturing, and finance.

The expertise acquired from experts in multiple departments when designing a product should result in more successful products.  A unique, novel idea that solves a particular problem, even if it may be a simple idea with one or two good features, can lead to massive profitability. Unique products that are designed to remove engineering, marketing, manufacturing, and financial constraints also allow companies to expand and diversify to create new-twist product lines that will create or target new markets.

Innovation Today.

To innovate today, companies must embrace methodologies in the product design and development life cycle that allow creative thinking to flourish. Methodologies and research using brainstorming collaborative best practices can create innovative cultures to spur greater innovation. Key stakeholders must be immersed in competitive and conceptual research. This helps determine what is technically feasible from the available components and tools that are available during the development process. Stakeholders must absorb as much of the Prior Art as possible. If a concept is totally new when compared to the Prior Art, the technological constraints to develop such a product must not exceed what is available.

Constraints.

Sometimes new tools are and methods are required to develop, engineer, and manufacture a new concept. If a project is to be commercialized in an acceptable time frame, the engineering tools, and manufacturing methods that are available should be taken into consideration. Sometimes engineering and manufacturing constraints can thwart a project’s commercialization success. Alternative design variations, however, might overcome these limitations and constraints.

Other product development constraints can be overcome by tweaking a business model to allow companies to succeed as innovators to more easily capture a market. Alternative design tools should be studied to overcome engineering constraints. Different marketing approaches might also overcome marketing constraints. Market research may further help tweak product design to address larger markets or a more focused market niche.

Positioning.

Product positioning, advertising, public relations, and alternative methods of financing can also provide insights to lead the creative process to brainstorm to remove such constraints. A product’s success is highly correlated with a unique new-twist idea that has successfully removed every constraint that might stand in the way of a success.

Product design should proceed with all these things in mind. Financial projections can also include a variety of projections that take into account the alternative design variations that the engineering team has brainstormed. Creating a set of equally useful alternative designs can also accelerate the implementation of innovation especially if one alternative idea might have more merit than another.

Department leaders and virtual teams should all have access to the Internal Knowledge Base of the corporate product development effort. Global R&D Networks and third parties can also be a good source of valid input to lead the direction of a product development effort. Combining these efforts and collaboration can lead to the early identification of Disruptive Products in the product development life cycle.

Innovative Product Development.

Innovative Business to business companies can’t afford to become complacent about innovative product development. Product managers must incorporate innovation guidelines to construct and keep a competitive edge. Idea management systems could be a critical element of the innovation process, only if they provide the capabilities that address the difficulties. Dialogue within and between corporate departments can further shape and refine ideas.

Dialogue within and between departments, researching the market, and focus groups may lead product managers to gauge a community’s response to ideas. Spreadsheets analyses can also help to integrate ideas, to manage items as well as assist in their development, and refinement.

Innovating is really a painstaking process where focus on detail is vital. Only 25% of projects succeed and 75% fail. Meticulous planning and a focus on detail can greatly increase an organization’s chances of success. Innovation is all about finding possibilities for the market where game-altering solutions are created that add value and improve lives.

Corporate Departments.

Departmental groups of companies should interact to talk about and collaborate on project concepts throughout the product lifecycle. Company leaders need to give people permission to act past the place they occupy on the organizational chart. A few innovation guidelines include enabling business agility and the promotion and rewards of collaboration. Business agility is not accomplished just by flexible job definitions, but by also encouraging functional and physical movement so employees and executives build up new encounters and perspectives.

Technology, change and adaptive methods are common place in industry. Technology change ideas must address the presence of a hypercompetitive atmosphere. They have to stress the requirement for an adaptive perspective to build up guidelines for innovation. Adaptive innovation guidelines must recognise and support variation.

The variations between firms within their economic performance should be tracked in comparison to the variations inside a firm’s business and technological abilities. The competitive process through which different technological abilities acquire an amount of monetary significance over time should also be analyzed. Team members should also attend Technical Conferences and Industry Events to gauge consumer acceptance of something new.

Uriel Corporation Leadership for Launching Innovative Products.

The Uriel Corporation Think Tank can help clients and companies to build innovation best practices. This can fill a company’s or client’s pipeline with new ideas and future projects. Uriel’s involvement in Client Projects can nurture a company’s diversification interests.

In a product development consulting engagement, Uriel can help companies to engage in continuous learning and improvement. This can lead towards greater innovation to develop higher performing products.

See the following blog links for more Information on Uriel Corporation’s Turnkey Think Tank Services:

Uriel Think Tank Services.

Disruptive Commercialization Services.

See our Parent Think Tank Website:

See Uriel Corporation’s® Parent Think Tank Website for more information on Uriel’s Turnkey Commercialization Services.

Contact Uriel Corporation today to see how Uriel can help you create or find and acquire disruptive patented or patentable innovations!!

Valuations & Intellectual Property.

Valuation as it is related to Intellectual Property. Intellectual property is a term used for a group of intangible assets that are owned and legally protected by a business from outside implementation or use without consent.  Intellectual Property provides companies with distinct competitive advantages. Intellectual Property (IP) is an asset that provides the same protective rights as physical property that can boost the valuation of companies.  Obtaining protective rights is crucial since it prevents replication by potential competitors. Intellectual property is considered to be a company’s most precious asset. It is often the lifeblood with which a company can develop and launch a product. Developing innovative proprietary products is a key requirement to allow a business to grow.  In today’s knowledge-based global industrial economies, effective management of intellectual property assets is most important.

Products backed with Intellectual property are the most potent key drivers for advancing the global economy and career creation. Advanced nations, like the U.S., that usually attain intellectual property rights get more overseas direct investment and are more hightly rewarded with economic growth and jobs in high-end industries. Millions of Americans across the nation are employed in IP-intensive business sectors. These industries drive the majority share of U.S. exports.

Patents, software code, startups, and further intellectual property assets of companies all have their own peculiarities. The value of a patent is often times seen as a weapon of litigation where claim infringement is the thrust of civil action. The potential for patented products to collect licensing royalties and the benefits of patents working against infringers in court adds great value to companies. Many startup investments have been structured as preferred stock transactions between common stock holding founders and investors in cases where startups have had their products backed by intellectual property.

Assets and Their Exploitation.

How an asset will be exploited in the future is an asset’s valuation premise. An asset can be valued under continued use, or alternatively it can be valued for a specific use such as in an acquisition. The most common premise is to position an asset for its best use, which values an asset at the highest value that can be foreseen, regardless of how an asset might be currently used.

Revenue flow into and out of companies can also determine the valuation technique that should be used to value an asset. Valuation techniques also take a look at the practices and behaviors of buyers and sellers in the market. Valuations further take a look at past history and future earning to see if the asset has a history of revenue generation, or to calculate what future earnings an asset can offer. The markets can further be analyzed to see what prices are agreed upon in similar transactions. Revenue or comparable earnings multiples, are not appropriate valuation techniques for startup companies when there is no revenue or earnings to compare. Without a sales revenue history, venture capitalists, angel investors, and other startup investors rely on other valuation techniques to determine startup value.

Valuation, Economics and Legalities.

Valuation is a method of combining the concept of economics with the concept of what is considered legal property. IP valuation is both an art and a science. A valuation analyst uses well-tested and defined financial models and formulas to get a snapshot of quantifiable aspects of the intellectual property. A valuation analyst combines these elements to perform a valuation.

An asset’s functionality is in its ability to generate a return. A discount rate can be applied to that return as well. Commercial valuations are based upon the cardinal rule that: the value of an asset cannot be stated abstractly. The value of an asset is based on factors such as particularly where an asset is located, what time constraints are related to an asset and the circumstances related to the asset. In performing a valuation one should analyze who would benefit from the asset, and what purpose the asset serves.

Valuation and pricing and the valuation methods in licensing and technology transfer is generally viewed as opportunity licensing. This is distinctly different from licensing from a litigation viewpoint. In litigation, a patent’s value has a very narrow focus which is based upon an enforceable time period when claims have been infringed. Conversely, opportunity licensing of early-stage innovation is normally executed before a licensee’s first commercial use. Deal elements include an analysis of patent claims. Deal elements also anticipate the potential use and future earnings of the range of products lines that can be made, used or sold including, variations of products that can be derived, to include their applications, and target markets.

If we consider the value of intellectual property that has been embedded in a new production process, we might find that the value of the IP comprising the new technology is equal to the increase in profits that could be gained. This becomes apparent when comparing the difference in manufacturing costs and or quality using the new technology compared with the old method of manufacturing. The value of the new process depends on both, the profits generated by the final product and on the new production methods that are now available to the manufacturer.

Intellectual Property on the Internet.

By exposing intellectual property on the internet and world wide web, companies run the risk of losing pre-emptive value. This is commonplace in the software industries. When software products become commodities, this is due to the fact that they are easy to imitate, not because they are duplicated and illegally sold. However, customers tend to purchase the original product: over knock-offs. As knock-offs attempt to gain market share, original product makers attempt to maintain market share by lowering prices.

Traditional valuation methods can be selected once we understand the nature of an asset in a particular situation. Supply and demand has an impact on the sale price of intangible goods as well as other items. A seller can maximize the value of a sale by pursuing multiple competing bids. If there is a high demand, an effective promotion can drive a higher asking price. Marketing and promoting corporate assets such as corporate stock and patents can be a legal minefield. This requires a high level of navigation expertise to avoid triggering shareholder, patent or other lawsuits, criminal charges, or federal agency sanctions. The value can be enhanced by the seller, but for some intangible assets, the marketing and

Valuation Techniques.

There are a good number of valuation techniques which can be utilized to value IP. There is no one particular method that is appropriate for all situations. Acceptable methods for performing valuations fall into 3 broad areas. They are market-based, cost-based , or based on insights of past and future economic benefits or earnings. One driver that adds value to intellectual property is the emergence of investors that provide funding to companies based on their intellectual property and other intangible assets.

Realistic valuation estimates based upon contrasting a patent with others that have sold in the marketplace, must include the gathering of average prices paid for other patents. This is harder than it looks. Patent litigation, secrecy agreements, and competition, largely keep Information on the pricing of patent acquisitions confidential. IP Transactions usually have a patent purchase agreement that contains confidentiality provisions restricting the disclosure of any details and the price of the transaction. It should be noted that finding information on the prices paid in patent transactions is normally an exception rather than the norm. However, SEC reporting companies and companies in bankruptcy proceedings, have to disclose these transactions to shareholders. Frequently information on these types of transactions is available.

Intellectual Property Capitalists.

Online financial markets for IP allow intellectual property capitalists to combine IP expertise with the world’s finest financial market makers. Using these tools one can extract value from intellectual property. Intellectual property capitalists pursue the full range of strategies to monetize IP. Monetization strategies include licensing, assignment, securitization and collateralization. IP management, know-how, and business methods are widely appreciated for their role in driving economic growth. However, the United States still fails to embrace the real value of intangible assets to provide innovators with the funding they need to capitalize on their ideas.

Patent monetization is not just for struggling companies. Industry leaders like Google, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and other smaller companies, are all aggressively pursuing to earn returns on their IP assets. Such companies are pursuing icensing deals while still adding and locking up strategic advantage to add to their own products. Microsoft, for example, is already earning greater revenues from licensing its patents to Android phones than from sales of its own Windows Mobile platform.

Revenue from patent licensing has gone through the roof since 1990, increasing from $15 billion to $110 billion today. Companies today realize that IP is a most valuable and flexible asset. Today, the licensing market has just begun. Experts say licensing revenues could top a half-trillion dollars or more annually in ten years.

Physical assets, such as buildings, factories, equipment and plants, constituted 62% of a company’s value in 1982. Today these assets represent less than 30 percent of a company’s market value according to experts at the Brookings Institutie. Today, the bulk of a company’s value now resides in a company’s intellectual assets.

Valuation & Investment Banking.

Investment banks and business brokers engaged to market companies frequently prepare some valuation metrics determining comparable firms that have lately offered, and using a number of techniques. The bankers may create a detailed report examining the financial performance from the business, estimating the worth according to comparables of earnings multiples, revenue multiples, discounted income estimations from the forecasted earnings streams. They choose the most flattering techniques, have a weighted average of all of them and convey an in depth valuation are accountable to justify the greatest valuation possible. With respect to the quantity of bidders thinking about the purchase, the bankers then negotiate cost alongside additional factors within the acquisition deal structure.

Figuring out the financial price of your patents, regrettably, isn’t any easy task. For just one factor, valuation techniques for intangible assets are at the best rudimentary, and the topic of greater than a little debate. For an additional, marketplaces for that buying and selling of patent assets continue to be within their infancy and therefore of little assist in supplying reliable valuation benchmarks.

There are lots of helpful frameworks for examining the company profile of the intangible resource. A key point to think about is the fact that most IP is used along with other IP (e.g., technology is frequently bundled with trademarks and/or trade secrets), along with a consideration from the inter-associations of all IP within the value chain and market existence cycle is frequently important.

Should you create a brand new startup, open up a financial institution account, deposited $5 million in to a bank and immediately run a valuation of the organization (before incurring any financial obligations, obligations or doing anything whatsoever), it might be reasonable to evaluate the value for the organization at $5 million. That would be because that this is actually the price of changing or replicating the organization. This could also represent the liquidation value, because the $5 million staying with you is instantly available, a very liquid resource.

Valuations & Licensing.

A patent could be licensed, it may generate royalty streams during a period of some time and these streams of revenue are ideal for valuation using the discounted income (DCF) method. However, patent retailers usually don’t sell the revenue streams using the patents. Patents are often offered susceptible to licenses, and also the licensees frequently spend the money for royalties in a single lump-sum-usually carrying out a threat of lawsuit or perhaps a court judgment.

Core patents are technologies which are or is going to be utilized in current or future items. You will find couple of market-based recommendations for valuation of those patents because the patents aren’t usually the topic of certification efforts. They’re evaluated, rather, depending on how much they lead towards the commercial worth of an item or business. Dow jones Chemical uses the Tech Factor Method, an instrument introduced by Arthur D. Little consultants. The technique quantifies the financial contribution of every patent like a number of the business’s total internet present value. Alternatively, a Rand Corporation study sets the need for a patent as equal to an R&D cash subsidy rate as high as 25% .

It may be reasonable to make use of the expense incurred in developing a company, or the all inclusive costs of funds invested in the industry as the grounds for valuation of the startup or an early-stage company. However, when an organization matures into a recognised business, it might be harder and harder to estimate the expenses connected with producing goodwill. Assessing the expense connected with building all of the intangibles connected by having established clients are highly speculative. It is possible to estimate the expense connected with building the framework of the business, however the magical factors that get into turning the framework into a lucrative venture are extremely intangible to estimate with acceptable amount of precision. The substitute, replication and price-savings methods to valuation are not so appropriate for established companies.

If similar technology assets were lately offered under similar conditions, only then can data points like a grounds for a comparables-driven valuation be used. However, these assets are frequently unique and transaction metrics aren’t always revealed, so locating relevant comparables could be a challenge when appraising products.

Valuations in Mergers & Acquisitions.

Valuations are instrumental in merger or acquisition transactions. The cost compensated to get a company sets a precise valuation for your particular company at that time over time, particularly when the purchase is financed in cash. Once an acquisition is financed and shares from the acquirer is exchanged for stock within the acquired company, other parts of the valuation process are essential to determine the fair market cost from the stock exchanged. The valuation figures created may be a bit more subjective than the usual pure cash transaction.

Having a projection for the future profits to become produced by an organization, companies would then be able to use discounted income analysis to look for the Company’s valuation. Indeed, this process is adopted through the courts (especially Delaware courts) to find out a “fair market value” of the business. This especially occurs in instances where shareholders ask a legal court to stay a dispute and supply an evaluation on the company’s value.

As opposed to online companies, recognised clients are currently producing sales revenues and they have cash flows to determine and drive valuation computations. With company shares traded on public stock markets, a large amount of information is readily available for examining the possibility worth of a recognised business. Fortunes can be created or lost overnight on Wall Street and traders have sophisticated methodologies for predicting the value and trends of companies that also result in determining the value of shares.

Trademarks.

By having a trademark outright, a business is saving costs connected with having to pay license charges for any mark. Trademarks are frequently licensed, or “rented”, for connection to items or services.

A typical mistake produced in valuing IP while using the earnings approach is by using the entire worth of the earnings in the business unit utilising the IP as opposed to the incremental earnings due to the IP itself. Falling into this error means the valuer has unsuccessfully taken into account the complimentary assets which have led to generate the earnings. These other assets include tangible assets, staff know-how, marketing assets and the like. Essentially, the valuer has valued the whole business unit, instead of any particular bit of IP within that unit.

A simple approach to figuring out the need for a patent that makes up about the particular contribution from the IP towards the profitability from the method is the discounted income method. This process can be used for valuation of all of earnings creating assets.

Other Valuation Approaches.

Earnings approaches calculate value in line with the future revenue streams, cost approaches mostly calculate at the expense of substitute, and market approaches calculate the worth by evaluations concentrating on the same assets lately traded available on the market.

While using the market approach, the need for the IP is dependent upon the arm’s length cost in comparable transactions. This is dependant on the idea that the licensee or customer won’t be prepared to pay greater than the price others have paid for similar IP.

Another, more sensible, conventional approach to valuing IP is by using comparables. A “comparable” technology is one that’s utilized in exactly the same industry. It performs an identical service or function, and it is just as important towards the final product being offered because the IP is what we are attempting to value. An approximation for the value of IP is the royalty compensated for that comparable technology. This includes modifications of the IP for just about any substantive variation backward and forward.

The discounted income technique is helpful in figuring out the need for IP once it’s been invented. A remaining question of great interest is, would an R&D-based firm determine the need for a brand new technology while it is still developing? The cost savings or demand-fulfilling qualities from the technology haven’t yet been fully determined. Additionally, it might be a long time before any method is introduced to promote the product. Market conditions could change significantly. Understanding the likely worth of a new technology is needed if a firm is to decide whether or not it is useful to carry on an expansion project to develop a new technology..

The earnings approach measures the money flow connected with possession from the IP. The need for the IP may be the internet present worth of the expected future earnings streams the IP will probably generate. The parameters that determine the worth of IP include how big the earnings stream is, the time period of the earnings stream, and also the risk connected with realisation from the earnings.

Further Valuation Techniques.

Ordinary discounted income analysis may be the clearest window on IP valuation available. It’s a method for locating the chance price of not utilizing an invention by calculating the net income effects of defaulting to another best alternative. DCF describes increases from certifying a technology-it doesn’t take into account the gains between the licensor and the licensee. Should there be gains from trade, then bargaining power-not industry guidelines- determines those gains. Bargaining power is the opportunity to hurt those you are negotiating with when walking away from the negotiating table.

The discounted income method evaluates the long run stream of revenue from the relevant incremental costs by using the IP. It compares the long run stream of revenue to the current discounted worth of income by following the best alternative. This yields the utmost royalty that the manufacturer could be willing to cover making use of the patented technology. There are lots of natural issues with the price approach. The most important is it does not reflect the income potential from the IP. The need for IP comes from its earning potential, and never your buck.

The price approach assumes the fair worth of the resource would be the just like your buck, where there’s an immediate relationship between cost and prospective profits. However, cost doesn’t always associate to value. Clearly there’s a possibility of a higher valuation to be placed on less effective assets where high amounts of expenditure happen to be directed and the other way around.

The revenue multiple valuation method might be susceptible to critique for the reason that it compares the top line revenue and does not determine that the organization is lucrative. A lucrative company with low revenues is possibly worth greater than a loss-making company with large revenues.

While using the build-cost valuation method, assets are regarded as worth a maximum of what it really would cost the customer to rebuild the merchandise by employing an in-house development and design team. For example, if a buyer might obtain a higher-technology product design that will take 5 engineers along with a project manager 24 weeks to reverse engineer, the customer may estimate the in-house build cost was, possibly, $2 million dollars.

Three Traditional Valuation Techniques.

The 3 traditional valuation techniques, transaction, earnings, substitute cost, work for pretty much all valuation analyses. However, in the last decade we view the development of the new group of valuation techniques according to future contingent occasions. This group of techniques includes real options, binomial models, and Monte Carlo simulations. Decision tree models are used in where conditional situations are needed for IP to create value where calculations are modeled clearly. Fundamentally, all these techniques can be combined into a two step process: first, we compute the prospect of the good event occurring that can make the IP valuable (or ‘in the money’), and 2nd, we compute the payback when the favorable event happens (usually using among the traditional three techniques described above).

The earnings method of valuation assesses value today according to earnings streams predicted to be produced later on. Also taken into account is the likelihood that earnings streams will materialize based on the forecast. Where a resource or business operation creates a stream of revenues, its value can be established by calculating the entire net gain the resource will generate in the future. Time-value-of cash will be considered to discount the long run revenue streams to determine what individual future incomes may be worth today.

Although sometimes used, cost-basis prices is really a poor foundation of valuation, since it does not think about a technology’s value according to future commercial programs. The marketplace will pay for value to become received, not the price to produce.

Ultimately, intellectual property may be worth what someone might pay for it. As a result, any valuation is just a settlement tool. Comprehending the underlying presumptions and ideas behind the different valuation methodologies will help greatly in discussions for that purchase or for the certification of IP.

Replication of Technology & Valuations.

Where a startup has simple technology, for example software, the price of replicating the technology will frequently be utilized as the foundation of the valuation for the acquirer.

Where potential licensees haven’t been recognized, and where the certification potential is unknown, the possible revenue streams from certification cannot be employed to make up the foundation of the valuation. Nonetheless, we are able to compare the patent to similar patents which have have been offered in the marketplace to be able to estimate an industry cost. As every patent needs to be unique to become granted, there aren’t any two identical patents, so locating a perfectly comparable patent isn’t possible. However, it’s frequently easy to find patents in similar fields concentrating on the same priority dates, which have lately been offered in the marketplace and estimate value utilizing a comparables approach.

When the intellectual property offers significant economic advantage within an active market, using the price method will probably understate its value. If, however, development continues to be inefficient or extended, using the price method might overstate its value. Essentially, the need for the IP may be the cost to exchange or recreate that IP. This process compares the historic cost incurred to build up and create the intellectual property.

Early Stage Company Valuations.

Within the seed and initial phases of startup development, sales and earnings projections might be so speculative that they’re not given serious attention. Reflecting on their highly speculative nature, and also the risks involved, the special discounts generally put on online companies by investment capital traders is 25-75% each year. The obtaining corporation frequently likes to utilize a cost-based calculation to determine value during these situations. Since this does not include future potential earnings calculations this does not provide  the most accurate approach,  the cost-based calculation used by such companies only considers the price of replicating the technology. Such companies employ this as a grounds for valuation.

The best approach to doing a valuation might be to engage in an analysis where a number of different valuation techniques, calculations, and methods are utilized where the best most pertinent calculations of interest are analyzed and averaged to provide a better valuation estimate or value range.

As part of Uriel Corporation’s Turnkey Think Tank Consulting Services, Uriel works to assist clients to navigate the complex waters of analyzing a client’s IP and patent portfolios to develop valuations related to their intellectual property. Valuation consulting efforts can be geared to help clients determine what their intellectual property and company is worth. Such efforts are a key element to position clients better for the development of strategic alliances, and to enhance negotiations related to mergers and acquisitions, or to sell company stock, or to sell a company.

Please visit the following links to find out more about Uriel Corporation’s Turnkey Consulting Services:

Uriel Corporation Think Tank Services on This Blog.

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Intellectual Property Drives National & Global Commercial Success.

Intellectual Property (IP) is front-page news in the press, with many high-profile stories grabbing headlines.  Many experts believe that we are at the start of a new era for IP transactions.  Intellectual property is a term relating to intangible assets owned by a company that prevents third party use or exploitation without legal permission.  Since IP has the ability to provide a company with competitive advantages, IP can be defined as an asset where it provides companies similar protective rights as a physical asset.  Such protective rights prevent replication by competing firms. Intellectual property is a powerful economic driver and it further is a rich area for career development.

Advanced Nations & IP.

Advanced Nations, like the U.S., have significant infrastructures and corporations that pursue the development of IP rights. Such countries get more foreign investment directly from outside countries and are also rewarded with greater economic advantages, growth and jobs in higher-value industries. Industries that benefit from IP include high-technology industries, electronics, software, fashion, automotive sectors, medical, pharma, life sciences, biotech, energy, entertainment, and green technologies.

Millions of Americans across the country are employed in IP-intensive industries having higher wages, compared to other people. IP-rich industries drive the greater majority of U.S. exports.
IP and intangible asset issues are prevalent throughout the business world. IP issues touch nearly all areas of a company’s operations. Corporate areas that are affected include engineering, R&D, product development, legal and accounting, finance, marketing and sales, distribution, and general management.

The wide effect that IP has on its stakeholders adds to the complexity of managing intellectual property. Each area of IP involvement has requires personnel with their own areas of expertise. Intellectual property is a very broad field. The IP field is probably one of the most important legal fields in the USA. IP has always been a key component in the expansion of the U.S. economy.

Intellectual Capital in Multi-National Organizations.

Intellectual capital is regarded as the most significant asset of the world’s largest, most powerful corporations. It is the foundation for establishing market dominance. It ensures that leading companies can continue to profit.

IP is often the key element in mergers and acquisitions. Furthermore companies are increasingly using technology transfer and licensing as routes to transfer these assets for added revenue.

Intellectual property, more often than not, is a company’s most precious asset. It is the lifeblood required to develop a product and launch new industries. With the rise of global competition, the management of intellectual property assets and the development of unique products associated with IP has never been more important.

Upper Management Thinking & IP.

Until recently, the phrase “intellectual property, or IP”, wasn’t even in the vocabularies of many CEOs. It wasn’t really looked at when developing business strategies. Most CEOs used to leave IP matters to corporate attorneys while CEOs and upper management concentrated on competitive warfare. However, today, IP is considered the main weapon in competitive warfare and more and more CEOs acknowledge that it is required to gain a competitive advantage.

Globally, China, India and other countries have focused their energies to manufacture cheap products. Conversely, Western countries have specialized in developing high-value innovations with creative attributes and functionalities.

In the past, intellectual property was once an area overlooked by many companies. Today IP is the fundamental building block of corporate product lines that allow companies to compete in world markets leading to the success of national and global economies.

Newspapers today are filled with articles concerning intellectual property disputes. Protecting intellectual property is an extremely important are for businesses today.

Economists regard IP rights as an engine for encouraging innovation. They also recognize that they can also be used to inhibit competition. Innovation initiatives and the intellectual property (IP) thrust of companies and engineers are crucial drivers that move humanity to progress. Innovation that results in new-twist products with functional advantages helps remove the many yokes and burdens of life faced by all peoples. Innovation works to save lives, it improves the human condition, it facilitates more connectivity globally, and it provides life changing improvements for every day life around the globe.

Examples of Industries that have High Value IP Assets.

Drug companies, computers and their operating systems, social networking websites, and the entertainment industry are all examples of industries that have IP geared to improve the quality of life. IP rights and their enforcement is vital to the continued flow of future new inventions. Free markets depend on innovations protected by IP.

In the final analysis, protecting innovations by securing intellectual property rights is much better than the alternative of just giving away million dollar or billion dollar ideas to the world. The Founding Fathers included rights in the U.S. constitution to give inventors the ability to enjoy a limited monopoly on ideas they developed. Congress has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to enact laws to issue patents. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) is the cornerstone of U.S. commercial success in global markets.

The new breed of IP-savvy business leaders acknowledge that in business today, corporate battles are now being waged in favor of securing rights to innovations and ideas, not to control markets by securing raw materials.

America’s most successful innovative companies, including Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Lucent, Dell, Gillette, and Dow Chemical, all recognize that the knowledge economy has given rise to a new ecology of competition. The new competitive environment recognized by these companies values intellectual assets over physical assets as the wellspring of competitive advantage and shareholder wealth.

IP & Value.

It is well established that intellectual property (“IP”) assets, to include patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights, generate what industry observers might refer to as “extraordinary profits” for their owners. IP causes high levels of returns in comparison to other asset classes. More than ever, IP assets today are contributing more value to corporations than other assets. In 1975, S&P 500 companies had only 17% of their market value represented by intangible assets. By 2010, intangible assets represented 80% of the S&P’s 500 market value .

An example of great success with regard to patents is Walker Digital. Walker Digital, is an innovation laboratory modeled after Thomas Edison’s Invention Laboratory. Walker Digital negotiated rights to its 19 e-commerce patents for 7.5 million Priceline shares. Those shares later increased in value to exceed an incredible $1 billion dollars.

Intellectual Property Infringement Defined.

Utility patents are considered infringed upon when someone makes, uses, or sells a patented product or process without legal permission.

Infringement of a design patent involves fabrication of a design that, is substantially similar to an existing design, where the resemblance induces observers to purchase one design supposing it to be another.

Trademark infringement consists of the unauthorized use or imitation of a mark that is actually the property of another company or individual. Trademark infringement often occurs in the business world in order to confuse, deceive, and or mislead others. This deception is geared in the effort to have people purchase products from a company other than the real trademark owner, where products are counterfeits or knock-offs.

When someone reproduces, adapts, distributes, performs in public, or displays in public a copyrighted work that belongs to another that is Copyright Infringement.

Patent Insurance.

There are different types of patent insurance policies that companies and individuals can purchase. IP infringement or intellectual property liability coverage, guards against patent infringement claims and defends the insured’s ownership rights in the intellectual property. Patent insurance can also indemnify customers and distributors for allegations that might arise that the insured IP is in violation of another’s IP rights. It indemnifies against damages from liabilities that might result from a verdict or settlement. This is the most typical type of coverage with regard to IP liability insurance.

Intangible Assets.

Examples of intangible assets that are not IP include supply agreements, alliances, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, distribution agreements, marketing and sales agreements, independent contractor agreements, and relationship capital.

Any secret idea, concept or fact that is not disclosed by a business includes trade secrets. A trade secret has no definitive time constraint. A trade secret could remain secret or it could remain closely guarded throughout the life time of a product line. An example of a well known trade secret is the Coca-Cola recipe.

The Power of IP in Funding, Licensing & Monetization.

The practice of funding companies on the basis of their intellectual property (IP) and other intangible assets has been emerging for some time. Even through IP, is widely recognized for its role in catapulting the growth of the U.S. economy, the country still fails to acknowledge the real value of intangible assets. In many ways the United States and banks fail to provide innovative companies with the funding they need to commercialize their innovative product concepts.

Patent monetization isn’t just for struggling companies. Industry leaders like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are all aggressively seeking to capitalize on their IP through licensing deals while also retaining rights to create advantage for their own products. Microsoft has already earned a lot more money on licensing its patents to Android smart phones than from sales of its own Windows operating system for mobile devices.

Revenue from patent licensing has skyrocketed in recent years, increasing from $15 billion in 1990 to now exceed $110 billion today. Companies are now slowly realizing that IP can be among the most valuable and flexible assets. Experts say that the licensing market is still in its infancy. They say revenues related to IP licensing could exceed a half-trillion dollars annually.

Companies Move to Aggressively Embrace IP.

The asset base of U.S. manufacturing firms has shifted dramatically. In 1982, physical assets such equipment, factories and plants comprised 62 % of a company’s market value. Today this number is less than 30 % of their market value, according to experts at the Brookings Institution. Thus, the bulk of even a manufacturer’s value now depends on their intellectual assets. However, most companies today do a poor job of developing and manage these assets.

When developing innovative products, patent quality is another key area to be concerned with. Patents are the lifeblood of young innovative companies. Small companies rely heavily on patents. They face devastating consequences under the threat of a damaging lawsuit or if their patents are invalidated by a court.

When Crowd Funding, Consider having IP in Place.

It is important to develop some sort of IP defense prior to launching a crowd-funded project. If you don’t have some good IP in place that differentiates you from the prior art when doing a crowd-funded project, there is a good probability that you are going to get a judgment against you and that you might be given a cease-and-desist letter.

The Uriel Corporation Think Tank gives innovators and companies an Edge in their Product Commercialization Efforts.

Intellectual property engineers, advisors, consultants and attorneys play a large role in shaping the future as they work with inventors and innovators.

The Uriel Corporation Think Tank assists inventors and innovative companies to help them define, refine, and perfect ideas and intellectual property to develop such ideas into a more potent commercial form that can better address national and global markets. Uriel assists inventors, startups. and more established companies to help them throughout all stages of the commercialization process. The Uriel Corporation Think Tank Consults Clients and assists by engaging in full turnkey product commercialization consulting, including but not limited to:

• patent searches,
• patent and trademark development,
• tweaking existing patents to create expanded patent portfolios,
• prototype development,
• product development,
• technology transfer,
• preparation of NDAs and other agreements,
• win-win partnerships and alliances,
• the negotiation and development of joint ventures, strategic alliances, and commercialization agreements with third parties,
• the negotiation and development of joint ventures, strategic alliances, and agreements for manufacturing,
• the negotiation and development of joint ventures, strategic alliances, and agreements for distribution,
• the negotiation and development of joint ventures, strategic alliances, and agreements for marketing and sales,
• subsidiary and corporate launch consulting to launch new products or ventures,
• technology search and acquisition,
• the negotiation and development of licensing agreements with third parties.

See the following blog links for more Information on Uriel Corporation’s Turnkey Think Tank Services:

Uriel Think Tank Services.

Disruptive Commercialization Services.

See our Parent Think Tank Website:

See Uriel Corporation’s® Parent Think Tank Website for more information on Uriel’s Turnkey Commercialization Consulting Services.

Contact Uriel Corporation today to see how Uriel can help you create or find and acquire disruptive patented or patentable innovations!!