How to be a better IP Strategist
Listen to, understand and be effective in dealing with people. It’s that simple.
The most effective people working on IP Strategy within organisations are very clever at the ‘soft’ stuff. They can read the political currents, they listen to and understand people, and they are extremely effective at working in with the people around them. Perhaps most of all, they have the confidence of the people around them, particularly the more senior ones.
Some IP Strategists come from a patent attorney background. This is great (but not mandatory) provided they aren’t the type that enshrines pure technical ability above mere ‘soft’ human stuff – like listening and working in with others.
An effective IP Strategist needs to work in with just about every other department in the company. To do this you need to be sensitive to the internal political environment – know who to ask for what you need and who you need to be helping out when they need you. Not in a manipulative way, in a collaborative way.
If you can’t do this, you’re doomed to fail, or worse, die a death of a thousand cuts as people increasingly ignore your suggestions and input.
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UBM TechInsights views Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility for approximately $12.5 billion as an affirmation of their intent to bolster and defend their leadership position in the mobile marketplace.
With the purchase, Google acquires over 17,000 Motorola patents that are still in good standing (with another 7,500 in application). Based on UBM TechInsights patent valuation metrics we feel Google may have spent less per valuable “essential” patent than the consortium that recently out bid them to acquire Nortel’s patents just over a week ago. This is potentially a huge ‘gotcha’ to those companies who’d hope to stymie Google’s growing mobile market share.
So the question … was Google clever enough to play the Feign Foolishness card by bidding Pi and the like, allow Nortel to go the way it did, setting up for what appears to be a smart outcome in a Motorola purchase. If they are true strategists, then we will never know…at least while the game is still on.