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How do you protect your IP Processes? More importantly, have you ever done a freedom to operate clearance on them? To kick off this short series of posts, here are a few insights on some of the top ‘patent process’ patent filers, what they are covering, and the most cited patents. Given my 100 per cent client focus, I couldn’t really do this topic justice but I look forward to further insights… Read More
Bloomberg published a nice piece just the other day on common phrases that are trademarked. Here are a few: “It’s gonna be awesome” (The Barbarian Group) “We should talk” (Bank of New York) “That’s a good idea” (Rubbermaid) Readers unaware of how trademarks work would be forgiven for thinking that they can’t use those phrases anymore, or at least in business. Obviously this is wrong – the trademarks cover goods and services… Read More
“And the core of the strategist’s work is always the same, discover the crucial factors in a situation and design a way to coordinate and focus actions to deal with them.” (Richard Rumelt in the June 2011 McKinsey Quarterly.) I think this is a great summary – it gets to the heart of identifying the key issues and creating effective change. From the intellectual property strategy perspective, I would suggest that the… Read More
In my experience, I have seen companies suffer loss or become embroiled in disputes because they followed improper advice from their external counsel. Some companies rely on advice from external counsel in nearly all aspects of management such as employment, tax and contracts, and of course IP prosecution, litigation, and transactions. However, no one can be sure that the advice of any expert is always right, especially if he or she lacks… Read More
作者：Robert Cantrell 翻译：尚阿鹏 当你在制定一项计划时，首先应当知道最终的目标是什么以及哪些因素可以帮助自己实现目标。虽然制定目标时，人们还没想清楚每个详细的步骤是什么，但这并不妨碍人们沿着预定的方向前进。如果方向正确，尽管没有具体的节点，大多数人还是可以成功到达自己的目的地。这一点对知识产权管理来说非常重要。知识产权是研发的成果，但研发过程是不受既定计划的约束的。 研发工作往往致力于创造新技术或更好的技术。这些创新也许与人们的预期不一致，但仍然可以使用。研发工作的范围很难与预期完全一致。研发人员常常会发现，他们为了解决A问题而发现了解决B问题的方法。某药物公司的管理人员曾告诉我，研发的结果是创造新东西，而不是为现有问题提供解决方案。 因此，为了适应研发工作的这种特性，知识产权的计划策略应当具有灵活性。保持灵活性的最佳方法就是确定研发的方向，排除你能够控制的不确定因素。这样你将有更多的精力来对付那些你不能掌控的因素。这样你实现自己目标的可能性就更高。我们知道，现实中大多数计划往往由于变数太多而落空，因此在策略计划中保留适当的灵活性，是实现目标的最好保证。 如果希望阅读英文原版，请点击此处 图片来源: Hemera
Can you really have a cohesive IP Strategy at the corporate level? I don’t think so. Unless of course they are one and the same thing. (Small companies with effectively one business unit obviously have the same IP Strategy for both.) Otherwise, each business unit needs its own defined IP Strategy – focused on the strategy and its execution required to meet its specific goals. As soon as you start building a… Read More
When planning strategically, you can know what you want to do and raise your chance of succeeding without necessarily knowing exactly how you will do it. You can set a direction that makes sense even if you do not know all the checkpoints along the way, and still have a very good chance of arriving at your destination. This is very important to understand regarding IP because a lot of IP is… Read More
Perhaps for the first time in history, humankind has the capacity to create far more information than anyone can absorb, to foster far greater interdependency than anyone can manage, and to accelerate change far faster than anyone’s ability to keep pace (Peter Senge – author of “The fifth discipline: the art and practice of learning organizations”). In business reality being satisfied with status quo is like trying to swim against the current… Read More
Is there a difference between ‘best practice’ in theory as against the real world? Should there be? In the many years I have taught patent strategy, I have often seen people make a mental distinction between sound strategic theory and what people can actually do in practice. I learned about this distinction as a general principle – the so called right way and real way – early in my professional career when… Read More
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