THE NEW FRONTIER

Commercial and technological changes have reached a breathtaking pace. Not only are products changing but markets, customers, competitors, and government regulations are constantly in a state of flux. Companies that have enjoyed decades-long dominance in their market have found that their competitive advantage can be wiped out by and upstart or a global competitor in the blink of an eye.

THE PROBLEM

In dealing with the need to conduct technology transfer work companies have recognized that the skills required to create new technology are different than those needed to commercialize inventions.

Three separate disciplines must be brought together to determine and coordinate the appropriate commercialization method:

• Technical - determining the nature of the inventions relative to the state of the prior art

• Legal - determining the strength of the proprietary intellectual property

• Commercial - understanding the market application and revenue potential

Each invention requires a different commercialization method. Some inventions are suited towards licenses while others require a start-up approach. In some cases, a combination of licensing and start-up might be needed. In addition, decisions such as whether or not a patent should be licensed exclusively to one licensee or non-exclusively to an entire industry are critical.

THE SOLUTION

IPD, working in concert with the patent owner, determines the preferred approach to commercialization. Working through a network of scientists, engineers, patent attorneys and business executives, IPD then creates an independent team for each particular technology with the proper skills necessary for successful commercialization.

Utilizing the IPD approach, patent owners are in a position to exploit the full potential of their technology. IPD has been successful at developing novel secondary markets for technology for a variety of avenues, i.e. a technology developed for medical-hospital use might also have applications and require a licensee for commercial-retail use.

ACTIVE LICENSE MANAGEMENT

The ideal patent license would involve negotiating a license and then sitting back and collecting royalties, however, this is simply never the case. The licensor must be prepared to monitor licensees on an ongoing basis and in some cases discipline licensees that are not living up to their agreements. IPD, with a team of professionals solely focused on fully exploiting the licensed technology is uniquely suited to handle active license management.

PATENT DEFENSE

With both the stakes as well as the cost of patent litigation so high, the immediate economic benefits of infringing rather than paying licensing fees are obvious. IPD has developed a reputation for vigorously protecting and defending the patent owner's rights. This reputation allows IPD the flexibility of disseminating the necessary information to allow a potential licensee to make an informed decision without the need for layers information security.

GLOBAL MARKETING EXPERIENCE

Licensing an idea to a manufacturer can be difficult. Many companies simply will not accept outside ideas. Companies that do look at outside ideas are bogged down in piles of submissions. IPD, through global experience, has developed expertise in dealing with patent licensees. In addition, many companies know IPD by reputation, and understand that IPD has done extensive due diligence to determine how the technology will be of value. Through its network of contacts, IPD is able to determine the appropriate party within an organization most able to complete a transaction and addresses its efforts directly to that department or individual.

RELATIONSHIP WITH CLIENTS

IPD's compensation comes in the form of a participation in the revenues generated by the intellectual property. In this manner, IPD's interests are directly in line with those of the client. To that extent, there are no up-front fees paid to IPD and IPD is very careful to only work with technology that it has determined to have a reasonable chance of success. It is in IPD's best interest to therefore focus on the full exploitation of the technology.

IPD has experience working with both Fortune 500 companies and individual inventors. IPD has also worked in concert with the world's largest consulting firms as well as government agencies to liquidate entire portfolios of patents.