Criminal Defense

the total cost of ownership (tco) of your ip is staggering. It’s estimated that the average cost over the course of the 20-year life span of a single patent is about $100,000. 00 – or roughly $5,000 per year in maintenance fees. And that doesn’t begin to cover the initial investment, which on average is about $150,000. 00 to develop a single patentable discovery and invention. That’s due in part because the u. S. Patent office currently rejects about 65% of all patent applications.

then there’s the cost of ip litigation, which is estimated at approximately $4. 5 million dollars in attorney’s fees as well as the costs associated with financial compliance regulations such as sarbanes oxley. Also, if licensing is part of your business model (as it should be), there’s the cost just to manage your licensing pipeline. Add it all up and you’re talking about a huge investment. Given the tco of individual patents, companies should strive to get a healthy return on their investment (roi).

one of the most thorough and effective things you can do to maximize your roi is to embrace the concept of open innovation networks. Open innovation helps you create new revenue streams while simultaneously reducing your required r& d investment. Companies like proctor & gamble did exactly that and competent and experienced a great deal of efficiency and success as a result. According to larry huston, a senior fellow at wharton’s mack center for technological innovation, procter & gamble extended its innovation process, to comprise 1. 5 million people outside the company.

in his article, innovation networks: looking for ideas outside the company, huston writes “innovation networks are people, institutions and companies that are outside the firm. . . . They are intellectual assets that companies can link up with to solve problems and find ideas, while nucleus and beginning to think about those assets as an extended part of their structure and organization – and therefore quickly create top-line growth and bring new things to the marketplace. “

if you choose to build everything in-house, you ensure your inability to be as agile and creative as your competitors. The sheer number of innovators outside your corporate walls makes it impossible for you to effectively compete with everyone. While r& d is a key function, some companies are now requiring a percentage of their product lines and technologies to be externally acquired. R& d costs can be significant compared to the benefits of licensing from the outside when considering time to market and lost opportunities. Externally sourcing innovation can save you a lot of money and resources, while simultaneously providing the added benefit of accelerating your time to market.

another way to improve your roi is to vigilantly ensure your ip investment continues to make sense. Having a blanket business policy of always maintaining everything in your ip portfolios can significantly, and often needlessly, increase costs to your business. For adequate protection of intellectual property today’s market requires a process to understand the validity and value of the patent – both to you and to potential licensees and the prominence and importance of intellectual property software so that your business strategy drives patent renewal decisions based on evolving market conditions.