Blog

20 November 2024 · Articles, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investors, IP Audit, IP Strategy, IP Value, M&A Due Diligence

Investor Ready IP Best Practices for Tech Companies.

Easy IP Audit. The Better Way What Got You Here Will Not Get You There Your business evolves, the landscape evolves, the law evolves, your strategy evolves and the economic climate changes. Is Your IP Fit For Purpose? As your business evolves so your IP needs to evolve as well. Investors assess IP protection, ownership, […]

19 November 2024 · Articles, Confidential Information, Innovation, IP Culture, IP Education, Trade secrets

Tesla Shares Innovation With Supplier, But Struggles To Keep Secrets

Tesla Sues A Major Supplier For Patenting Their Invention. Thank you to Prof. Dr. Alexander J. Wurzer Director IP Management Training for curating this excellent podcast on the importance of trade secrets and how it fits into strategy. You cannot innovate in isolation and working with partners and suppliers is crucial in this, but how […]

14 November 2024 · Articles, Brand, Brokerage, Domain Name, Investors, Monetisation

Chat Is Cheap But Not Any More. Expensive Domain Names.

Dharmesh Shah CTO of HubSpot spotted an opportunity, buying domain name Chat.com $15.5m! Less than a year later he sold it again for $20m! The buyer none less than Open AI CEO Sam Altman! Shah got a pretty healthy return on his investment, even accepting 50% of the sale price as Open AI stock! This […]

13 November 2024 · Articles, Innovation, Investors, IP Culture, IP Education, IP Strategy, IP Value, Patents, Trade secrets

The Great Patent Myth. What Is A Patent Really Worth?

I once worked with a small business where they had spent $1m on patent filings for a particular invention. The business pivoted away from the invention but it was assumed that there would be 5X return on cost spend through sale or licensing of the patents. Sadly there was no value in the patents. Another […]

11 November 2024 · Articles

The Insider Threat is Your Biggest Threat

If this can happen to Mattel it can happen to you and your business. Reputational damage in this case but it could equally be a leak of highly sensitive and confidential information causing share price damage. Mattel sell dolls to children aged 4+ so they are highly embarrassed this morning that the website on the […]

8 November 2024 · Articles, Brand, Influencer, IP Education, IP Strategy, IP Value, Social Media, Trademark

Defending Registered Trademarks – Article in The Times newspaper

Why Portakabin is Entitled to Fight its Trademark Battle I was very pleased to be quoted in Friday’s The Times. A brilliant article by Harry Wallop demonstrating the importance of defending brand value and reputation using registered trademark rights. The importance of careful selection and management, also surveillance, throughout the life of the brand to […]

7 November 2024 · Innovation, Knowledge, Knowledge Transfer, Partnerships

How Do You Protect Your Innovation in Partnerships?

The human species survived because we could communicate and share ideas about what worked and what did not. How to light a fire using flints and tinder, how best to catch a woolly mammoth, how to successfully raise crops on clay based of soil; you get the idea. We innovate better when ideas from different […]

5 November 2024 · Articles, Confidential Information, Knowledge, Knowledge Transfer, M&A Due Diligence, NDA, Partnerships, Tech Transfer, Trade secrets

$605M for Trade Secret Theft of ‘Innovative Approach to Selling Renewable Fuels’

The jury also found that the trade secret theft was willful and malicious, allowing the Court to potentially triple the total damages! Choose your partners carefully. You are flattered when Big Co who also happens to provide your major route to market offers to buy your business. It has been 13 years of hard slog […]

22 October 2024 · Articles, Brand, IP Strategy, Trademark

Google Made The Calculated Decision To Bulldoze Their Trademark Rights

What can you do when Big Co decides they like your name? In 2021 there were 750 companies registered at UK Companies House with Meta in their name. Did Facebook care when they changed their name to Meta? Well they cared enough to spend $60m buying up the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta […]

21 October 2024 · Confidential Information, Entrepreneurship, Investors, Trade secrets

Your Sensitive Information Is Valuable Be Very Careful Who you Share it With

Most of us are guilty of signing NDAs, sharing information with investors and partners and thinking nothing else of it. Mainly this route turns out ok, with the major risk being inadvertent leaking of your information due to poorly controlled processes at the recipient. Occasionally there will be planned and deliberate leakage. The FBI is […]

Information is at risk even after signing an NDA

15 October 2024 · Articles, Confidential Information, Knowledge Transfer, NDA, Partnerships, Trade secrets

Information Floods Out Of Your Business After An NDA

‘We have an NDA so it is fine we can share everything’! How much value is being lost from your business via sensitive information and knowledge being shared with partners with whom you have an NDA? An NDA is not a cover all. Ideally an NDA is nothing more than a ‘permit to have a […]

14 October 2024 · Confidential Information, Knowledge, Knowledge Transfer, Trade secrets

As The Law Changes On Non-Competes What Protects Your Confidential Information?

Post-Termination Restrictive Covenants Are Not Immune From Government Interference. Governments around the world including the UK, US, and European governments are reviewing post-termination restrictive covenants (non competes) in an effort to make sure innovation and growth is not stifled. The UK Government makes their position clear: “non-compete clauses represent one of the strongest restraints of […]