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Technology Potency: Patent Citation Refinements for Merger and Acquisition or Joint Venture Analysis
The real value of a possible acquisition or joint venture partner is often in the potential of their next invention. As advisers, patent managers, and intellectual asset strategists, it is critical that the methodology and tools used for assessing patent quality accurately reflect a would-be ally's technological potency.
Recent studies have drawn positive correlations between the increasing or decreasing quality of a company's patent estate and its stock market value. Lanjouw and Schankerman, Economic Journal, 114 (April), pp. 441-465. Patent quality, in the broadest sense, is most often tied to the frequency a patent is cited by other patents. Hall, Jaffe, and Trajtenberg, Royal Journal of Economics, Jan. 2004. One study correlating market value with forward citations found that patents valued at $1 million received an average of about eight citations, while patents valued at $100 million received an average of about 14. Harhoff, Narin, Scherer, and Vopel, Review of Economics & Statistics, Vol. 81, Issue 3, August 1999, p. 511.
The underlying assumption of citation analysis is that citations reflect the influence a base patent has had on later developments. Gay and Le Bas, Econ. Innov. New Techn., Vol. 14(5), July 2005, pp. 333-338. This would certainly be true in the case of patents describing breakthroughs or a stepchange innovation. However, it is important when identifying a technologically brilliant partner to discern whether its patents are highly cited due to stepchange technology innovations or merely for purposes of completeness in succeeding applications.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Anti-Assignment Override Provisions
UCC Sections 9406(d) and 9408(a) are one of the most powerful, yet least understood, sections of the Uniform Commercial Code. On their face, they appear to override anti-assignment provisions in agreements that would limit the grant of a security interest. But do these sections really work?