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The Patent Renewals Challenge: Balancing Risk and Cost
As economic recession forces companies to cut costs and grow revenue, there is an opportunity to reduce IP overhead without impacting risk. By intelligently abandoning non-essential patents and trademarks and increasing revenue from IP sales, businesses can strengthen their balance sheets and increase competitiveness. The complex process of pruning a patent portfolio and determining what to renew and what to abandon is equal parts art and science. However, successful players in the IP space have learned that their IAM decisions can be made more precise and better grounded in business objectives. Many companies are successfully incorporating systems to help organize their patent portfolios and manage the risks inherent in them.
Economic recessions force businesses to cut costs and identify new and efficient sources of revenue. Yet many companies will pass up millions of dollars of low-hanging fruit annually in the form of reduced patent annuities and increased revenue from sales of unused patents. Reinforcing this, the USPTO 2008 Annual Report states that “the renewal rates for (patent) maintenance fees have been
increasing modestly over the last four years and the trend indicates that this growth pattern will continue.”
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
Compliance Officers: Recent Regulatory Guidance and Enforcement Actions and Mitigating the Risk of Personal Liability
This article explores legal developments over the past year that may impact compliance officer personal liability.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.