IP Strategy: IP Asset Maximizer Blog

Over the 30 plus years that I have been at the English Bar I have seen far more businesses ruined by acquiring too much IP than too little.  That is particularly true of private inventors who apply for the most extensive patent, design and trade mark protection around the world long before they know whether they will ever sell a single product.

I have no reason to believe that patent agents act from anything but the purest motives and professionalism when they advise their clients of the narrow geographical extent of a British patent and "the inconvenient truth" (to quote a former US Veep) that the invention is made available to everyone in the world including persons skilled in the art way beyond the boundaries of the country for which the patent is granted.  When asked what can be done in say France to prevent then infringement of a British patent the answer is of course nothing.   The remedy is to get a grant for France, and then the rest of the industrial world until the client has spent his entire life savings.

And what does the client have to show for all that expense? Unless he has an income stream to protect and the wherewithal to protect it, NOT A LOT.   Inventors have to be reminded that it costs €30,500 to maintain a typical European patent in 5 countries for 10 years and that most inventions are never worked.   For them the Office fees, patent attorneys' charges, their disbursements and other expenses is MONEY DROWN THE DRAIN.

When I tell my inventors that at my IP Clinics or inventors' clubs they refuse to believe it because that is contrary to what they are told by patent agents, Business Link and each other.   Imagine my delight, then, at encountering a blog that is devoted to IP strategy.   Jackie Hutter's blog IP Asset Management  is exactly that.   Packed to gunnels with good articles it is.   Here are some examples:

• A Consumer Product Company's Costly Patent Lesson: It's Not Enough to Protect the Invention, the Innovation Must Also be Patented
  
• Chief IP Counsel: Stop Trying to Change How Your Lawyers Bill You and Focus on the Model They Use to Provide Your Legal Services
  
• What is an IP Strategist? A Lawyer Who is Not Afraid to Say No.
  

Ms Hutter, who lives in Decatur, Georgia in the USA appears to know what she is talking about. She has 13 years experience in advising companies, investors and universities on how to maximize intangible asset value by developing and executing on IP and patent strategy.   

The URL of this lady's blog is at http://www.ipassetmaximizer.com/ and one can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/IPStrategist if one does not have anything better to do than look out for banalities (though never from Ms Hutter) in 140 letters or less.   Talking of twitter, my thanks to @jefflindsay for bringing this blog to my attention.