Whether you are building your portfolio with new patents, looking to enter new markets or looking to monetize, it is critical to have a well thought out strategy. Starting with some basic questions; what’s in our portfolio now? Where do we want IP protection in the future? Where are the markets going? Asking these questions, […]
Ocean Tomo IP Strategy
Defending Against Competitive Threats: How Reverse Engineering Services Saved this Software Business
In 1992, there was a high-profile U.S. software copyright case involving Nintendo’s NES video game console and cartridges. Reverse engineering services played a big part in the legal proceedings. The backstory goes like this … Nintendo developed a security system for their NES, so that only video games they developed would operate on the NES. […]
Factors Influencing the Legal Quality of Patents
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, different aspects of patent quality are affected by different actors in the patent system. Improving patent quality requires careful examination of the various policy levers available to different actors. For instance, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is bound by the statutes set forth by Congress. […]
Exploring the Policy Levers that Impact Patent Quality
During my tenure at the US Patent and Trademark Office, the agency engaged in its Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative. To effectively improve patent quality, it was important to understand the various policy “levers” that might influence quality (and of course to understand what we mean by quality, as I discussed here). What levers are available […]