Business Metamorphosis LLC Newsletter

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In This Issue

Individual Inventors Decline

The Facilitate Phase

Kick the Tires

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Our Blog

ITTR

Penguin

Newsletter - November 2010

This newsletter is for the benefit of: our customers both current and past, our workers , board members and friends including those of you we haven't talked to recently. Please feel free to forward to others who might be interested in our activities

Are Individual Inventors in Decline

in America?

Many of my clients are individual inventors who are not part of any larger organization. Rochester , NY where I live has the highest concentration of patents filed in the country. However most of those patents are assigned to large corporations.

In an attempt to determine the characteristics of my customer base I reviewed some data from the US patent website and was surprised to realize that the number of individual inventors , long thought of as the backbone of our entrepreneurial society is in decline.

After peaking out in 1999 the number of inventions assigned to individuals has continued to decline, reaching a value of 12562 or 57% of its maximum by 2009. The number of inventions assigned to large corporations continued to increase however more and more of them were assigned to foreign corporations.

The total number of inventions assigned to Corporations was 231, 588 in 2008 when the number assigned to individuals was 12614 Of the inventions assigned to large corporations the top 20 held 12 % of the total more than 2.3times the number filed by independent inventors.

From the figure below you can see that the peak in the number of inventors occurred during the dotcom boom of the late 1990's. From that point on the number of inventors falls rapidly until it stabilizes out in 2005 but at a level 20% lower than when a gradual rise began in 1992. Interestingly the total number of patents issued more than doubled in the same period that the number filed by individuals was decreasing 50%.

One can speculate on the causes of this decline in patents by individuals and there are likely to be many of them. One possibility is that , the costs of obtaining and defending a patent may put it out of the reach of many individuals.

Also it is important to realize how much of the patent filings are by foreign corporations. In 2008 fully 54% of the top 50 patent filers were corporations headquartered outside of the US

Whatever the cause, since small business is the engine that drives job growth in this country, the decline in the number of "garage inventors" can only be viewed as troubling for the country. Its a topic worthy of further investigation.

Source _US Patent and Tradmark Office

The Faciliate Phase ITTr Logo

Connecting Buyers and Sellers

When we have found a prospect who is sufficiently interested in a patent to want to discuss a potential deal with the owner, the Facilitate phase of our ICF process has begun. Usually we have answered questions and supplied literature to such prospects that is in more depth than what is contained in the patent itself or the one page flyer we provide to describe it to prospects.

These serious prospects need to talk to our client (who is often a licensing official but they also need to talk to directly to the inventor. So the first step in our facilitation process is to arrange a confrence call or meeting between our client and the prospect.

Often this meeting results in requests for additional information from our clients and the inventors and sometimes tests or demonstrations.

If these steps are concluded successfully, the prospect may request that the client state an asking price. This is the beginning of negotiations. ITTr will help facilitate negotiations but the buy/sell decisions are in the control of the parties. We can supply tools such as offering sheets to help manage the process.

Since these negotiations often result in complicated arrangements contained in a contract, an attorney is often required to draft the final arrangements.

To learn more about the ICF process , log on to our Website at ITTrifecta.com

Rochester Penguin Group

Kick the Tires-- Before you get taken for a Ride.

When one company is considering purchasing or merging with another a great deal of information needs to be collected and analyzed. When serious negotiations are underway or contemplated a detailed "Due Diligence" report is often prepared. These reports are very lengthy, detailed and also often very expensive.

However, at the earlier stages of a company exploring buying or merging, such detail may not be needed. This is particularly true when a company is considering several possiblities for merger or acquisition.

One Penguin client had exactly this problem, and that is what caused RPG to develop our

We built First Look™ by cutting down the number of sections from a full report from about 130 to 80. We also prepared the report in adjustable form so that a client may select the sections that they want included in the report and avoid others.

Drawing on the research skills and resources of RPG staff we can often find information which is hard to access because it is not publicly available, such as information on privately held companies.

To learn more about First Look™ go to the Penguin web site and click on the Products and Services tab. The correct link is near the top of the page.

product. First Look™ is a scaled down version of a Due Diliagence report. We say it provides 80% of the value for 20% of the cost of a full report.

We appreciate your responses to our newsletters. Please send us your comments. We are always interested in what you want to know.

Sincerely,

Richard Blazey
Business Metamorphosis LLC

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