Business Metamorphosis LLC     BML Logo
In This Issue
Patent Maps and Portfolios
Commercialization AND Licensing
The Washing Machine Story
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 Newsletter - February 2014
 
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Non Standard Uses of Patent Maps

 

Business Metamorphosis was founded to commercialize a patent mapping product.  Yet we have done only a few patent maps in our ten  year existence and those mostly for large companies  who had a big portfolio of patents to manage.   However, as I talk to current clients I began to realize that patent maps could be equally useful when a company wants to create a patent portfolio as well as when a company wishes to manage one.  Patent maps are also useful as a competitive analysis tool when the only goal of the company is to do market research , and there is no intention of  forming or managing a patent portfolio at all.

 

Suppose for example that you wish to innovate in a given area of technology.  Your company is talented in that area but you have no current patents.   You are unaware of what patents your competitors might hold but you know them and their product lines.

 

A patent map of the patents held by your competitors will show you not only where their current activities are but also the areas they are inventing in and might not yet have been brought to the marketplace.  

 

Besides this useful competitive information you will learn from a well drawn map where the space is where your competitors are not currently innovating or protecting their IP.  That "white space" is  an advantage for you.   Its  unclaimed territory that you can make your own with a few carefully selected patents.

 

Business Metamorphosis has a patent mapping product called "The Strategic Opportunity Cube".  The link will take you to a video that describes how it works.

 

An opportunity cube may be built from a patent portfolio held but the customer  or it can be built from a "seed" which is a patent or patents whose characteristics lie in the space that the client company is interested in.  

 

Starting from this seed patent we find a predetermined number of similar patents and use them to fill in the cube.   Its a little bit like exploring unknown territory.  We start a one point and then walk around the adjacent space, mapping as we go and locating key landmarks.

 

So, in summary, there are many uses for patent maps and many different ways to make them.  If you think that a patent map might be useful to your company please contact us.

 

Write to rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or  give us a call at  (585) 520-3539  

 

Combining Commercialization and Licensing 

ITTr Logo
Most companies with a patent or patents to vend think  of either commercializing them or licensing them.  They seldom consider doing both. However that strategy has a lot  recommend  it.  For one thing licensing can provide a stream of revenue that you can use to commercialize other inventions or the current invention in a market space not covered by the license.
 
Licenses can be constrained by Geography , Market or any number of other factors.  Thus even though you might wish to retain the US Market for yourself , you might license your invention to someone who has a strong presence in another country.

The revenue stream produced by a license can provide funding to commercialize a group of patents which control a new technology the company has developed.
Those inventions that take more time and money to bring to the marketplace can benefit from the license and also from the market knowledge derived from the licensed product.

One thing we have learned is about the best way to commercialize a new technology is to prepare a "market attack plan".  This plan is a path linking the products that may stem from a new technology in time sequence.   It relates to the "Alpha Cookie"  we discussed in an earlier newsletter.

The Three Circle Model_V1.0
The Three Circle Model_V1.0
The Alpha cookie is discussed in this presentation on the Three Circle model.   The market attack plan which is not discussed consists of drawing a path linking the chips which shows the order in which given products would be commercialized.  The goal is to use revenues from the earlier chips to finance the development of later ones.  

Picking the right order to commercialize the chips is particularly important if you are planning to license any of them.  The licensed chip must be in a state of development that is attractive to potential licensees.  One way to find that out is to  fill in the ROTH worksheet for those "chips"  you intend to license and see if the ROTH score is high enough.

To help you decide among your options please contact ITTr.  Just  send an email to rblazey@ittrifecta.com  or  phone me at (585) 520-3539

Finding the Valuable Opportunities

 

OA Logo 

Peter Drucker  once said famously.

  

 

All one can get by "problem solving" is damage-containment.  Only opportunities produce results and growth.  
 
The challenge is to identify the growth producing opportunities and separate them from the chaff of other ideas which will end up only costing money and providing no growth.   This separation is so difficult to do that many companies simply avoid exploiting opportunities and instead stick to the tried and true business in their "Comfort Zone" even if the comfort zone is getting less and less comfortable due to changes in the economy , technology or whatever.
 
Washing Machines
 
You might think that I'm going to say that OA has a magic formula for separating the wheat from the chaff.   I'm not.  There is no magic formula.  What I am going to say is the persons that have the best chance of making that choice are right in your own company, they are the managers and workers that make the current enterprise work.
 
The ideas are their, in their heads, but they are not nourished and allowed to grow.  Often they are actively suppressed.  And most often they are not shared with others who can remove the uncertainties hidden in all of them.
 
I'm not sure where this apocryphal story came from , but it illustrates a key point.  A company which made washing machines set out to get employee input on how to improve their machines efficiency.   There was an attractive prize and each department worked hard to come up with solutions.   However when all solutions had been reviewed and the time came to award the prize, it was not handed out.  Puzzled and angry employees asked why.
 
The reason they were told was simple.  Each department had improved its part of the machine's efficiency in such a way as to reduce the efficiency of another part of the machine.   In the end no improvement or combination of improvements was successful in increasing the overall efficiency of the machine.   
 
Its the same situation with opportunities in the heads of single employees or departments of a company.  They seldom are implemented because when they leave their department of origin they are quickly dismissed for causing problems in other functions and departments.
 
One of the methods we use at OA is to get all departments and functions represented when  opportunities are compared.  That is one of the best ways of avoiding the "Washing Machine" dilemma.
 
So if you'd like some help finding and organizing your opportunities just contact OA using the information below.

 

Please email me at rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or  call (585) 520-3539.  

 

 
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
Disclaimers 

 
Please realize that this newsletter contains only our opinions on patent matters.  We are not authorized to give legal advice.  If you are seeking such advice please contact an attorney.
 

 

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