Week 13: building upon my future

In this final blogpost, I want to talk about how this class will influence in the years to come.

I just talked about how this class did a very good job of giving an overall view of the patent industry. I believe I have a good understanding of the patent basics, the application process, and current problems and limitations.

In class we talked about how important it is to file a patent. Unfortunately, not everyone will have a strong foundation knowledge on patents, and this is where I think I can make a difference. Just like I have mentioned before, when companies go on "Shark Tank", one of the most frequently asked questions is "is this patented?". I would definitely be the one in my company to ensure that the answer to that question is a "yes".

As someone with a background knowledge in patents, I want to be the one who ensures my company's product safety through patent filing. And in the event that we are sued by a patent troll, I will know how to handle them because all the trolls are looking for are settlements to make money off of. From this class I also learned the value of open sourcing, and so I would suggest some things to be patented, while others would be good candidates for open sourcing to encourage faster development by larger groups of people.

I think that this class has honestly given me a great advantage when I get into the workforce. I will definitely value intelligence property more than my peers and I can use that to help myself and the company move forward.

Week 13: what I learned

In this blogpost, I want to summarize my learnings and take-aways from this class. I came into this class with minimal knowledge of patents, and really, I only knew the importance of them through the show "Shark Tank". However, after an entire semester of learning about different aspects of patents and the issues with them, I have built a good knowledge foundation of patents.

The lectures were very good at slowly going deeper into the subject. We started off with some general terms and distinguishing a patent with more mainstream and common terms such as copyright and trademark. We learned how to break down a patent application and analyze each part of the application. We learned what a patent really should constitute, for example, non-obviousness and novelty. We went over some patent evolutions such as the cup sleeve patents. It was really interesting to see patents being built on top of each other. But we also went over silly and ridiculous patents that made us question the usefulness and in some cases, safety, of the inventions. We also went over problems with the current patent system and the whole debate over the patent trolls.

In addition, some weeks we had guest speakers who brought in a different perspective from that of the professor's. And each speaker had his or her own specialty, which was very exciting to be part of. We also watched a couple TED talk videos that focused on patents and its capabilities and limitations.

Overall, I thought this class was a very well-balanced course on patents. It did a great job of introducing patents and what they are, and then provided several different aspects of patents through different people's perspectives. I definitely learned a lot and would encourage others to give this class a try.

Week 13: collaborative social media #2

In the last blogpost, I focused on blogposts and Twitter. This time, I want to comment on our YouTube work.

We had weekly YouTube videos relating to our blogposts. I thought this was a very creative combination because I used blogposts to gather my thoughts for the week and do the research but I used YouTube to build upon my blogposts. It was a place where after I have written down so much about a certain topic in the blogpost, I was able to get more creative and share more of my personal opinions. And just the nature of making videos on YouTube really enforced my learning because it was a different type of learning, one that I have never had experience with.

I used to have trouble with public speaking but after making weekly videos, I feel I have definitely gotten better at impromptu and public speaking. And in addition, we were also assigned to watch other's videos and comment on them. This idea of shared learning on YouTube was extremely effective for me. I learned a lot from watching other's videos because I paid attention to not only their content, but also the way they speak and present the video. YouTube comments were also a great way to share our thoughts with our classmates.

Overall, I thought YouTube was a very creative way to learn. I definitely reenforced my learning from class topics through the videos, but I also gained public speaking skills. And again, this social media platform was simply great for classmates to share ideas with each other and give each other feedback.

Week 13: collaborative social media #1

As the semester comes to an end, I am concluding my blogpost series with a reflection upon this entire semester. This class has been very different from my other classes because all assignments and homeworks are completed online through social media. We have weekly blogposts in this bloggger website, videos on YouTube, and tweets on Twitter.

I want to focus on blogposts for now. I thought this idea was quite effective because first of all, Tal made sure we felt that the blogpost was our own. What I mean by that is, we were able to customize it and really personalize it. As a result, I took my blogposts more seriously because it reflected upon who I am and my experiences in this class. Weekly blogposts made it really easy to consolidate my ideas and learnings of each week. The topics of each blogpost ranged every week. Some weeks were summaries and personal opinions on class PowerPoint presentations, and others were compilations of online research on a certain topic. Blogposts definitely helped me retain the knowledge because I spent time researching the material before compiling and writing it into a blogpost. And in addition to all this, it really promoted shared learning because we all had access to each other's blogposts and were able to comment on each other's writings.

Twitter was also a cool addition we had in the middle of the semester. It enforced the idea of shared learning because we were all able to read each other's tweets, which were usually quick opinions on class topics or interesting articles found online.

In this blogpost I focused on blogposts and tweets. I found these two platforms of social media not only helped me learn and retain knowledge better, but also encouraged heavy communication between classmates that further enhanced the learning experience.

Week 12: intellectual property #4

In this blogpost, I will summarize my online research in regards to the topic in the presentation.

I found this interesting article that listed 5 best practices for creating an IP strategy. I thought it would be cool to share it here.

1. File early for patents
New patent laws in the US are based off the "first to file" regime. Filing early is absolutely critical to getting your idea in first, and getting your patent underway as quickly as possible.

2. Control the distribution of your ideas
There is a difference between distributing non confidential information for feedback, as opposed to sharing the totality of your idea, including all the novel, patentable aspects of your innovation. Once your ideas have leaked into the public domain, you may never be able to patent them anywhere, as the idea is not considered novel anymore.

3. Own the process: don't leave it all to the lawyers
Understanding the filing process, working efficiently with the lawyers and creating a strategy and roadmap around filing patents are critical for getting the best return on investment.

4. Build an IP portfolio that increases your evaluation
The iP filling needs to be very strategic, creating the right balance of offensive and defensive goals while positioning the company to gain market share, enhancing valuation and positioning for funding, and increasing the likelihood of a successful exit.

5. Manage the risk of litigation
Having strong patent portfolio can provide ammunition to countersue the competitor, and in that regard, will make them think twice before suing you.

Week 12: intellectual property #3

In this blogpost, I will focus on IP strategy for growth.

Above is a chasm graph that illustrates the IP strategy lifecycle. The key here is that you want to build an IP portfolio to increase valuation. Your goals are: freedom to operate, block competitors, support future products, hedge against litigation, attract buyers & investors, monetization, liquidation value.

A strong IP portfolio supports the later stages after the chasm. Your sources of IP can come from internal R&D and filing patents, buying patents, or in-licensing (university, government labs, etc.).
As you can see from the graph, before the chasm is labeled as developing IP position. After that, you begin your IP commercialization and monetization. And eventually, portfolio liquidation.

It is important to keep in mind that IP strategy can determine a product's success, market share, and profitability. A failure to properly address IP issues can result in loss of market share, margin erosion, and reduced market competitiveness.

Week 12: intellectual property #2

In this blogpost, I will go more into the IP industry as explained in the presentation.

There are four major forces impacting the patent marketplace: the IP litigation is at an all time high, very active patent transaction markets, USPTO overloaded and underfunded, global competition is changing the iP playing field. As we all know, the US patent prosecution process is on a "first to file" basis.

In the current 21st century patent marketplace, there is an addition to simply IP creators and IP users. Now, IP creators are operating companies, independent inventors, universities, research institutions, government labs. There are intermediaries that include non practicing entities, patent funds / aggregators, market makers, and financial services. Finally, there are IP users which include operating companies and others.

I found really interesting the industry trends to watch in patent monetization. These include 3 main points.
1. enforcement business model is under attack - patent litigation declines for first time in 5 years
2. patent transactions slowing down - especially soft. patent; buying moved to China
3. focus shifting to validity

In the next blogpost I will talk about growth, but I included this one because it has a good overview of the current IP marketplace.