Work Area: Licensing

Last week’s news that Intellectual Ventures had signed a major licensing deal with Ford was undoubtedly good news for the firm. As I understand it, the transaction was completed after a painstaking negotiation that took place over a period years…

10 March 2015

Last week, this blog reported on Hon Hai (Foxconn) chairman Terry Guo’s suggestion that the company had been guilty of profligate patenting. Henceforth, he said, Hon Hai’s focus will be on filing fewer applications of higher quality.Speaking…

03 March 2015

To this observer, it’s slightly strange that there has not been more comment on the announcement made by Intellectual Ventures on 27th February that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Ford. Writing on the IV blog, president and COO…

01 March 2015

We’re less than two months into 2015 and I have already made trips from the UK to the US and China. Along the way I have had a fair few conversations with various IP market participants about where things stand. The overall view is that change is…

24 February 2015

In the wake of the US$975 million fine and other sanctions for anti-competitive patent licensing activities imposed on Qualcomm by the Chinese authorities earlier this month, there has been a surge in discussion about the country’s burgeoning…

23 February 2015

LG Group – one of South Korea’s largest chaebol (conglomerates) and parent of companies including LG Electronics, LG Chem and LG Display, among others – announced last week that it would ‘open up’ part of its patent portfolio for use by third…

13 February 2015

Qualcomm confirmed this week that it has reached an agreement with China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which recently completed an antitrust investigation into the US company’s patent licensing activities in the country. Under…

12 February 2015

The PIPCO sector has attracted its share of - sometimes less than sophisticated - investor interest and there are a number of investors that are active around privately-held licensing-based businesses. There are also various kinds of financial model…

26 January 2015

Private equity firm Vector Capital has filed suit against Technicolor over allegations that the French company manipulated shareholder voting. This is the latest development in a long running dispute between the two over the future of Technicolor&…

23 January 2015

Chinese electronics company Oppo caused a small stir at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month with its accusation that Polaroid’s ‘Selfie’ smartphone copied its own rotating camera design. It is tempting to see this as…

20 January 2015