October 10, 2008 12:37 PM PDT

Not making enough money from patents? Here's help

by Matt Asay
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In case you're worried that you haven't been squeezing enough money from your patent portfolio lately, Law Seminars International has a deal for you:

Forget about trying to make money by selling actual products into a tight economy. Just sue your competitors! At worst, you can use scare tactics against the foolish:

Like land speculators, patent investors are investing billions of dollars to amass assets that they intend to monetize for a substantial return. This massive influx in available capital is providing patent owners with increasing opportunity to make money from their inventions, as well as allowing companies and patent investors to obtain quality patents much more efficiently than before.

Forget about providing customer value. It's time to pillage customers and competitors alike by amassing and harvesting patent portfolios. You, too, can be a patent troll. Sign up today!!!

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.
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by jrepenning October 10, 2008 1:32 PM PDT
While I share the frustration that leaks from this posting, you didn't actually quote enough to justify it in this case: maybe they're talking about using patents to make money by adding value, not entirely clear.

Until I followed your link, and found right at the top:

Who Should Attend
Attorneys and business executives involved with selling and acquiring intellectual property

Nuff said.
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by gazzonyx October 10, 2008 1:46 PM PDT
Billy Shakespeare had it right; "... first we kill all the lawyers". We'll get away with it too, since we won't have adequate representation at the trial and no one will be willing to come forth as a prosecutor. Ahh... when the revolution comes...

Of course, we leave Ray Beckerman (http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/) alone. He's cool. :)
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by dinnertime October 13, 2008 8:49 AM PDT
If you created a market for a new product or process and afterwards a large company threatened to wrest away a meaningful portion, would you sue or pick daisies?

Plus, obtaining funding for small entities is always difficult. If you won?t defend your patent rights, how can you use them then to obtain funding?

please see http://www.piausa.org/ for a different/opposing view on patent reform
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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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