I am very proud – and more than a little humbled – to have been included among the IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists, which was released on Monday this week. This annual guide is produced by Intellectual Asset Management Magazine (www.iam-magazine.com), a publication of the London-based IP Media Group Ltd.I am also very pleased to be joined on the list by my Watermark colleague Marnie Williams. Between us, we make up 40% of the total Australian contingent in this year’s IAM Strategy 300. This is, I believe, a testimony to the particular focus of Watermark, in recent years, on the management of IP as a strategic business asset of vital importance to many companies. As the introduction to the 2013 edition of IAM Strategy 300 states:
…the roles that IP strategists of whatever sort have to play are becoming ever more demanding. From creation, protection and management through valuation and monetisation to financing – with a whole lot more in between – the demand for top-flight advice on IP strategy has never been greater.
Now, I am not sure exactly what I have done to deserve being listed among such exalted company. What is most gratifying about making this list, however, is that the research process involved feedback from clients, and other people familiar with the strategists’ work. So, whether or not I am really worthy of inclusion in a list of the top 300 IP strategists in the entire world, it is clear that I am doing something right for those who know my work to have nominated and/or endorsed me! Thank you all, whoever you are.
One thing I do know is that IP advisors have the opportunity to play a more important role than ever before in assisting knowledge-intensive businesses to succeed. This makes the job more challenging, but also more interesting and diverse. Gone are the days when the primary task of the patent attorney was to turn ideas into patents. Nowadays I find myself, as often as not, advising clients on why obtaining patents may not be the optimum strategy for their business, or assisting clients with no patents of their own to develop strategies for negotiating effectively with aggressive licensors.
I believe it is now essential to be widely-read, and to keep up with the latest developments, not only in the law, but also in business strategy, innovation, commercialisation, monetisation, policy, and the latest thinking on the role and evolution of IP in the global economy. This blog helps me to do that, and I am grateful to all of the readers who keep coming back, and especially to those who engage via the comments and other channels, for making it all worthwhile. And since I cannot actually keep up with all of the areas listed above, I am also grateful to a number of my colleagues for being fonts of knowledge on so many different topics.
Anyway, it is time to draw this self-congratulation to a close, before it turns into the blogging equivalent of an interminable awards-night speech! To conclude, the following is the media release issued by the IP Media Group Ltd, announcing publication of the IAM Strategy 300.
IP’s strategic elite named by industry-leading publication
London (03/06/2013) – The world’s leading IP strategists are named today in a unique guide published by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM). IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists identifies individuals whose key skill set is working with IP owners to help them to maximise the value of their patents, copyrights, trademarks and other rights.
As events over recent years have shown, intellectual property is now regarded as a mainstream business asset. Companies are increasingly judged on their ability to create value from their rights portfolios - whether that be through monetisation in the form of sale or licensing, facilitating collaborative agreements and open innovation, honing the R&D process or using the exclusionary powers of intellectual property to build a position in competitive markets. It is therefore vital that senior corporate managers and C-suite executives focus on using intellectual property to create additional revenues, increase profits and build shareholder returns, thus enhancing overall business value. There are many ways in which this can be done – but all require detailed preparation and expert third-party advice. This is where world-class IP strategists come in.
Over the course of five months, IAM researchers in the United States, Europe and Asia spoke to a wide range of senior corporate IP managers, as well as third-party IP service providers, in order to identify those considered to be at the top of the IP strategy tree: men and women whose business is the creation, development and deployment of strategies that enable IP owners to gain maximum value from their portfolios. Only those individuals considered and nominated by their peers to be outstanding IP strategists are listed in the IAM Strategy 300.
The individuals featured in the guide have a wide range of professional backgrounds and reflect the fact that the days when intellectual property was seen as just a legal issue are long gone. The 2013 edition includes specialists in areas such as brokering, defensive patent aggregation, finance, insurance, management consultancy, the law, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, tax and valuation. They are based in centres across the world. A number have been involved in IP-related transactions valued in the hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars; while others have advised clients on monetisation strategies that have reaped eight, nine and 10-figure sums.
“You do not get named in the IAM Strategy 300 by accident,” says IAM’s editor, Joff Wild. “Everyone identified in this year’s edition has an established track record in providing top-quality advice to IP owners - advice that has helped to deliver significant value to the businesses concerned, as well as to those who invest in them. They are an essential part of wealth creation in the 21st century economy, yet in many ways they are hidden away from public view, when in fact their achievements deserve to be celebrated. We hope that the IAM Strategy 300 will help them to gain at least some of the recognition they deserve.”
The IAM Strategy 300 is available in printed format and online at www.iam-magazine.com/strategy300.
Notes:
Intellectual Asset Management (www.iam-magazine.com) is produced in London by the IP Media Group Ltd and reports on intellectual property as a business asset. Its primary focus is on how intellectual property can be best managed and exploited to create corporate value. The publication’s core readership comprises senior executives in IP-owning companies, corporate counsel, private practice lawyers and attorneys, licensing and technology transfer managers, and investors and analysts.
Further information from: Harriet Marchant, the IP Media Group, London - hmarchant@theipmediagroup.com
Tags: Patentology admin, Personal, Strategy
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