Microvision: Protect Your Intellectual Property Part 2

Recently, IEEE Spectrum has refreshed its annual assessment of IP portfolios in different technology sectors for the year 2007… including Electronics where Microvision is cited.

Here’s the link to IEEE Spectrum Patents Scorecard…

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/static/patentsurvey2008

[Make sure to click on “Electronics" category to get the data and read the bottom foot notes for explanation of the terms used]

In this evaluation, the Adjusted Pipeline Impact (API) score indicates how frequently a company’s patents from the previous five years were cited by other patents... after adjusting for self-citation. Microvision scored 2nd in API [at 1.71] out of the Top 20 electronics companies… in the year 2007.

What does that really mean in terms of value of these patent citations by other patents to the overall market valuation of Microvision?

Let’s check with the experts in the business…

Scholars have learned that a powerful proxy for innovative expertise is how frequently a company’s existing patents are cited in patent applications. Indeed, one-quarter of all patents receive no citations, and a mere 0.01% earn more than 100 citations, according to Bronwyn Hall, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1593752

In a study by four economists covering seven industries that generate a large number of patents, researchers found that a patent mentioned 14 times by other patents is worth, on average, 100 times as much as a patent cited only 8 times. Another estimated that “companies with widely cited patents and a track record of turning them into products outperformed the market by 1,000% over a 10-year period.”

Let me re-state…

“…companies with widely cited patents and a track record of turning them into products outperformed the market by 1,000% over a 10-year period”.

In addition to this peek through the window to Microvision future …

There is a wealth of information there [ in the IEEE Spectrum Patents Scorecard] and a further in-depth study [and some research] by an experienced professional will quickly reveal where the future infringers, challengers, claimers and “patent trolls’ of Microvision IP portfolio are at work.

Anant Goel
http://www.wealthbyoptions.com/