The Relief From Royalty Method (Part I of V) This is the first article of a five-part series that focuses on what valuation analysts and owner/operators need to know about one category of intangible property: intellectual property. There are generally accepted cost approach, market approach, and income approach methods that may be used to value intellectual property. This discussion focuses on the applicati ...

Considerations for Fair Market Value Healthcare enterprises are increasingly relying on intangible assets to enhance their ability to provide timely, quality professional medical services to patients. Trade secrets are one such class of intangible asset that may be owned by a healthcare enterprise. A trade secret is any information that has economic value and is not generally known by the public. Technical ...

Copyright Protection and the “First-Sale” Exception In 1997 Supap Kirtsaeng, a citizen of Thailand, moved to the United States to study mathematics at Cornell University. He paid for his education with the help of a Thai Government scholarship which required him to teach in Thailand for ten years on his return. Kirtsaeng successfully completed his undergraduate courses at Cornell, successfully completed a P ...

Part II: Nine Additional Reasons a Valuation Is Needed in Chapter 11 This second part of the article focuses on the remaining nine reasons a valuation of IP is necessary in a Chapter 11. ...

Part I: Three of the 12 Reasons a Valuation Is Needed in Chapter 7, 9, and 11 This two-part article summarizes the various types of intellectual property that valuation analysts (“analysts”) may encounter within a commercial bankruptcy controversy, lists the generally accepted intellectual property valuation approaches, and presents the reasons why analysts may be asked to value intellectual property within ...

Approaches and Methods Used to Realize Income from Licensing IP Assets This article discusses valuation topics related to a subset of intangible assets which are most applicable to healthcare businesses. Business valuation professionals are often engaged to value specific intangible assets, either as part of a detailed business valuation or after a transaction has been completed. When valuing healthcare-ori ...

Equity creditor appointment standards and lessons for hiring business valuation professionals from Kodak’s bankruptcy This article provides an overview of the Eastman Kodak bankruptcy case and focuses on the standard a bankruptcy court will use deciding whether to appoint an official equity creditors' committee. It also explains why the bankruptcy court granted Kodak’s motion in limine to exclude‒under Daub ...

Royalty Rates in the Life Sciences are Under Increased Scrutiny. But Has That Caused Rates to Decline? Several medical manufacturers were accused of violating federal kickback statutes. Federal enforcement prompted many companies in the industry to review and revise the terms under which they collaborate with and pay healthcare professionals for contributions of time, know-how, and intellectual property. Ed ...

Innovation Decreased by 40% at Technology Companies After They Went Public, Finds Stanford Graduate School of Business Study Leslie Kwoh at the Wall Street Journal reports that while many tech entrepreneurs dream of taking their companies public, they may want to think twice.  While public offerings raise cash, new research suggests that IPOs can also result in stunted innovation at technology firms.   Here ...

WhitServe Alleges that Mac OS X Infringes on a Patent it Holds for "Sequentially Opening and Displaying Files in a Directory."  Steve Musil at c:net  reports that WhitServe, which owns intellectual property but doesn't make any real products, is suing Apple over allegations that versions of the Mac OS X operating system infringe on a file viewer patent it holds: The complaint, filed today in U.S. District C ...

The Wall Street Journal's Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property.  It's probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses.   Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with "intell ...

House lawmakers passed a bill today to overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time in nearly 60 years, Nathan Koppel notes on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog: The House passed the America Invents Act on a 407 to 117 vote, WSJ reports.  The bill would change how the U.S. grants patents and award them to the party which is “first to file” an invention instead of the “first to invent” it. The change wo ...

David Wanetick, Managing Director at IncreMental Advantage, LLC, a valuation firm with expertise in valuing intangible assets and emerging technologies, based in Princeton, NJ,  opines at The Business Insider: Valuing a patent is complex and imperfect. Below we’ll go into some detail surrounding the methods used to determine a patent’s value. Each is applied under different circumstances, and impacted by ma ...