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Smile and say…sell! After filing for Chapter 11 protection almost a year ago, this Friday the bankruptcy court is expected to approve Kodak’s proposed agreement to sell its digital-photography patents for about $525 million. The buyers, a consortium led by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corp., are seemingly getting a bargain…

What? No Twinkies, no Ho Ho’s, no Ding Dong’s? No Sno Balls to make bikini cakes? Is the world ending in 2012? Hold on, it’s not quite the end of the world yet. Even though Hostess was unable to mediate an acceptable contract with the unions, Hostess can convert to…

During the recent and ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung, Apple had claimed that Samsung infringed on their patent which covered rectangular devices with rounded corners. One would think how can you patent a shape? Well, Apple was actually granted their patent earlier this month. The USPTO issued the…

Every IP professional should keep a reliable reference library. IP expert Weston Anson has published three key IP valuation books to get your library started. IP Valuation and Management In a time of great economic, social and political change in the world, intellectual property is more important than ever. Given…

As defined, Rights of Publicity (ROP) is “the inherent right of every human being to control the commercial use of his or her identity.”[1] However, unlike patent, trademark, and copyright law, rights of publicity are governed by a patchwork of state statutes and common-law decisions, rather than by a single…

The NFL is a business that produces a product. Like any other business, no matter how loyal the consumers, once the quality of the product declines, so does the loyalty of the consumer and the value of the business. The NFL’s players, coaches and other celebrities derive substantial incomes from…

In coordination with the Global Technology Impact Forum held in Geneva, Switzerland, CONSOR Chairman Weston Anson and Brian Buss wrote about their take on simplified global IP valuation standards, a key topic for the forum. View / Download Article

How do you ensure whether an existing agreement between a licensor and a key licensee is a license agreement or a franchise agreement? There are subtle but real differences in how one determines what is a license or a franchise. Let’s take a look at some general franchising background first.…

Corporate licensing programs date back to the turn of the century. But was an underutilized corporate strategy until the late 1970s. Prior to that time period, corporate licensing was relatively obscure, primarily used in overseas markets and in technical transfer situations. The concept blossomed in the late 1970s because of…

In conjunction with the annual Licensing Show held in Las Vegas, the Licensing Book publishes their summer issue to inform attendees of current licensing trends. CONSOR’s Weston Anson and Lacy J. Lodes, Esq., contributed the State of the Industry article entitled 2012: Virality Builds Brands – Change Accelerates as Apps,…