Five-Minute Update (on Licensing)

Join the “Five-Minute Update” in a discussion of the supply chain crisis in the auto industry. On today’s episode are John Carney, Eric Gottschling, Amir Ghavi, Chitra Kalyamaranan and David Powsner.

Join the “5-Minute Update” in a discussion of LES AM 2022, an annual meeting in the making. On today's episode are Efrat Kasznik and David Powsner.

Join the “5-Minute Update” in a discussion of LES AM 2022, an annual meeting in the making. On today's episode are Efrat Kasznik and David Powsner. You can read about them and the sponsor of this podcast, the Licensing Executive Society of USA/Canada, at the links below.

Some things take a lot of time and effort. When you finally get ‘em, you gotta flaunt ‘em. It’s only natural.

Running for president, for example. And, we don’t mean student counsel. We’re talking the big kahuna. President o’ the United States. America, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. (Oops. Got a little off track, there. The “Beverly Hillbillies” theme is a tenacious ear worm).

So imagine you’ve put aside the family business. Worth billions. With a “B”. It’s out of your control: the kids are running it now. Kind of like a blind trust, except that the kids work for you. You know how it is. Emoluments. Conflicts of interest. Blue state things.

You’ve even given up philandering, not that you won’t talk about it, time and again.

TV career? Been there, done that. It went well with the philandering. And, who’s to say you can’t get back to it. Sununu, Huckabee, and Santorum, certainly had a run at it after politics, to name just a few. Why, even the Dems can look pretty good on TV after a few years in the ring with Ronnie’s party. You just have to turn the volume down and imagine they’re telling birther jokes.

Oh yeah, so you ran and you won. President, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. (Oops. Sorry). Time for a speech. Could keep it low-key, conciliatory. Mend the country. Or …. you could flaunt the win. The base would love you. Might even draw a sideways glance from Barack or Hilary. Bill? Probably not: his eyes are elsewhere.

Being awarded a patent by the good ole’ United States Patent & Trademark Office is like winning the presidency. (Nice segue, huh? Smooth). Either way, you gotta’ flaunt it. Or, at least some feel that way. Take the dispute in Myco Industries v Blephex, a recent case out of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The defendant, a patent owner, apparently couldn’t help flaunt his to a competitor (and, possibly a customer or two) at a trade show. A lawsuit ensued and, next thing you know, there’s an injunction, an appeal and, voila, an episode of "Undercover IP." Join us and learn what some of the bounds are when it comes to openly accusing a competitor of patent infringement.

Entrepreneurs — especially, those in the tech space — talk about the MVP, an acronym for “minimal viable product.” It’s an evil-sounding concept, when you first learn of it. For those of a certain age, it’s reminiscent of an era when we learned that companies were designing products for “built in obsolescence.” (Let’s go with BIO, though, nobody called it that, back then).

In fact, in that mani-faceted universe that is business, you could think of MVP and BIO as different sides of the same coin. Where as the MVP is the barest product configuration that allows the entrepreneur to test if there is a market, the BIO is the configuration engineered to last just long enough, once it’s in the hands of the consumer. By way of analogy (or is it metaphor?), if you view the marketplace as a “conversation,” of sorts, between sellers and buyers, the MVP is like the small talk that proceeds the real discussion. BIO, on the other hand, is like setting up your phone to ring 10 minutes into that discussion so that you’ll have an excuse to break it off.

So what does all of this have to do with this episode of Undercover IP? Not much. Well, ok, a little…. We’re (that’s the royal We, by the way) just testing some features. Have a listen and get us your feedback. (Oops… no feedback button? Our bad).

Welcome the the inaugural episode of Undercover IP.

Did I say inaugural? I meant test. Oh well. Stay tuned. This is going to be a fun series.