Value Shift from Hard Assets to Intellectual Property

In the 1970's, approximately 80 percent of a company's value was in tangible assets, such as buildings, real estate, equipment, cash, and inventory. Today, a company's tangible assets typically accounts for only about 20 percent of a company's book value. During the same time period, the total number of patent applications filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office has grown by nearly 500%, from 107,456 in 1975 to 520,277 in 2010.

Economist and business people have tried to quantify what intangible assets were accounting for the 80 percent of the company's value. They coined the term "intellectual capital" to describe what comprised the other 80% of a company's value. Intellectual capital includes the patents, trademarks, trade secrets, intellectual knowledge, know how, and systems in a corporation, as well as, business plans and other much less tangible things than property, cash, etc.

Developing Valuable Patents

Rande's passion is to help individuals and companies realize value from their intellectual capital. His expertise is in identifying the valuable aspects of inventions and writing patents that protect those ideas in a way that allows the owner to derive as much value as possible from those inventions.

Many good patent attorneys can help someone write a solid patent.  However, how many help a client determine whether one should draft a patent covering this technology?  Or, how many help a client determine what part of the new invention is the idea/invention is worth pursuing, and can potentially be the most valuable area?

Let Rande help you to develop your concept into a valuable portfolio that can be protected, and then licensed or sold.