I define an i-preneur as someone who can extract value from intellectual assets. An i-preneur has clear goals and procedures to generate income from their knowledge-based assets. Understanding how intellectual assets generate wealth is the biggest challenge today’s entrepreneurs face. It is also among the biggest opportunities for wealth creation. I’ve seen many i-preneurs in [...]
Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ category
How to think like an i-preneur
May 6, 2009The Patent Piler
April 25, 2009I met Allan Tokuda when I was a Teaching and Research Fellow at Northwestern University. I was helping teach a course on Innovation and Invention in the engineering program. Allan was one of the brighter and more inquisitive students. I knew he had some remarkable qualities when, before class one day, he took out a [...]
Liquidators Buy Bankrupt Brands For $175 Million
April 16, 2009The New York Times has a great story on entrepreneurial companies that have purchased bankrupt company brands. Among them: Sharper Image, Linens ’n Things and Bombay.The price for these three trademark rights is estimated at $175 million.
Use I.P. To Increase Your Company’s Value
April 12, 2009In the knowledge economy, two-thirds of a company’s balance sheet assets are comprised of intangible assets. The true value of companies no longer resides in factories or real estate. It resides in the minds of talented employees and in the intellectual property these employees generate, properties like trademarks, trade secrets, designs, know-how, copyrights and patents. [...]
Finding The Hidden Customer
March 16, 2009Invention is defined as “discovery, finding” by The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary. National Public Radio (NPR’s) On the Media reports this story about an inventive print newspaper: Print newspapers are either dying, or dead. That is the common wisdom. Yet, El Diario, the largest Spanish speaking newspaper, is thriving .The reason why is because it has targeted [...]
Seeking Female Inventor – Apply Within
March 13, 2009Bed Bath & Beyond has partnered up with EdisonNation to sponsor a competition that will reward the next great home product, invented by a woman. The competition commemorates the 200 year anniversary of the first patent granted to a female inventor, Mary Kies for a weaving process in 1809. Throughout the years, women have patented [...]
News Brief: Lingerie Entrepreneur gets to Bottom of I.P. Controversy
March 8, 2009Pop culture critic and journalist C.E. Hanifin recently pointed out a fascinating intellectual property controversy at Target Addict. That blog comments on a news story run by The Virginian-Pilot, involving I.P. and lingerie. April Spring, of Norfolk Virginia, obtained a design patent in December, 2008 for a design of women’s briefs marketed under her Foxers [...]
