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Below is our recent interview with Roya Ghafele, Executive Director at OxFirst:
Q: Why would I engage OxFirst?
A: Quite simply; because OxFirst helps you turn intellectual property into a business opportunity. Our award winning advisory firm assures that firms, governments, international and supra- national government institutions leverage intellectual property for growth. We do that by offering high quality economic analysis on intellectual property. This enables IP commercialization and IP driven business strategy. Key to our work is sound economic analysis. This helps shed light on otherwise untapped business opportunities. A mere legal perspective on IP is not enough to unleash the untapped wealth of intangible assets.
Q: But, I thought intellectual property is just about the law? Why do you use an economic approach to commercial law?
A: OxFirst’s aim is to systematically establish the commercial element in commercial law. The global market for patent filing is growing consistently at 10%, but evidence shows that only a fairly small fraction of that IP can be linked to commercial activity!
This IP commercialization gap can to a large extent be explained by the fact that there are not enough economists in this area who can bridge the gap between IP law and economics. This gap means that many firms do not even know the value of their IP assets, let alone how to manage their IP assets for wealth generation. By consequence, much IP sits gathering the dust and IP departments are often perceived as a mere cost center.
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Q: So, why value your intellectual property?
A: The valuation of intellectual property is a core element of turning an intellectual property right into an intellectual property asset. Without an adequate valuation of the intellectual property, it is really difficult, if not impossible, to manage IP as a commercial asset.
· Can you manage what you cannot measure?
· Can you trade if you don’t know what the worth of your assets?
· How can you adequately communicate the value of all your firm’s assets, be they tangible or intangible to investors, if you have not valued them?
The valuation of intellectual property allows a firm to identify the commercial worth of its IP assets, it also helps understand where there are gaps in the portfolio and what steps can be undertaken to commercialize IP. Such commercial steps should not be misunderstood with launching action in case of infringement. In fact, I think that the future of IP lies in taking it out of the Court room and into the Board room. IP based financial transactions need to occur in a free and open market environment and not be determined by Courts. The adequate valuation of IP is a crucial step to achieve this.
Q: Can you give us some examples where OxFirst has succeeded in helping firms win business?
A: Sure!
OxFirst acted for example as an IP valuation expert in a commercial transaction between a high tech firm and a private equity company. The high tech firm owned some fairly interesting intellectual property, but those had to be first identified. The valuation of the IP was crucial to identify interested trading partners, helped with price formation and was crucial to the commercial transaction.
At another occasion we helped a high tech firm value its IP, so to help investors come to grips with the economic value of its IP. Ultimately, this helped the high-tech firm raise its profile and contributed to letting it do further research in a hot new area of technology by assuring adequate revenue streams for its R&D. These funds were made available because of the perceived commercial value of the IP generated.
As for Governments, our IP valuation led the Republic of Austria to formulating its First National IP Strategy since its first written mention over a thousand years ago! This work is driven by an eagerness to help the country leverages it’s IP as an economic opportunity rather than a negative right.
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Q: But can IP even be valued?
A: Absolutely, yes!
In fact, within the European Union, there is a convergence of opinions among National Patent Offices, Standard Setting Organizations, the European Commission and the European Patent Office that IP can be valued with reference to three paradigmatic valuation approaches.
Now, certainly, within these three methods one can find many sub-methods and nuances and as experienced IP valuation professionals the OxFirst team will make a detailed analysis first before engaging in an IP valuation.
But, if you want to find out more about IP valuation and IP business for yourself, we also offer accredited training courses on IP wealth generation through the OxFirst Academy.
Everybody, welcomed to join!
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