Here are five common factors that often determine the worth of an invention. (1) Importance of a Patent: For breakthrough patents, a.k.a. foundational patents, the patents are so innovative that they give the owner a complete monopoly over an entire industry and are extremely valuable, often worth billions of dollars. Although most patents never reach these heady heights they are nevertheless valuable in that they can force a competitor to start innovating to keep pace with new and improved technologies and products in the market. Incremental patents, which make only small advances over existing products, are usually the least valuable though this may not be always so. A question that is often asked in relation to endeavoring to put a price on a patent is 'How much would my competitors pay to use my protected product or process?' (2) The Market: Market size, the number of products that are likely to be made and the cost of each product also have a significant bearing on the value of a patent. What sort of sales can the patent be expected to support, and for how long? A good example of an article which has significant market presence is the ubiquitous Intel chip that is reported to have a value estimated in the billions of dollars. (3) The Patent Term: Patents have a maximum life of 20 years and, therefore, a 20-year potential monopoly. Patents that are just beginning their life and which have longer to run on the their potential monopoly position understandably will have more value. It is rare that a patent nearing the end of its term will cause a great threat to its competitors. It is almost certain that they will have devised technologies or products of their own by then that will not interfere with the patent owners monopoly position. In addition, one has to take into consideration the potential business life of a patent, i.e., the duration, which a patent is likely to be economically useful, if other subsequent patents are providing better alternatives to it. (4) Amount of Prior Art: The number of cited documents or patented products populating an area of innovation also has an effect on the value of a patent. Generally, if the particular product is one of many products of a similar type then the consumers' options de-value the patent of interest, yielding a relatively smaller premium than, for example, a stand alone patent with a captured customer base and no adjacent competition. (5) Patent Significance: Every patent has its own significance in a particular area and will usually form part of an overall IP strategy either to maximize its earning potential or to allow other patents to maximize theirs. Examples of such patents are those that are used to block other key players from gaining a foothold in a market. Yet other examples are those patents that are additional to an original patent and rely on the protected matter in the original patent to successfully operate. It is not uncommon for drug companies or telecom companies to take out further patents protecting a strong first generation of patents, thus securing a big chunk of a market and the ability to negotiate licenses and royalties from the protected, but much desired technology.

Performing patent-searches comprehensively with the ability to Search-Review-Refine-Iterate™ is a fundamental benefit of our IP Street tools for you, the IP counselors of the world. IP Street has developed a unified search that makes boolean search at the USPTO seem like a tool from the stone age.

"At the heart of any successful organization there is the recognition that only through the firm's talent will it acheive its objectives. With that in mind, the talent management organization's role is to align its strategy for acquiring, managing and developing talent to the business' strategic objectives. Business leaders want to assist with this goal. According to the Aberdeen Group, the top priority in 2011 for best-in-class companies is aligning their business and talent strategy." (Facteau and Hall, July 2011, talent management TM). Let the patent search tools at IPstreet.com help you identify key assets.

In order to develop IP Street, a team with diverse talent has been assembled. Our founders, Lewis Lee, Art Coffey, and Rick White represent the heart of IP Street. As a patent attorney, Lewis has seen a need for IP-intelligent tools to help people in their business endeavors; in fact, Lewis co-authored Managing Intellectual Property Rights to meet this need. After co-founding his law firm Lee & Hayes in Spokane with another entreneurial attorney, Dan Hayes, Lewis has interacted with a lot of inventors who specialize in information-systems technologies. He has also counseled executives, boards, and financial professionals on IP strategies and how to leverage IP for business purposes. His desire to help people understand the importance of IP assets within his IT-steeped environment sparked Lewis to an idea that has become IP Street. Simply stated, Lewis sought to create a company that utilizes cutting-edge analytics technologies to simplify the complexities of IP analytics and provide transparent, intuitive, and meaningful IP intelligence that business people can understand. To make this idea go, he surrounded himself with people who have been successful in the business world. Art had enjoyed a long and successful business career, serving in roles of CFO, Presiden, and CEO of a NYSE-traded company. Art's business experience brought a perspective of how business strategists and executives think. Rick, a trained corporate attorney, has also enjoyed success in the political arena, having served in the US Congress for the high-tech district of Washington State that encompasses Microsoft. Rick brought a public policy dimension to the formative years of IP Street, allowing us to better understand the societal needs for an innovation driven economy. Details of this team can be accessed at: The IP Street Team.

During development, IP Street was very fortunate and grateful to have early partners that signed on to use our tools, often in beta form. Through timely and constructive feedback, our partners were instrumental in helping us develop features that evolved from "interesting and cool" to "nice to have" to "got to have". Below is a sampling of some of the enterprise partners who understood our vision very early on. They became annual subscribers and were afforded the benefits of having direct access to our development team, enabling us to design more relevant tools and allowing them to enjoy influence in design priorities. They include: Alibaba, Amazon, Lee & Hayes, PAML, T-Mobile. Thank you to all of our enterprise partners.