“These are people who are out there snatching up intellectual property (IP) with no related interest, strictly from the standpoint of owning IP as an investment,” Walters told Reuters, adding that the lack of a trademark has hampered business. Walters said a food company in Guangzhou demanded 1 million yuan ($158,700) in return for the OSPOP trademark.

Even big companies like Apple and Facebook face trademark issues in China, the first with its iPad dispute with Proview Technology (see IPBlog) and the second with registering its trademark name in the country to launch the site there.

China ranks near the top of the world in trademark registrations. That figure rose more than 40 percent to 1.2 million in 2010 after doubling to 838,000 in 2009. The country works on a first-to-ile system, rather than a first-to-use system, which will change on September 16,2012.

Fairweather acquired the Target Apparel name in 2001 from a failing retailer but didn’t use it right away. Six months later, Target Corporation reportedly filed a challenge with the Canadian Registrar of Trademarks, arguing that the trademark should be invalidated due to its nonuse. “The Registrar’s office sided with Target, but the Federal Court of Canada overturned the decision because Fairweather by then had begun making clothing under the Target Apparel label. That decision was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal in 2007 but only covers the right to the name on apparel, not on stores themselves,” tcbmag.blogs.com recently reported

1. Management income projections are not available;

2. Historical financial information exists regarding the use of the trade secret, but the historical information does not;

3. Both historical revenues and expenses related to the trade secret seem to fluctuate within a range.

4. Expected long-term growth rates are better estimated by a range than by a single point estimate.

Dal Santo’s solution?  Monte Carlo analysis.  Unfortunately, many valuation analysts find the Monte Carlo methodology confusing, and therefore this excellent tool is not being used in instances that clearly call for it.  David Dufendach and Jason Andrews of Grant Thornton are combining with BVR to present a roll-up-your-shirt sleeves workshop on March 8 to take the mystery out of Monte Carlo statistical analysis. Mark your calendar and tell your colleagues.

AIA’s new “supplemental examination“ procedure was designed to cut down on litigation against pharmaceutical and technology companies by allowing patent owners to go back to the USPTO after a patent is issued “and voluntarily submit additional information to be considered as to whether it impacts patentability,” notes www.forbes.com.

But doing so would require “a patent owner to mount an assault in detail on the validity of his own patent,” Forbes noted, and the very act “of making these kinds of statements could . . .become a source of future litigation as accused infringers look for any misstatements.

IPBlog notes that the proposed regulations are now open to public comment and encourages all pharmaceutical and technology CIPOs to comment to prevent costly and time-intensive litigation from skyrocketing.

“Licensing presents an opportunity to leverage one of our most valuable assets – the global power of the Crocs brand – by associating it with best-in-class products that go beyond footwear,” Mike DeBell, Crocs VP of Global Sales, said in a press release. “More than 200 million pairs of Crocs shoes have been sold, in more than 90 countries around the world. That’s powerful testimony to the connection forged with consumers by the Crocs brand. Through strong international and regional licensing partners, we plan to extend the power of our brand and make new consumer connections.”

In addition to the company’s recently released golf shoes marketed in conjunction with Hank Haney, look for Croc-branded hats, sunglasses, bags, backpacks, socks, gloves, and children’s apparel, among others.

www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/2/10/Croc-Licenses-Brand-021012.aspx

“Licensing is a hot trend in the tech sector right now, but if these numbers turn out to be true, then maybe Alcatel should stop everything else and do only licensing, “Thomas Langer of WestLB Equity Markets in Dusseldorf, Germany told www.businessweek.com.

Alcatel does not plan to sell its patent portfolio, which includes voice-recognition and videoconferencing technology, Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen told Business Week.. “By syndicating the patent portfolio, we found a creative way to extract value without weakening ownership.”

“Like other leading high-tech firms, Microsoft regularly contributes to the development of industry standards. Industry standards are vitally important to the development of the Internet and to interoperability among mobile devices and other computers,” its web page said. ”The international standards system works well because firms that contribute to standards promise to make their essential patents available to others on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. Consumers and the entire industry will suffer if, in disregard of this promise, firms seek to block others from shipping products on the basis of such standard essential patents.”

Microsoft’s approach is straight-forward, the web announcement continued:

1. Microsoft will always adhere to the promises it has made to standards organizations to make its standard essential patents available on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms.
2. This means that Microsoft will not seek an injunction or exclusion order against any firm on the basis of those essential patents.
3. This also means that Microsoft will make those essential patents available for license to other firms without requiring that those firms license their patents back to Microsoft, except for any patents they have that are essential to the same industry standard.
4. Microsoft will not transfer those standard essential patents to any other firm unless that firm agrees to adhere to the points outlined above.

Many criticize the patent system for as it stands because it hinders innovation. Since change is slow in coming, “big firms like Microsoft and others are doing what seems necessary to make patents work for what they are worth,” www.winbeta.org reports.

Shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, it conducted comprehensive review of its laws and regulations governing foreign trade and economic relations, and canceled stipulations of forced technology transfer, Chen added.

“Technology transfer and technological cooperation shall be decided by businesses independently and will not be used by the Chinese government as precondition for market access,” he said.

It may take over two years to get a patent approved by the USPTO, so if you haven’t checked your patent application since you filed, now may be the time. “The problem is that while your applications have been sitting in the Patent Office queue, your technology has continued to evolve, notes attorney Steve Hansen. “You may have made improvements or refinements to the technology.  However, it is important to check pending applications and see how well they cover the technology now.” 

Patent holders want patents to keep competitors from copying their particular products. If a design, or formula has been modified, claims you are pursuing may no longer protect your commercial products.

By establishing a qualitative framework similar to that used in assessing goodwill impairment, the proposed ASU should permit financial statement preparers to follow “a similar analytical and documentation process,” Pursel adds. “However, any time the unit of valuation is reduced (in this case from business unit to individual intangible asset), the likelihood of impairment exists.” Pursel provides this example:

Take a reporting unit with goodwill and two identifiable intangible assets, Brand A and Brand B, on its balance sheet. The success of the reporting unit’s Brand A product can offset problems faced by its Brand B product. As a result, although a qualitative assessment may indicate that the reporting unit’s goodwill does not require a quantitative impairment test, the same conclusion would not likely be true for Brand B.

Get a complete update on the AICPA IPR&D aid: On Thursday, February 9, join David Dufendach (Grant Thornton) for The State of IPR&D: Examining the AICPA Exposure Draft. Dufendach, a member of the task force that developed the proposed AICPA practice aid, Assets Acquired to Be Used in Research and Development Activities, will discuss its contents, current feedback, and how practitioners can participate in finalizing the guidelines.