|
Part
Two
By Harlington L. Hanna
Jr.
|
Where To Find Valuable
Properties
The Private markets
In the private arena the most ubiquitous source of
valuable I.Ps. can be found in the entertainment area,
music, books, and multimedia productions. Software is
also an important private source of I.Ps in Industry.
These I.Ps., obviously can be found from the
individual producers and developers. Fortunately there
are literally millions of creative individuals who have
developed potentially valuable I.Ps. and who need either
financing or knowledgeable partners in the order to
further exploit their creation.
In searching the private markets it is important to
look in the following places:
1. Trade shows
2. Trade magazines and journals
3. University laboratories
In finding potentially valuable properties you should
attempt to find and acquire properties from well known or
previously successful artists or authors. Not only will
the work be more publicly acceptable, and capable of
exploitation, but also usually the quality of the work
will be more predictable. Remember that previously
successful artists and authors are just like most of us.
They have written and produced many many more songs and
books than they can ever individually exploit. It is in
their interest therefore to collaborate with anyone who
they feel can legitimately help further their own
aspirations.
Certain types of entertainment properties tend to be
intrinsically more valuable than others. Songs and
certain types of books and software tend to be more
valuable in that they can be used independently in their
own right and can also be utilized in other productions
such as plays, movies and multimedia products. Even
within a certain category of product there are important
differences in their potential value. Types of songs for
example may be more valuable an asset than others. Songs
which have the ability to become classic winners and
which have the potential to be re-recorded by different
artists and over a longer period of time will obviously
bring in more music publishing income than a song that
does not have such potential. Many in the music business
for example view the modern trend in rap/hip hop songs as
having less potential for remakes and publishing type
income than a typical pop song. The marketplace also
dictates the general value of certain types of
productions. Movies for example have a very limited
source of performance outlets as compared to songs or
books making them somewhat more of a risky investment
particularly when you consider the costs of development
of the modern successful movie.
The rise in computerization of almost every business,
home, school and everyday activity has made regular and
multimedia software perhaps the most valuable category of
all entertainment properties. The pervasive and invasive
reach of computer software into to modern lifestyles
seems to be never ending. The entertainment entrepreneur
who does not pursue investments and involvement in this
area will surely miss the greatest boat or train of
financial success for the foreseeable future. This area
of production has now outpaced the music industry as far
as royalty revenues, and is fast becoming a production
leader as more and more talented young developers gain
the expertise to produce wonderful useful bits and pieces
of software.
Contracting and negotiating the acquisition of private
market I.Ps. is the other important step. It requires a
significant amount of legal expertise, and should be
undertaken only after careful consideration, by
experienced parties and preferably with competent and
professional legal assistance.
Value Found in the Public Market
Transaction
The Intellectual property acquirer should not forget
however that most of the more intrinsically valuable and
desirable intellectual might not be individually
negotiable. This is particularly so in the modern global
business environment where the value of intellectual
properties have become more prominent and the tendency to
use the intellectual property as a basis for the public
sale of securities has become more prevalent. The serious
acquirer of intellectual properties must now look to
acquiring much of her holdings in I.P.s through
accumulating the publicly traded stock in I.P. rich
companies. The easiest way to make a business out of
acquiring the rights in such properties is through
ownership in the common stock of the companies which own
or control these properties. This is of course a
different kind of endeavor than that of negotiating
individually with the holder of the copyright to a piece
of software, or to a song or a book, or to acquiring
rights in a patent directly from an inventor. This method
of acquiring some of the rights in valuable intellectual
properties is very effective however and has some
distinct advantages. The major advantage here is that you
have many other interests collaborating with you to
exploit the property and to provide it with the type of
widespread exposure that is so necessary to making the
kind of inroads necessary to be successful in the global
marketplace. In addition the kind of well established,
well managed effort typically represented by publicly
traded companies is also necessary to adequately deal
with the fierce competition from well financed and
managed competitors. Remember if you were properly
acclimated and wise enough to recognize the valuable of a
company like Microsoft when it first hit the publicly
traded markets, you could have bought in at very reduced
prices. If you did now just a few years later your
intellectual property investment would have
skyrocketed.
I.P. Value
Checklist
Part
One