Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents [Hardcover]

Kevin G. Rivette (Author), David Kline (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1999

From "Forbes" and "Fortune" to the "Wall Street Journal" and "Harvard Business Review", the pundits are calling it the next corporate strategy challenge: how to use patents and other intellectual property not just as legal tools but as weapons of business competition. With "Rembrandts in the Attic", authors Kevin Rivette and David Kline provide the first practical and strategic guide that shows CEOs and other managers how to unlock the enormous financial and competitive power hidden in their patent portfolios. Writing engagingly and citing numerous case studies, the authors warn that firms can no longer ignore the growing power of patents in business competition. The competitive battles once fought for control of markets and raw materials are today increasingly being waged over the exclusive rights to new ideas and innovations. Where once executives may have feared that their competitors might out-market or out-produce them, they must now be concerned that rivals - especially in the booming e-commerce sectors of the Internet - may secure exclusive patent rights to the essential technologies or even to the fundamental business concepts that they need to be in business in the first place. "Rembrandts in the Attic" lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding the use of patents in business competition today, showing how some of the world's most successful firms - market leaders such as Intel and Microsoft, Lucent and Gillette, IBM, and Priceline.com - have used patents to capture and defend markets, outflank rivals, boost bottom-line revenues and shareholder return, and enhance the commercial success of their enterprises. "Rembrandts in the Attic" is a superb strategy guide that demonstrates the cross-functional value companies can gain by using patents and the gold mine of competitive intelligence that they contain. The book will enable readers to map out technology trends and convergences, uncover the strategies and capabilities of friends and foes alike, and strengthen the competitive efforts of every functional unit in the enterprise, from R&D and marketing to finance, human resources, and mergers and acquisitions. CEOs will learn how to use the authors' patent-enhanced 'Grow-Fix-Sell triage' to help them better allocate corporate resources and build a higher growth portfolio of businesses. R&D managers can employ the authors' 'IP-3' strategy to help build category-leading products, amplify the branding and marketing efforts devoted to them, and secure the key 'choke points' that sustain their product or service advantage. And business development executives will discover how to use patents as competitive intelligence tools to uncover the most attractive M&A opportunities, strengthen valuation and due diligence efforts, and configure asset sales and transfers to greatest advantage. If patents are the 'smart bombs' of tomorrow's business wars, then "Rembrandts in the Attic" is the definitive guide to deploying them for profit and competitive advantage.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you think patents are just about protecting inventions such as the film projector, you're missing the big picture. Now that ideas can be protected--for example, Priceline.com's business model--patents can be wielded to intimidate competitors, uncover their strategies, capture market segments, and, for many companies, generate millions in licensing revenues. Whether patented ideas will ultimately help or hinder innovation is still under debate (see Owning the Future). In Rembrandts in the Attic, however, authors Kevin Rivette and David Kline get down to business, offering practical advice for competing in today's intellectual property arena.

Their advice ranges from the simple to the sublime. First, they suggest, take stock of the patents you already own. Many companies are sitting on unused patents that could be worth millions. For example, IBM licensed its unused patents in 1990, and saw its royalties jump from $30 million a year to more than $1 billion in 1999, providing over one-ninth of its yearly pretax profits. And if you can't find buyers for your unused patents, then look for companies that are infringing upon them--companies that might owe you a piece of their profits. Rivette and Kline offer "patent mining" techniques to spot such potential infringers that can also reveal where your competitors are headed and help you get there before they do. Overall, Rembrandts in the Attic is a crafty and practical guide for companies that may have untapped riches in storage. --Demian McLean

Review

"Rembrandts serves as a simple but useful primer for the CEO who knows that it's time to make patenting a significant part of the company's strategy, but isn't quite sure how or where to begin. The book nicely outlines how executives can start implementing an intellectual property strategy, how to grow it and what pitfalls to avoid.... The book regales in recounting numerous ongoing intellectual property battles. As a result, Rembrandts mercifully turns the generally dull topic of patenting into a fairly exciting read." -- Electronic Business, January 2000

"Along with the proliferation of new patents, it seems, comes a proliferation of new patents books. The one with perhaps the best shot at the business best-seller list is Rembrandts in the Attic.... The authors, Kevin G. Rivette and David Kline, emphasize the strategic importance of intellectual property by giving example upon example in which patents (or their lack) have been crucial to the fortunes of such companies as Texas Instruments and Kodak." -- The New York Times, October 25, 1999

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875848990
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848990
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Law > Intellectual Property > Patent, Trademark & Copyright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good stories but low on real information, March 1, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents (Hardcover)

The book is interesting in that it is full of anecdotal stories about why patents are important. The book is written by a patent attorney and a war correspondent. Based on the quality of the text, I assume the war correspondent completed the final review of the text. For example, the book summaries patent cases and then cites to magazine articles instead of giving a legal citation to the relevant case. Some of the statements seem factually suspect such as those predicting the content of pending patent applications (which are private until issued in the United States today.) The book has many good quotes from quality sources. However, the citations for the quotes nearly always refer to magazine articles or other publicly available documents rather than statements made to the authors. Did the authors create any new insights or simply collect existing ideas into a neat pile? If you are looking for a book to convince yourself or others that patents are an important part of business, buy this book. If you are looking for solid advice about what to do after deciding patents are important, this book will not be much help.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read on a critical management issue, February 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents (Hardcover)

The authors did a great job researching and elucidating a critical management issue - IP strategy - that has been and can no longer be ignored. Even small businesses like mine can benefit from their clearly outlined strategy. And special kudos to the authors for writing a business book in a very engaging style without the usual corporate jargon.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Right on the Money! Patents as a Major Competitive Weapon., February 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents (Hardcover)

What a timely book! Rembrandts in the Attic is filled with advice for anyone concerned with intellectual property management. Rembrandts shows how to leverage your own intellectual property for competitive advantage, how get a handle on your competitors' activities by mining available resources, and how to "patent map" your own business development strategy. I highly recommend it as a "must have" in order to thrive in today's idea economy.