My first real job was working at a delicatessen in suburban
Pennsylvania when I was 13 years old. Through this introduction
into the real world of business, I learned that the way the
business earned money was by investing in inventory, premises,
equipment and salaries. Through hard work and patience, these
investments could allow the store owner to sell items and to
profit.
Years later, I found myself in the intellectual property (IP)
field. As opposed to the tangible investments required in the
delicatessen, I have spent the last 20 years helping companies
obtain intangible assets such as utility patents and
trademarks. My clients spend part of their budgets obtaining
intangible assets with the hopes that these assets will help them
profit. If a company enforces their IP against an infringer in
court, it is relatively simple to calculate whether the investment
in IP paid off, but many IP owners never need to enforce their IP.
On an individual basis, it is sometimes
