Efrat's
Message
:
Greetings to all our colleagues, friends and clients!
We at Foresight are dedicated to thought leadership
in all forms: studies, webinars, classes, blogs, articles, podcasts and any other format in which we can provide useful and insightful information on topics related to our services. We have recently delivered in several speaking engagement that highlight the breadth of topics that are the subject of our client projects and data analysis; some examples include: an LES webinar on IP in IPO, a Silicon Valley startup talk on Financial Modeling for Startups, and speaking at the IP Watchdog conference on the fifth anniversary of the Alice decision
One educational initiative we have kicked off recently are advisory calls with entrepreneurs, where we promise to answer one question in 30 minutes related to their startup activities. The calls cover wide range of topics, such as: building a financial model, selecting a business model, developing an IP position, or valuing technology for funding. The Foresight Blog Highlights section this month presents a new blog series that showcases some of the more interesting questions we have discussed recently with startup founders. The first installment in this new series discusses the question: "How do I model my Unit Economics?"
and touches on key business metrics such as CAC, MRR, and Churn. This newsletter also includes another blog in our series of
Trade Secrets Damages Expert Blogs
,
where we cover the investment value of a company whose as a measure for calculating trade secrets of damages.
Finally, coming up
on June 24th, I will join the faculty of the
IP Watchdog Patent MastersTM Symposium
, taking place in Arlington, Virginia. The symposium brings together a group of experts to discuss the status of patent eligibility in the US five years after the Supreme Court's decision in Alice v. CLS Bank. We have a limited number of discounted tickets, so please contact us if you wish to attend the event.
Warmly,
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Foresight Blog Highlights
This is the second blog in a series on trade secrets, where we will focus on a number of cases that shed light on the methodologies involved in calculating trade secret damages. In this blog, we review the
Wellogix, Inc. v. Accenture, L.L.P. case where the investment value of the company whose trade secrets were misappropriated was utilized in the calculation of damages for the misappropriation of its trade secrets.
In our latest blog series, the Foresight Startup Q&A Blog, we are sharing some of the most popular questions we receive from our startup clients. Topics include Early Stage Startup Valuation, Financial Modeling, IP Strategy and more. Each week our team spends time answering our clients' most pressing questions, and this blog series aims to share our thoughts and answers to those questions with our broader startup community. The first installment answers the question "How do I model my Unit Economics?" and touches on key business metrics such as CAC, MRR, and Churn.
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IP News Digest
The SEC recently approved the creation of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, which aims to grant tech startups access to public capital without the quarterly pressures of the typical exchanges. Proponents of the new Silicon Valley-based platform claim that the exchange will give companies the ability to focus on development of products and services, rather than exchanging innovation for profitability. If successful, the new stock exchange could change the norm for tech companies seeking to go public.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued the majority opinion that will allow iPhone users to continue with an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit deals with. The iPhone App Store, and claims that the 30% commission charged by Apple to app developers has been unfairly passed down to consumers. In a response to the decision, Apple wrote, "We're confident we will prevail when the facts are presented and that the App Store is not a monopoly by any metric.. Developers set the price they want to charge for their app and Apple has no role in that. The vast majority of apps on the App Store are free and Apple gets nothing from them." The results of this case could ultimately impact many large players that operate online marketplaces such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google.
The Copyrights Act gives authors the ability to terminate copyright grants after 35 years, and as such, hundreds of artists from the early 1980s are eligible to take advantage. In a class action lawsuit, artists claim that Universal Music Group has "routinely and systematically refused to honor" issued termination notices. Now UMG has submitted a motion to dismiss on several contentions, including the fact that some recording artists do business through loan-out corporations, raising the question of which party actually has the right to terminate the grants. Implications of the ultimate decision could be massive, as time passes and artists from the late '80s, 90s and beyond begin to seek grant termination.
Full Story Here
Over the years, Amazon has tried many tactics in combatting counterfeit products and knock-off goods. These include charging merchants large fees, creating a registry of approved vendors and launching a self-service tool for removing knockoffs. The company's most recent tactic is particularly interesting, however. Amazon is testing a new service to help sellers tackle infringement while avoiding costly lawsuits. For a $4,000 deposit (from which Amazon does not take a cut), sellers can be matched with a neutral, 3rd party lawyer who will determine whether or not a merchant is infringing on the company's utility patent. The merchant can refute the claim by submitting a $4,000 deposit of its own. The "winner's" deposit will be refunded.
A 1997 Supreme Court case, Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., resolved the issue of whether or not color alone was subject to trademark protection. The court ruled that it could find no reason in the basic objectives of trademark law for any obvious objection to the use of color alone as a trademark, allowing the company to trademark the green-gold color of its dry-cleaning press pads. Defendants argued that if each competitor appropriated a particular color as a trademark, the supply of colors would be depleted, resulting in a significant disadvantage for new competitors. The courts ultimately found this argument unpersuasive, but did give examples of when functionality would prevent the use of color as a trademark in cases involving medical pills, boat engines, and fertilizer.
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Upcoming Events
When: June 24-25, 2019
Where: 1201 Wlison Boulevard,
30th Floor,
Arlington, VA
Foresight President, Efrat Kasznik, will join the faculty of this two-day symposium, focused on the status of patent eligibility in the US five years after the Supreme Court's decision in Alice v. CLS Bank. Efrat will be addressing the value of software patents post-Alice, including topics such as: the impact on real-world patent valuations, monetization strategies for software patent holders, and IP strategies for technology startups.
When: September 25, 2019
Where: TBD
Foresight president, Efrat Kasznik, will join
a panel of experts includes a diversified group of participants in the Blockchain ecosystem: corporate executives, legal experts, VC investors and startups. The panel will address some of the key topics associated with the successful deployment of Blockchain technologies in the enterprise.
When: October 20-23, 2019
Where: Phoenix, AZ
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