Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2014

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off or at least delay competitors, and as a “rule of thumb” patents can add up to $1M to your startup valuation for investors or M&A exits (merger and acquisition).

Patents 100

Patents Software Review Software Technical Advisors 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2012

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. This patent holding company has charged infringement and demanded royalties from every app developer for the iPhone and Android, for a feature most agree has been in apps for many years.

Patents 93

Patents Software Technical Advisors Startup 93

socalTECH

MAY 22, 2015

Los Angeles-based 3D movie projection technology developer RealD has filed a patent infringement suit in Paris, saying that a 3D manufacturer and cinema operator are infringing upon a European patent. The company said the lawsuit was filed with the Paris First Instance Court, and covers European patent. READ MORE>>.

Patents 100

Patents Los Angeles Technology Angel 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 7, 2011

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The bad news is that patent trolls can squeeze the lifeblood out of innocent and unsuspecting entrepreneurs, as exemplified by the current mess around Lodsys patent No.

Patents 91

Patents Software Technical Advisors Innocal 91

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 17, 2010

Among other updates the firm added to its S-1 filing, the firm reported it now has eight patents granted--up from five--for its intellectual property, and an additional sixteen pending in the United States and other jurisdictions. Tags: demand media domain domainer content merger acquisition legitscript. READ MORE>>.

Demand 194

Demand Media Santa Monica Report 194

socalTECH

JULY 25, 2013

According to Evergreen, it acquired Backyard Sports in the recent Atari assets auction, including the registrations, copyrights, patents, game code and all other assets associated with the brand. backyard sports merger acquisition evergreen private equity content videogame atari' READ MORE>>.

Equity 138

Equity Patents Acquisition Content 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Disclosures relative to patents. Entrepreneurs should never disclose the details of a planned or current patent application to any outsiders, even with a CDA in place. Product details in the public domain can never be patented. Sharing trade secrets. Sharing trade secrets. Select a reasonable agreement duration.

Ideas 159

Ideas Tips Technical Review Patents 159

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2015

Irvine-based consumer electronics maker VIZIO has renewed two patent and technology licensing deals it has with Dolby and Rovi Corporation. In the Dobly deal, Dolby said that VIZIO has licensed its Dolby AC-4 standard for use in televisions for next generation broadcast systems and streaming Internet content. READ MORE>>.

Technology 100

Technology Patents Content Product 100

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2013

artist musician lawsuit copyright infringement patent licensing license content fullscreen studios maker publishing music' READ MORE>>.

Patents 124

Patents Content Los Angeles Networking 124

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Quibi, the short-lived, short-form-mobile-video startup run by Jeffrey Katzenberg, is transferring its mobile video technology to another company, Eko, after Eko filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Quibi. Quibi already sold all of its content library and distribution rights to Roku last year.

Mobile 113

Mobile Technology Patents Content 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 20, 2017

Los Angeles-based 3D movie projection technology developer RealD has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against two companies in Germany, Volfoni and CinemaNext , allegig the two are infringing on a number of its patents. RealD has previously sued Volfoni in the United States, back in 2014, over similar patent infringement claims.

Patents 124

Patents Los Angeles Sales Technology 124

socalTECH

MARCH 27, 2015

First, it''s very costly, and because there are lots of content and rights issues. However, we felt there was a need for live content. We thought we could bring something to the table, and provide some live content to Internet radio. FM radio has been around for decades, and hasn''t seen any significant changes in technology.

Yahoo 194

Yahoo Social Media Content Media 194

socalTECH

JULY 30, 2020

Los Angeles-based video sharing app Triller --which competes directly against the more popular TikTok , has sued TikTok over patent infringement. Triller--led by CEO Mike Lu--said tht TikTok is infringing on its patent stitching together multiple music videos with a single audio track. The patent infringement suit was filed in the U.S.

Patents 113

Patents Los Angeles Media Invest 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

The patents Overture held became known in small circles as Google’s ’361 problem as outlined here. Content: It should be intuitive to most that LA is well-suited to take on the world of content meets tech as we’ve seen with Maker Studios, Fullscreen, AwesomenessTV and Big Frame. acquired Overture for $1.63

Entrepreneur 378

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 378

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2012

We've also invented and patented a new technology called "MasterKey" that allows people to play our games natively on all relevant social and mobile platforms. The same is true for distribution of content: YouTube and NetFlix are now viable options for releasing original movies and TV Series. Don't bet on any one platform.

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Southern California Incubator High Tech 223

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2020

Apparently, Eko has accused Quibi of infringing on a patent. The legal move comes ahead of any formal patent infringement lawsuit from Interlude US Inc. Quibi is asking the court to declare that it has not infringed upon Eko's patent.

Patents 113

Patents Entertainment Media Los Angeles 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2010

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. Yet the software patent process is a mess. I say this with conviction even after I survived the process, and have a software patent pending. Patents granted that don’t meet the criteria.

Patents 50

Patents Software Technical Advisors IBM 50

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2011

An example is one we recently launched with Virgin Mobile and Katy Perry, where we allow people to volunteer to help youth homelessness, track that with our patent-pending cause tracking and rewards systems, and where those volunteers can get tickets to a concert. Ryan Scott: Originally, we started with consumer facing content.

Causecast 222

Causecast Startup Content Education 222

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

We've also had great advances in engaging the trust of the commercial community, with patented advances like automatic scoring of our algorithms, which predicts the quality of translations based on a one-through-five scale. That said, we made an entry into the commercial market in the digital content space.

Software Review 145

Software Review USC Content Tech Coast Angels 145

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2020

Your data room and its contents. Copies of intellectual property filings such as patents, copyrights and trademarks, all owned URL addresses, and even copies of source code, may be resident in the deal room, dependent upon the type of buyer.

Software Review 156

Software Review Startup Patents Email 156

socalTECH

JULY 18, 2012

The thing that is interesting, from our content partners and to brands and agencies, is all of the clips has metadata which is transact-able. We have our secret sauce in there, and we're figuring out if all of that is patent-able or not, and are jumping through the hoops to do all of that. Finally, what's the next step for you?

Social Network 246

Social Network Mobile Media Examples 246

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

RealD said the acquisition came as a result of "key legal victories" where RealD asserted its patents against MasterImage. RealD won a big patent lawsuit against MasterImage 3D in July of 2016. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. READ MORE>>.

Beverly Hills 100

Beverly Hills Patents Acquisition Technology 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2015

Disclosures relative to patents. Entrepreneurs should never disclose the details of a planned or current patent application to any outsiders, even with a CDA in place. Product details in the public domain can never be patented. Sharing trade secrets. Sharing trade secrets. Select a reasonable agreement duration.

Ideas 106

Ideas Technical Review Patents Entrepreneur 106

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2012

Some of the technical expertise resides here--we found some very brilliant acoustic engineers at UCLA who are doing a big chunk of the processing--and we in fact think we've done something sufficiently interesting that we have some patents in provisional state, and we hope to lock that down in the next year or two. READ MORE>>.

Startup 235

Startup Entertainment Los Angeles Ideas 235

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Disclosures relative to patents. Entrepreneurs should never disclose the details of a planned or current patent application to any outsiders, even with a CDA in place. Product details in the public domain can never be patented. Sharing trade secrets. Sharing trade secrets. Select a reasonable agreement duration.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Patents Ideas Sample 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For example, “We just patented a new battery technology that will cut your smartphone charge time and cost in half.” Call out your top competitors, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantage, including patents, trade secrets. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Highlight your advantages over three top competitors.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Tactical & Hands-on – As described in Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck , entrepreneurs have limited time to expend reading theoretical business books which do not provide actionable content. Don’t Overemphasize Patents. In contrast, Venture Deals focuses on pragmatic, tactical advice. Don’t Email Carpet Bomb VCs.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

In a world of digital video, whats the best way to distribute and monetize that streaming video content? San Diego-based uCast Global (www.ucastglobal.com), backed by Gary Winnick, is looking to tackle that entire area of content distribution, and is led by startup veteran Dr. Kanaan Jemili.

Content 113

Content Startup Mobile Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2020

Elon Musk and Tesla made their battery patents available to anyone, to clear the path for market infrastructure growth and compatibility, which of course benefits Tesla. Innovative marketing content is focused wholly on healthy living and earth-conscious eating, rather than the conventional food product offerings and price.

Marketing 170

Marketing Startup Examples Customer 170

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2011

We can all argue the shortcomings and non-defensibility of patents, but these are still your best competitive protection, sustainable for twenty years. What we are looking for here is a breakthrough in technology (patented), manufacturing process, or new revenue model, that results in an order-of-magnitude cost reduction.

Competition 102

Competition Patents Startup Social Network 102

socalTECH

APRIL 28, 2010

We've been steeped in mobile content development and publishing. Dave Waldman: While creating our email product, we'd done quite a bit of work on patenting the processes we were going through, and liked the concept of private messaging. We ended up developing products for 120 carriers in 40 countries.

Email 185

Email Startup Mobile Ideas 185

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2012

We can all argue the shortcomings and non-defensibility of patents, but these are still your best competitive protection, sustainable for twenty years. What we are looking for here is a breakthrough in technology (patented), manufacturing process, or new revenue model, that results in an order-of-magnitude cost reduction.

Competition 97

Competition Patents Startup Social Network 97

socalTECH

APRIL 24, 2009

This two-and-a-half-day executive event features high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities, content strategies and monetization schemes in the video, music, gaming, search, and mobile industries. 50% registration discount for friends of socalTECH.

SoCalTech 100

SoCalTech Southern California Rustic Canyon Technology Council 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Once you have their attention, content is key. " Investors want to buy into an entrepreneur with a startup that can provide evidence of an ability to double customer productivity, at half the cost, with patented technology. Your passion is necessary but not sufficient to prove a market.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

plus a large settlement on patent disputes paid from Google) so Bill did well on it. This is a CDN (Content Delivery Network). It was the first company to do “paid search&# back when Larry & Sergey were saying they would never do it. Overture sold for $1.6 billion to Yahoo! But bill is a BIG idea guy.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Rely on marketing content and emotion vs. facts. For example, “I have patented a new LCD with double the intensity at half the cost, already proven locally, and I just need resources to scale for this market.” Until an investor hears about a real customer problem, and understands your solution, the background is irrelevant.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Perhaps one of the reasons it took 20 years for the commercial web to monetize images is because matching images with content is a very difficult. Matching ads to content is what they do. They have built proprietary ad serving, video serving and image recognition technology, complete with patents, and invented in-image advertising.

Advertising 98

Advertising Santa Monica Startup Content 98