THE IP PLAYING FIELD BLOG beta
Who's Who and Why You Need to Know

For those of you planning to attend BIOMED ISRAEL 2009

We would like to invite you to a special presentation by Dr. Kfir Luzzatto, Senior Partner of Luzzatto and Luzzatto Patent Attorneys, entitled:

“Global Changes: An Opportunity for Israeli Biopharma R&D”

Seth Godin -- probably the best marketing guru ever - wrote a great piece on joint ventures versus licensing.

The entire post can be found here

Basically, Seth Godin says that there are 2 reasons joint ventures fail. The joint part and the venture part.

Because all ventures are risky, we have an inherent feeling that the venture will fail. So any venture begins with some question marks.

Seth goes on to say that the joint part, though, is where the real problem arises. When the project is a joint one, the pressure to push through the dip often dissipates. “Well, we only have a bit at stake here, so work on something else, something where we have to take all the blame.”

Because there isn’t one boss, one deliverable, one person pushing the project relentlessly, it stalls.

Every joint venture involves meetings, and meetings are the pressure relief valve. Meetings give us the ability to stall and to point fingers, to obfuscate and confuse. If a problem arises, if a difficulty needs to be overcome, it’s much easier to bury it at a meeting than it is to deal with it.

Seth believes that you are far better off with a licensing deal than a joint venture. One side buys the right to use an asset that belongs to the other. The initial transaction is more difficult (and apparently risky) at the start, but then the door is open to success. It’s a venture that belongs to one party, someone with a lot at stake and an incentive to make it work.

Only one person in charge at a time.

For more on licensing and joint ventures, click here.

In a book I highly recommend called Winning, Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric provides a detailed section on strategy -- which includes a section dealing wtith Licensing.

In the section on competition and strategy, Mr. Welch provides a series of slides that help you develop your own customized WINNING strategies.

Slide three (page 176) is called "What Have You Been Up To?" His second bullet point is what interests me and should interest you:

"Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor's key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a start-up" (my emphasis added).

If you are a start-up with great IP you should be really happy with Mr. Welch. He is basically telling companies that to be competitive they must license new technologies from startups. So what are you waiting for - start the licensing process with a major company.

If you need help getting started, click here

If you are a major company looking for a competitive advantage - what are you waiting for! Go out and find that startup with the next big thing. If you need help please feel free to contact me at Michaeln@luzzatto.com.