OxFirst has made it its mission to help firms preserve and generate wealth through IP valuations. OxFirst is an economic consultancy specialized in intellectual property and competition law. It has the tools, instruments and know-how to assess the economic contribution of intellectual property to individual firms and the global economy. As such, its economic assessments have been important means to guide key decisions.
Intellectual Property influences value in the tech industry,…
That Intellectual Property can be crucial to business is no big news. The wealth of some of the most powerful corporations of our times is in one way or the other linked to intellectual property. No matter whether they own IP or whether they require access to the IP of others; there is no way to ignore the IP dimension.
At the same time, the growth rates observed in the tech industry are unrivaled. The business models of these companies are intrinsically intertwined with intellectual property. Some tech firms have developed business models that do not only consist of selling products, but of licensing intellectual property. Others again have seen previously unknown accumulation of wealth by aggregating data or enabling access to highly connected technologies.
Experts estimate that 84% or twenty trillion US Dollars of the market capitalization of S&P500 companies is based on intangible assets. What the 20th century tech revolution has shown, is that there can be countless ways to innovate business processes. All of these relate, for better or for worse, to IP.
Yet, and here lies the paradox, in spite of the crucial role that IP plays for high growth businesses, it remains strongly embedded in a legal discourse. The value of intellectual property and its economic effects remain more or less ignored.
Yet Intellectual Property is Hardly Understood, let alone is its Value recognized
OxFirst went out to change that. A good example of OxFirst’s contribution to the high tech industry has been an IP valuation it undertook for a high growth private equity funded company. The firm is specialized in conversational software. Its goal is to transform the way humans interact with computers. The company had invested in U.S. patents and also held important trade secrets and copyrights in its software.
OxFirst stepped in to undertake an IP valuation. It first looked at the patent portfolio and found important synergies between the various forms of IP the firm held. It was also able to illustrate the economic linkages between the patent portfolio and the technological developments in the sector. This technology promises double digit growth rates. Valid patents in this area bear hence serious economic potential. Their commercial potential can be applied both, within the firm and within the market at large. The latter strategy makes use of Open Innovation, which should not be confused with the work of patent assertion entities.
OxFirst’s IP valuation offered a quantitative indication on the economic worth of the IP. As a result of the IP valuation, the firm was able to assess lucrative IP transactions. This was strongly welcomed by the board as well as by investors.
Leveraging an IP Valuation for Corporate Performance
As the nature of wealth generation shifts, it is of outmost importance to get a solid grasp of the underlying intangible assets that can make or break business performance. Over a decade of research in the field has allowed OxFirst to establish superior insights on the economic worth of intellectual property. OxFirst‘s econometric models offer unique insights that can help tap into novel sources of revenue. This can allow a smart manager to enhance the firm’s options.
Says Dr Roya Ghafele, Managing Director of OxFirst, „An IP valuation can often be an eye opener. By associating legal rights in a technology or a brand with economics, new tactics for wealth generation can be used. Often, wealth creation is about making use of arbitrage. An IP valuation can provide the necessary insights to do that.“
Get in touch with us, so we can also help you free your intangible assets.
About OxFirst
OxFirst launched nearly ten years as a result of research undertaken at the University of Oxford. Since then, it has won multiple awards for its contribution to the valuation of IP. It is considered to be the best IP Valuation firm in the U.K. Flagship projects include the launch of the first national IP strategy of Austria, the securing of IP based financing for high tech ventures, the support of IP brokerage through IP valuations and continuous successful backing of entrepreneurs and their technologies. OxFirst‘s Intellectual Property Valuations have been used to formulate corporate strategy, guide policy making or commercialize IP in the sense of Open Innovation. Its IP valuations have also found an application in legal proceedings and have been an important instrument to leverage IP for joint ventures or mutual exchange.
OxFirst. Oxford Science Park. OX44GP. Oxford. UK
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