David Martin - Prepared for "patents in the Financial Services Industry: what you need to know"

In today’s “knowledge Econom”, banks, investors , and insurer have come to acknowledge that patent rights have considerable influence on the value of enterprises and on the stability of patent- based business models. However , the ability to leverage this presumed value is impaired by regulatory and professional ambiguity on several points. With the united states, Europe, and Japan’s patent systems facing unprecedented quality deficiencies , financiers appropriately subject the notion that patents can be business assets to considerable scrutiny. Due to a public lack of confidence, fueled by increasingly visible patent-related market perturbations, both policy and process reforms must precede the maturing of the patent – based financial markets. In this paper, policy and process are examined in the context of: 1) the role the public sector in the oversight of quality patent issuance ‘ 2) patent accountability in financial reporting; 3) practices that enable the use of patents in financial transactions. These topics are addressed in light of their collective impact on accepted caluation practices.