Markman Advisors

Markman Advisors - Strategic Patent Monetization

Affirmance rates of issues decided by a jury: - Infringement - 83%; - Anticipation/Obviousness - 50/80%; - Monetary relief - 100%; Affirmance rates of issues decided by a court: - Laches - 60%; - Claim Construction - 61%; - Monetary relief - 20%; - Willful infringement - 100%

Since the creation of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982, the Washington D.C.-based appeals court has had an outsized influence on the development of patent law in the United States. With the burgeoning interest in "patent play" stocks, it behooves investors to acquire some knowledge of the workings of the Federal Circuit as part of their due diligence and monitoring of their investments in the patent assertion sector. Because the Federal Circuit has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over patent disputes, whether they arise out of the Federal District Courts or the USPTO, its importance in patent law cannot be overstated. And because the US Supreme Court takes on patent matters relatively infrequently, the Federal Circuit is often the "court of last resort" for patent litigants.  Continue reading ...

BlackBerry (BBRY) is at a crossroads, and the investment community is very interested to see what comes next. The profits are down and the board of directors just announced to the world that they are exploring strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale. Are they ready for a takeover? Or is there something else up their sleeve?  Continue reading ...

Through its innovation, Unwired Planet was awarded a portfolio of more than 200 patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Up through 2012, Unwired Planet (which has gone through several predecessor names in its lifetime) attempted to commercialize its mobile internet technologies. By 2012, stifled by competition, the company sold off its remaining product businesses, and turned its sights upon licensing and monetizing its existing patent portfolio.  Continue reading ...

Recent developments in On Track Innovations' (OTIV) ongoing patent case, coupled with OTIV failing to capitalize on the near-term opportunity presented by the favorable Markman ruling received by the company in July 2013, have materially changed our view of OTIV's near-term patent monetization prospects - both in the T-Mobile (TMUS) case, and related future litigation. Investors whose investment thesis is predicated on a large return from OTIV's patent monetization efforts should consider the below carefully, while those who give little or no weight to the company's patent prospects are perhaps best positioned to disregard our opinion at this stage. To what extent the meteoric appreciation of OTIV's share price, since we first identified the company as a potential patent play, is completely divorced from the company's patent monetization efforts we do not know. Perhaps the best evidence that OTIV's patent efforts carry weight with investors is the large jump the stock made on the news of the favorable Markman ruling back in June. Of course, the stock has continued to rise as respected Seeking Alpha contributors have offered additional support to a bullish evaluation of OTIV's prospects - and we recommend investors interested in the operational side of OTIV to that material.  Continue reading ...

Much has been written about Document Security Systems, Inc. (DSS), as well as the potential upside that the company's pending patent litigations against Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD), and more recently, Apple (AAPL) can provide to investors. We do not endeavor to re-hash what has already been said, and this article is not intended to be an overview of DSS as an investment. Rather, this article will focus on critical issues that investors need to understand in connection with the pending patent cases against Facebook and LinkedIn.  Continue reading ...

Certain avant-garde works of art, wine and even people can sometimes take years to come into their own. The same can be true of inventions, and likewise, patents. That time may have finally arrived for Crossroads Systems, Inc. ("Crossroads") (CRDS). After pursuing scores of patent litigations going back more than a decade, which have resulted in numerous settlements, but only modest revenue, the sudden widespread commercialization of Crossroads' inventions may have finally matured to a point that will open the doors to significant, share-price-shifting patent-licensing revenue. Crossroads' decade-old patent-monetization campaign may be about to come of age.  Continue reading ...

The idea behind the founding of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) in 2005 was a simple one - the creation of a next generation firewall product capable of securing a customer's network that is not based on port traffic classification, but rather on application identification, regardless of port, protocol or SSL. For non-techies out there, their unique firewall controls what traffic is or is not allowed on a network by deploying policies to deny unwanted applications, while allowing specific applications or functions through, regardless of their location, device or what port they are trying to access. Since launching its first firewall product in 2007, the company has enjoyed tremendous success, culminating in its July 20, 2012 initial public offering. Palo Alto's market cap has reached as high as $5.3B, and the company has enjoyed a favorable balance sheet on the success of its commercial offerings. Such success, however, was not overlooked by Palo Alto's major competitor - Juniper Networks (JNPR) - which decided to spoil the party prior to Palo Alto's IPO by filing a patent infringement complaint on December 19, 2011 in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, which is a popular forum for patent infringement cases.  Continue reading ...

The patent litigation space remains one of tremendous interest for investors. Irrespective of whether their interest is in large-cap companies embroiled in large-scale patent litigation like Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) & Apple (AAPL), or in the burgeoning publicly-traded patent assertion entity sector led by companies like Vringo (VRNG), Parkervision (PRKR), Acacia (ACTG) and Marathon Patent Group (OTCQB:MARA), investors remain intrigued by the possible outsized returns and high profile of patent litigation activity. Accompanying that interest, however, is an awareness that patent litigation is an expensive endeavor. Evaluating the impact of that expense on a particular company remains a challenge for investors, who are usually not privy to the inner workings of the legal marketplace for patent litigation services, and are often informed of the costs of a particular case or set of cases after the fact, in a SEC filing, earnings report or some other public disclosure. Despite this general opacity, it is indisputable that patent litigation costs remain a pressing area of concern for companies of all sizes, whether they be patent assertion entities looking to secure big verdicts or settlements in an effort to boost their share price, or large multinational corporations engaged in multi-front patent litigation against competitors and NPEs (Non-Practicing Entities). (See our article here for more on the legislative efforts to combat malicious tactics of such entities.)  Continue reading ...