Thursday, January 30, 2014

Potent Patent Portfolios

Once a leading technology firm, Motorola Mobility, through its sale to Lenovo, has now completed its transformation from a hardware company, to a provider of Android platforms, and, finally, to a pure, yet powerful, portfolio of patents.  Which of these incarnations is the most valuable?  The patent portfolio has, because it has given Google some measure of legal security among the robust patent holdings of competitors like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.  Like a aircraft carrier purchased for the salvage value of its copper wire, Motorola Mobility is now being stripped down for its intellectual property.  For many companies, that is increasingly where their only true value lies.