Patents Are Becoming The New Asset

Here's another company that has found licensing (or notifying infringers) is a better way to generate revenue than manufacturing. There are over $1 trillion dollars of assets that could be monetized in this country.

This IP is an asset is an investing trend I identified in my book. Find out what companies will prosper from this upcoming wave.

TiVo announces a $215m settlement from AT&T.

the only way TiVo has really made money in recent years was through patent lawsuits, followed by lucrative settlements. 


"This is a great book with big ideas on how to create wealth, not just get rich quick". HowToFindBigStocks.com

TiVo And Amazon Create New Media Commerce Platform

Disruptive technology that initially hurt TV advertising, might actually be its savior.

Time shifted viewing and the TiVo (DVR) are disrupting TV viewing. More eyeballs leave TV, advertisers need a dynamic service for digital video recorders (DVRs).

From The N.Y. Times TiVo And Amazon team Up

TiVo, the Silicon Valley company that introduced millions to the joy of skipping television commercials, is trying to crack a decades-old media dream. It wants to turn the television remote control into a tool for buying the products being advertised and promoted on commercials and talk shows.

The company, based in Alviso, Calif., will introduce a “product purchase” feature on Tuesday in partnership with the Internet retailer Amazon.com. Owners of TiVo video recorders will see, in TiVo’s various onscreen menus, links to buy products like CDs, DVDs and books that guests are promoting on talk shows like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Daily Show.”

The move highlights TiVo’s attempt to shift from being a creator of set-top boxes, competing with copycat devices, to being an advertising innovator that is trying to develop advertising technologies for the television industry.

“Just a few years ago, we were viewed with great paranoia as the disruptor,” said Thomas S. Rogers, chief executive of TiVo. “Our goal now is to work with the media industry to come up with ways to resist the downward pressure of less advertising viewing and create a way for advertising on TV to become more effective, more engaging and closer to the sale.”

But beware, Microsoft has a new "TV stopping patent".

The patent, which Microsoft originally applied for in 1993, enables the company to develop and market technology that allows television viewers to pause programmes to follow on-screen hyperlinks and participate in games, chat rooms and other interactive services.

What's bigger than all of these services?

The "Next Google" will be able to collect data, second-by-second, from all services/devices connected to the broadband pipe and deliver relevant advertising to ANY display.
The kicker...it already exists.

From the CEO " the ability to report actual anonymous second-by-second program and advertising audience viewership data from tens of millions of set top boxes (STB)s represents a huge technological and informational leap from today's television measurement standard"

"We currently have access to 500,000 set-top-boxes (STBs) made available to us through different network operators from multiple TV markets from which we are collecting, aggregating and reporting anonymous, second-by-second data to our development partners."

The Next Google is here.

Disruptive Technology Disrupts TV Advertising Market Again

TIVO and DVR (digital video recording) technology disrupted the TV advertising industry. Now technology has been created for a "skip proof" TV ad that could bring the industry back to life.

GlobeAndMail reports about an ad created by Canadian toy maker Spin Master Ltd. turned out to be impossible to race through with the fast-forward button.

TV networks must be buzzing this morning over that news.

It won’t be long until someone figures out what it is that makes some ads skip-proof, and the technology will be used by everyone. This would remove a major stumbling block in the advertising game. If we all go back to advertising-supported viewing, advertisers would be more comfortable paying the rates they’re asked, and production studios could be ensured of better financing.

Moreover, a technology that makes ads skip-proof suggests that perhaps other technology could be similarly embedded into the signal stream to foil video piracy.

This is the kind of stuff that shakes an industry. And it will affect your viewing habits too.