Winners will be announced at the CityLIGHTS Awards Gala Thursday, May 9, 2013, in the Great Hall at Union Station in Chicago. The gala attracts more than 700 people – representing 400 organizations – including business owners, investors, legislators and policymakers.

A panel of accomplished judges representing the Who’s Who in Illinois technology reviewed nominations and selected the finalists. Judges hail from major organizations including Microsoft, University of Chicago, New World Ventures, Walgreens, and World Business Chicago.  The list of past winners includes GrubHub.com, NAVTEQ, Model Metrics, Carole McCluskey of Coinstar/Redbox, and Braintree, among others.

“ktMINE is immensely proud of this accomplishment and grateful for the opportunity to showcase all that we have worked so hard to achieve,” said David R. Jarczyk, President and CEO of ktMINE. “It is an honor to have been recognized for our innovation and achievements by the judges. We applaud our fellow finalists and look forward to connecting with them on May 9.”

“We are thrilled to host an event where some of the many accomplishments of the local tech industry are recognized,” said ITA President & CEO Fred Hoch. “Technology advancements affect every company, no matter the product or the industry.  The need for companies to leverage the efficiencies offered through these new tools has never been more important, especially as they look to grow, attract and retain talent, and gain visibility.  The Awards Gala is a celebration of the companies developing the technology and the companies utilizing it.”

Public voting is open from April 8–22, 2013. Winners will be determined by composite score (50 percent judges; 50 percent community voting) in all categories except the CityLIGHTS Award, which is determined solely by the ITA Board of Directors. Votes can be submitted through end of day on April 22, 2013.

ktMINE IP Reports comprise the IP Business Intelligence sector of the ktMINE product portfolio and provide a new and unique way to survey the IP landscape. In addition to ktMINE’s repository of over 50,000 royalty rates and 80,000 license agreements, IP Reports include data coverage of 15 million US patents and patent assignments, 10 million US trademarks and trademark assignments and millions of Company IP Connections.

With assurance that related IP information has been found, ktMINE IP Reports offer users unparalleled competitive advantage. ktMINE’s proprietary Company IP Connections leverage ktMINE’s paramount technology and unsurpassed expertise to uncover never before seen IP relationships. With Company IP Connections users can view valuable connections between a company and every other company or key individual related through IP.

ktMINE IP Reports allow seamless access to a company’s IP profile in one convenient location, saving countless hours that would have been spent searching for this information across the unorganized public domain.  Users have the ability to view and save individual IP documents linked within the report, as well as export entire reports.

“Strategic partnerships often revolve around IP and come in many different forms”, stated David R. Jarczyk, President & CEO of ktMINE. “ To add to the confusion often associated with these partnerships, the most advanced companies create convoluted structures to hide their IP relationships and strategies. Uncovering usable and comprehensive IP information in this realm can be risky and futile without the aid of organized data and advanced search tools. As a champion of transparency, ktMINE could not be more excited or proud to introduce the level of clarity found within IP Reports.”

To learn more visit http://www.ktmine.com
To view an example IP Report, visit http://www.ktmine.com/ip-reports-guest-login/.

From the 3Q filings, ktMINE’s technology and analyst team identified more than 1,000 IP license agreements from the entire pool of filings. All identified intangibles licensing agreements were added to ktMINE Licensing Intelligence databases, representing over 550 unique filing companies. The top two filing companies were Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc and GlobeImmune, Inc., while SIC code 2834, Pharmaceutical Preparations, comprised the majority of 3Q agreements.

ktMINE’s Royalty & Market Rate intelligence databases contain only agreements with unredacted variable rates. Companies often redact information when trying to protect their position in the market by keeping rates paid for licensing undisclosed to the public. Added agreements covered 32 industries,* with a heavy focus on Business Services, Biotechnology and Healthcare: Pharmaceuticals. The effective dates of the added agreements ranged from November 27, 2002 to September 19, 2012. Over 200 territories were represented among the licensing terms.

“A common misconception is that most intangibles licensing agreements filed with the SEC include very few territories outside the United States,” said Jarczyk. “Interestingly enough, based on ktMINE analyst review, we’ve found that the majority of license agreements (60%) actually include non-US territories.”

*Licensing industry, territory and effective date are variables captured and/or defined by ktMINE analysts while reviewing each agreement for context and key terms.

ktMINE License Agreement Analyzer is the newest edition to the company’s licensing intelligence product portfolio and offers precise insights from more than 70,000 IP license agreements. This new solution combine’s access to ktMINE’s ever-growing repository of IP license agreements with expert-level search management tools, allowing analysts to quickly find a full spectrum of IP Intelligence details. Whether negotiating a licensing deal, protecting valuable IP, or litigating against IP infringement, License Agreement Analyzer provides unprecedented access to intelligence that generates a competitive advantage.

ktMINE License Agreement Analyzer also allows users to refine results using narrowing filters containing pre-populated choices aligned with initial search results, view results as a list or as individual summaries of key sections (including Background, Definitions, Payments/Royalties and Grants), and export agreements and results lists.

“ktMINE strives to provide the market with the most efficient means of analyzing the world’s IP information,” said David R. Jarczyk, President and CEO of ktMINE. “License Agreement Analyzer was built to provide the search efficiency, ease-of-use and information transparency that analysts around the globe have been seeking. We are so pleased to introduce this integral next step in IP information analysis to the market.”

The Chicago Innovation Awards, celebrating its 11^th year, is the only organization in the country dedicated to honoring the most innovative new products or services brought to market or to public service from a specific region.  This year almost 400 nominations were received.

The innovation nominated by ktMINE is their 2012 Royalty Rate Resource Guide, which  reveals royalty rate trends from 25 industries spanning the past 12 years.  This guide helps level the playing field and fuel innovation for IP owners and stakeholders in industries, organizations and geographies that would not be able to compile meaningful market insights like these on their own.

The new level of clarity introduced by this guide provides a useful starting point for questioning the selection of royalty rates and ultimately driving greater value for, and from, IP.

“The most important message of the Chicago Innovation Awards is one of confidence and courage,” said Thomas D. Kuczmarski, co-founder with Chicago journalist Dan Miller of the awards.  “The economy is challenging but each nominee believes the simple truth that a powerful new product or service will find a rewarding market and has the courage to pursue their vision.”

As one of the Top 75 finalists, ktMINE will receive a scholarship to attend a day-long executive education program on September 18th titled “The Practical Innovator”, taught at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  It is a full-day executive education course teaching the practical skills of innovation.

This year 13 judges, representing a range of Chicago’s business community, will be involved in an exhaustive and complex judging process to select the final ten winners of the Chicago Innovation Awards as well as ten “Up & Comer” award winners for smaller organizations still in the start-up phases of their innovations. In addition, each of the 75 finalists is automatically in the running for the annual “People’s Choice Award,” selected through online balloting at www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.

“At ktMINE we understand that access to the latest market data is of the utmost importance to our clients across the globe, “said David R. Jarczyk, president of ktMINE. “They can rest assured that we place the highest priority on providing the most current data in a timely and organized manner.”

From the 2Q filings, over 600 intangibles licensing agreements were added to the ktMINE License Agreement Finder database, representing nearly 380 different filing companies. Ninetowns Internet Technology Group Company Limited and Lpath, Incorporated were the top two filing companies, and the most filed SIC code for 2Q agreements was 2834: Pharmaceutical Preparations.

The 2Q IP licensing records added to the ktMINE Royalty Rate Finder database spanned 29 different industries, with a heavy focus on the Biotechnology, Healthcare: Pharmaceuticals, and Business Services verticals.  The effective dates of the agreements ranged from June 10, 1994 to June 18, 2012, and over 100 different territories were represented among the licensing terms.

“While effective dates in the 1990’s may seem outdated for agreements filed in 2012, this can actually be an important indication of a business’s current IP strategy,” states Jarczyk. “The agreements may be perpetual and then re-filed routinely each year or, in more noteworthy cases, the agreements may have just become ‘material’ to the business for other reasons such as a planned IPO, new dealings with a public company, or shift in business factors that proves the underlying IP is now critical to the business’s bottom line.”

Licensing industry, territory and effective date, are variables captured and or/defined by ktMINE analysts when reviewing each agreement for context and key terms.

AutoHarvest is a membership based organization which provides transportation and advanced manufacturing industry OEMs, suppliers, entrepreneurs, universities and national research labs, an integrated platform for information sharing. The platform allows IP owners to showcase technology to buyers, sellers, and potential collaborators in a transaction focused marketplace to help fuel future innovation.

“AutoHarvest’s members are seeking solutions for numerous challenges, including extending and creating new energy sources, reducing emissions, increasing safety and enabling a connected world,” stated Jayson D. Pankin, Co-Founder, President and CEO of the AutoHarvest Foundation. “Global product developers work relentlessly to shorten design cycles and expedite product introductions, as innovators seek out networks and utilize novel tools to accelerate the adoption of technology in our IP Marketplace. Having seamless access to relevant and sometimes difficult to locate IP business intelligence can define success. Offering the comprehensive data available through the ktMINE database will allow technology transfer experts to broker transactions in confidence across industrial sectors.”

By entering into this arrangement, ktMINE will provide members of AutoHarvest discounted access to the ktMINE Royalty Rate Finder™ database, allowing for greater insight into the IP licensing landscape to enable smarter, more transparent transactions. The ktMINE Royalty Rate Finder database allows users to survey the IP landscape by viewing full licensing details and complete license agreements. Users will have access to approximately 13,000 intangibles licensing agreements with more than 45,000 royalty rates, including tiers.

“ktMINE is thrilled to have reached such a mutually beneficial arrangement with the AutoHarvest Foundation,” said David R. Jarczyk, President of ktMINE. “IP information transparency is a core tenant of the ktMINE mission and by providing royalty and market rate intelligence, licensing deal intelligence and IP business intelligence to this progressive thinking member base, we will help foster future innovation and collaboration.”

ABOUT AUTOHARVEST

AutoHarvest Foundation is a Michigan 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization and is led by some of the most highly respected figures in the automotive industry. AutoHarvest has, in beta testing, an online E-collaboration marketplace for intellectual property that accelerates innovation in advanced manufacturing. AutoHarvest is guided by its peer interest group, which consists of over 90 prominent government, university, automaker, supplier, venture capital, business accelerator and manufacturing organizations. Located within the innovation hubs of the Southeast Michigan region including Wayne State University’s Research and Development Park – TechTown – and the University of Michigan’s North Campus Research Complex, AutoHarvest sits in the heart of NAFTA’s automotive cluster. Recently awarded a grant by the New Economy Initiative Foundation (“NEI”), AutoHarvest will join the NEI’s Detroit Regional Innovation Network, a 10-year program to boost high-tech development and job creation in Southeast Michigan. For more information visit: http://www.autoharvest.org.

Over the course of five months, IAM researchers spoke to a wide range of leading IP professionals in order to identify people considered to be world-class IP strategists: men and women whose business is the creation, development and deployment of strategies that enable IP rights owners to gain maximum value from their portfolios. Only those individuals considered and nominated by their peers to be outstanding IP strategists are listed in the IAM Strategy 300.

During the past 12 months, intellectual property has finally established itself in the minds of senior boardroom executives and investors as a business asset of fundamental importance. From the Nortel patent auction, which raised $4.5 billion, through Google’s $12.5 billion-dollar purchase of Motorola Mobility, to the ongoing smartphone wars, the message is clear: the right IP strategy can give a company operational freedom, while also generating significant bottom-line returns. This is where the individuals named in the IAM Strategy 300 come into play.

Those featured have a wide range of professional backgrounds and reflect the fact that the days when intellectual property was seen as just a legal issue are long gone. In the 2012 edition, many specialisations are featured, including: brokering, defensive patent aggregation, finance, insurance, management consultancy, the law, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, tax and valuation.

“As events over the last year have shown, more companies than ever are seeing that there is significant value residing in their intellectual property,” says IAM editor Joff Wild. The trick, he explains, is to harvest this to the maximum extent possible, whether via sales, licensing, improved alignment with overall business goals, focused internal research and development, enhanced collaboration and more open innovation programmes, better marketing returns and the like.

This is why working with people who know the business of intellectual property inside out, as well as the opportunities that intellectual property presents, is so important. “The IAM Strategy 300: the World’s Leading IP Strategists puts such individuals right in front of the corporates who want to find them. That makes it a uniquely valuable resource,” Wild concludes.

The IAM Strategy 300 is available in printed format and online at www.iam-magazine.com/strategy300.

Notes:
Intellectual Asset Management (www.iam-magazine.com) is produced in London by the IP Media Group Ltd and reports on intellectual property as a business asset. Its primary focus is on how intellectual property can be best managed and exploited to create corporate value. The publication’s core readership comprises senior executives in IP-owning companies, corporate counsel, private practice lawyers and attorneys, licensing and technology transfer managers, and investors and analysts.

Further information from: Harriet Marchant, the IP Media Group, London – hmarchant@theipmediagroup.com

The website was updated to accommodate several key features that will help visitors more quickly learn how ktMINE can support their particular needs.  The new site includes Quick Links to content that answers most common questions, a Quick Count feature that allows visitors to see how many agreements and royalty rates ktMINE has for particular IP types or industries, and a subscription area for a new quarterly newsletter, the ktMINE vIP.

Another key feature of the new site is the Weekly Demonstration series now offered by ktMINE.  Through this series, demonstrations of ktMINE Royalty Rate Finder will be provided via a web conference which will be available for multiple people and organizations to join.

“We are thrilled to launch our new site and provide our visitors with the information and answers they need quickly,” stated David Jarczyk, president of ktMINE. “We are especially pleased to be able to integrate our social media efforts in order to give visitors access to the most important updates about ktMINE and the IP industry as a whole.”

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