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One hundred years ago, companies made products. Manufacturing drove the economy. Now it's all about ideas. Knowledge is the foundation of today's economy. In fact, up to 85% of the market capitalization of today's Fortune 500 now lies in intellectual assets, rather than traditional tangible assets. (Source: The Gartner Group, October 2001) And much of this corporate value walks out the door at the end of each workday, as employees take home their knowledge, skills, and memory. Understanding, recognizing, and capturing this new kind of value is elusive and critically important.
Patents may now be as important as products. Trademarks carry more weight than steel. And most companies are just beginning to notice.
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Texas Instruments was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1980s. An aggressive program to exploit the value of TI patents through licensing and other business deals helped save the company. Since then, TI has earned a phenomenal $4 billion in patent royalties, and its current licensing revenues are reported to be in the neighborhood of $800 million a year.
(Harvard Business Review, Jan. 2000)
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