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and depress shareholder value.

      Because patents and the innovation they protect are abstract, most companies are only partially aware of the potential of their patent portfolio and how to best exploit it. Many firms separate R&D, legal and the line engineering to such a degree that valuable patents ‘get lost in the shuffle.’

      6. Communicating patent performance to the right audiences can enhance value.

      Companies that are candid about their IP strengths and articulate about their performance may be able to positively impact profitability and shareholder value. Companies with a strategic patent position (a carefully constructed ‘portfolio’ that focuses on business objectives) are often worth more than those with ad hoc inventions.

      7. People who should know something about patents often do not.

      Until recently, showing a patent to an investment banker might result in a new company. Today, bankers know to ask about specific ‘claims’ made in the patent and how they match up against competitors’. Be wary of VCs, stock analysts and other financial types involved in technology who minimize the importance of IP or who lack basic knowledge of patents.

      8. Never invest in a company on the basis of a single patent.

      Too many factors influence successful inventions, including management, competitive position, financing, the ability to commercialize inventions in a timely manner, as well as challenges to the validity of patent rights. In few industries can a single patent transform a company. It is more likely that a group of patents in a related art will make a greater if less dramatic impact.

      9. Successfully enforcing patent rights sends a message.

      Companies that enforce their patents by securing licenses from potential infringers and, when necessary, bringing and winning law suits, can win big. Enforcing rights in innovation sends a message. Patent litigation, while expensive, not only helps to generate income, it creates shareholder value.

      10. Accidents can be rewarding.

      Smart companies know how to apply technologies to business needs - others if not their own. Many successful patented products initially ‘failed’ as an intended application. The technology underlying IBM’s excimer laser was originally intended as a stylus for reading optical media. SeldaneTM, one of the most successful prescription drugs ever, started life as a blood pressure medication.

      11. Business inventors come in different shapes and sizes.

      Not all inventors are scientists or technologists, or all innovation incubators dominated by engineers. Successful inventors include teachers, builders, musicians and Wall Street bankers. The future of innovation is about business strategy and inventing teams. Lawyers with business experience and executives with legal knowledge make for formidable alliances.

      12. Some patents have a second life.

      Most patents issued are worth little, if anything. However, in the right hands value can be distilled from the slagheap of unused, unwanted or otherwise discarded patents. A combination of market knowledge, good timing, legal skill and motivation can imbue some patents with new or additional value.

      William Bernstein

      William Bernstein is a principal in Efficient Frontier Advisors, a Connecticut investment management firm. He also operates a nonprofit online journal of asset allocation and portfolio theory - www.efficientfrontier.com.

      Bernstein has developed basic portfolio management principles for individual investors, contributed online pieces for Money and Morningstar.com, and is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal and other publications.

      Books

      The Four Pillars of Investment Success, McGraw-Hill, 2002

      The Intelligent Asset Allocator, McGraw-Hill, 2000

      The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created, McGraw-Hill Education, 2004

      Intelligent asset allocation

      1. The portfolio’s the thing.

      Get used to the fact that, at any one time, a few parts of your portfolio will be doing terribly. Over a long enough time period, each and every component will have had a bad year or two. This is normal asset-class behavior and cannot be avoided. Focus on the performance of the portfolio as a whole, not the individual parts.

      2. In asset allocation, job one is to pick an appropriate stock/bond mix.

      This is determined primarily by your risk tolerance. Do not bite off more risk than you can chew - a classic beginner’s mistake. Calmly and coolly planning for a market downturn is quite different from actually living through one, in the same way that crashing a flight simulator is different from crashing a real airplane. Time horizon is also important. Do not invest any money in stocks that you will need in less than five years, and do not invest more than half unless you will not need the money for at least a decade.

      3. Allocate your stocks widely among many different asset classes.

      Your biggest exposure should be to the broad domestic stock market. Use small stocks, foreign stocks, and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in smaller amounts.

      4. It makes a difference where you put things.

      Some asset classes, such as large foreign and domestic stocks, and domestic small stocks, are available in tax-efficient vehicles; put these in your taxable accounts. Other asset classes, particularly value stocks, REITs, and junk bonds, are highly tax-inefficient. Put these only in your tax-sheltered retirement accounts.

      5. Don’t rebalance too often.

      The benefit of rebalancing back to your policy allocation is that it forces you to sell high and buy low. Asset classes tend to trend up or down for up to a few years. Give this process a chance to work; you should not rebalance more often than once per year.

      These rules apply to tax-sheltered accounts. In taxable accounts, rebalance only with outflows, inflows, and mandatory distributions; here, the rebalancing benefit is usually outweighed by the tax consequences.

      6. The recent past is out to get you.

      Human beings tend to be most impressed with what has happened in the past several years and wrongly assume that it will continue forever. It never does. The fact that large growth stocks performed extremely well in the late 1990s does not make it more likely that this will continue; in fact, it makes it slightly less likely. The performance of different kinds of stocks and bonds is best evaluated over the long haul.

      7. If you want to be entertained, take up sky diving.

      Investors like to have fashionable portfolios, invested in the era’s most exciting technologies. Resist the temptation. There is an inverse correlation between an investment’s entertainment value and its expected return; IPOs, on average, have low returns, and boring stocks tend to reward the most.

      8. An asset allocation that maximizes your chances of getting rich also maximizes your chances of becoming poor.

      Your best chance of making yourself fabulously wealthy through investing is to buy a few small stocks with good growth possibilities; you just might find the next

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