The Merger and Acquisition Roundtable of Arizona has been around since 1988. The group is made of local business members and meets 3 or 4 times a year with a goal to help the Phoenix area prosper through growth. If you have any interest in learning more about this group, contact Tim Gay or Ron Schott for more information. The next meeting is scheduled for the fall of 2012.
Last week, I participated as a panel member in a round table discussion focusing on how intellectual property can affect transactions from both a buyer and seller perspective. After a lively discussion, the take-away was that buyers and sellers typically spend little or no effort considering the value of the IP. For example, most buyers and sellers of businesses involving a patent asset never review more than the title, abstract and a drawing or two of the patent at issue.
Unfortunately, reviewing only the title, abstract and a drawing will often lead to the incorrect conclusion that the patent is much broader than it actually is. A better practice is to focus on the patent claims because it is the claims that define the scope of invention. Otherwise, someone will be unnecessarily overpaying (or leaving money on the table).