Michael Lewis

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Choices for Inventors: Financial Arrangements

As any viewer of “Shark Tank” can attest, the variety of financial arrangements which are negotiated between inventor entrepreneurs and investors is broad. A final agreement is always the result of negotiation between the two parties. Unfortunately, many inventors go into the gunfight with a knife, so to speak, over-matched and under-prepared.

Choices for Inventors Needing to Raise Money: Sources of Capital

As the girl in the fairy tale ruefully remarked, “You have to kiss a lot of toads to find a prince!” Raising capital is not much different and is often a difficult, tedious, and frustrating process. You might find it helpful to approach family, friends or even patent monetization entities. Patent monetization entities, derogatorily referred to as “patent trolls,” are companies whose business is the ownership of intellectual properties and the aggressive enforcement of their rights against those who infringe upon their patents and copyrights. A PME is similar to an investment manager who owns a portfolio of market securities, a real estate investor who owns apartment houses and commercial buildings, or the estate of Michael Jackson who purchased a 50% stake in more than 750,000 copyrights including 251 songs that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote for The Beatles.