ipCreate

ipCreate is the brainchild of John Cronin, the former chief of IBM's legendary "Patent Factory," and Marshall Phelps, who turned both IBM and Microsoft's once-anemic patent licensing operations into multi-billion-dollar businesses. These respected patent visionaries know first-hand that the greatest value in the IP asset class belongs to a small minority of foundational patents. John Cronin is Chairman and CEO of ipCreate, where he brings more than 30 years of IP creation and monetization experience to bear in patenting the "Next Big Thing. While at IBM in the 1990s, Mr. Cronin served as its top inventor and chief of IBM's legendary "Patent Factory," where he helped the firm become the world's No. 1 patent holder in both numbers of patents (up 500%) and in the quality of the visionary inventions for which IBM is famous. Non-executive Chairman Marshall Phelps is the only person ever to lead the worldwide patent operations of two of the world's most powerful technology companies. While at IBM in the 1990s, Mr. Phelps grew patent revenues from $21 million to an astonishing $2 billion annually in seven years. Then he went on to do virtually the same thing for tech powerhouse Microsoft. A renowned IP thought leader, Mr. Phelps was inducted into the Intellectual Property Hall of Fame. Mr. Cronin and Mr. Phelps are assisted by an able executive team and a board that includes yet another IP Hall of Famer, Robert Armitage, who led the worldwide patent operations for drug giant Eli Lilly & Company. Winner of the Outstanding Achievement in IP Award for 2013, Mr. Armitage played a leading role in the enactment of the landmark America Invents Act of 2011. Working with select leaders of industries undergoing rapid technological disruption - whether dominant players in the market or visionary startups - ipCreate employs proprietary tools and resources to identify promising innovation areas and rapidly create foundational patents at the chokepoints of looming market change. With major financial backing behind it, ipCreate expects to fund and execute more than 100 strategic invention and IP creation projects and produce thousands of foundational patents by the year 2017. By restoring the historic link between patents and invention (rather than litigation), ipCreate also hopes to strengthen a patent system that is crucial to U.S. competitiveness.