an open market. Such a market will democratize decision-making on which projects should go forward; provide the funding necessary to translate good ideas into marketable goods, products & services; allow investors and companies to siloize risk to individual ideas; provide market research to companies on their IP; establish the market value of IP, facilitating licensing; reduce the need for mergers; and allow ideas to persist beyond the demise of an individual company. No significant technological impediments exist for an IP Share Market. It will be important for any rapidly evolving sector. to the pharmaceutical sector, to the renewable energy sector. It would be a shame if all the best ideas in such sectors died on the shelf. Such a market can alleviate companies of the R&D and market research expenditures; insure the success of the best ideas; identify innovators whose ideas truly are helpful; drive strategic collaborations where before there was only competition. By contrast, the current market system is restricted to investment in a black box company.

Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

The Scientist will be publishing an Opinion Article by me on the topic in Feb 2009, and I have been invited to present the concept as a new business model to pharma leaders at the Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Executive Summit on Strategy and Innovation February 25-27, 2009 in San Francisco, CA. I would hope for buy-in from companies and then to see interest sufficient to approach the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) seeking guidance on establishing the first IP Share Market in the world.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

Comprehensive. Good IP is often never brought to market. Inventors have classically suffered from being able to "get their idea out there", with capital to bring it to fruition. Licensing IP is difficult because the market value is not known. The market will provide free market research on needed ideas, & unburden companies from the lack of R&D funds to move ideas forward.
Anticipatory. It is a shame when the best technological innovation cannot move forward. The world needs new ideas in health care, agriculture & food production, renewable energy & especially transportation. The goal is to free & empower ideas from current constraints.
Ecologically responsible. Nature has a way of ensuring that that which persists exists. Spreading the risk insure survival; the survival of great ideas should not be conditioned on the survival of an individual company. CEOs do not always make the best go-forward decisions. This type of investment would drive forward the renewable energy revolution.
Feasible. No technological or legal impediments exist for an IP Share Market.
Verifiable. Investment markets are known to work.
Replicable. IP Share Markets worldwide are envisioned.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

I have studied complex systems in biology at all scales, from molecular interactions to the functioning of communities of organisms. My PhD is in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology. While a graduate student I formulate the self-evident but not quite tautological thesis of the fractal reticulate; that everywhere in nature, from the scale of galaxies to solar systems to ecosystems to communities to individuals to molecules, everything we see survived, and systems that share bits of pieces of their components persist, making persistence and survival of the components more likely. The IP Share Market could better allow ideas to survive the demise of the company or individual that created it.