Podcast

Season 5, Episode 15. Worth Fighting For: IP, Lawsuits, and the Art of Valuation

What’s your intellectual property truly worth when it’s on the line? Not what you hope or what you feel, but what courts, investors, and negotiators will actually pay. This episode of Intangiblia dives deep into the high-stakes world of IP valuation, where patents, trademarks, and copyrights transform from abstract legal protections into concrete dollar amounts.

We journey through landmark global IP disputes that have defined how creative assets are valued in courtrooms from California to Colombia. The Samsung v. Apple design patent battle set precedent for how much of a product’s profit can be attributed to its appearance. Epic Systems v. Tata Consultancy Services revealed the billion-dollar worth of trade secrets when they cross into competitors’ hands. Meanwhile, cases like Liffers in Spain demonstrate that even moral rights, the right to be credited for your work, carry financial value that courts will recognize and enforce.

The podcast unpacks three essential valuation methodologies that every creator should understand: cost-based (what it took to create), market-based (what others pay for similar assets), and income-based (what future earnings it will generate). Through fascinating case studies across industries, from pharmaceuticals to streaming services, sneakers to smartphones, we see how these approaches play out in real disputes with massive financial implications.

Beyond methodology, we explore how valuation strategies differ across borders, with emerging economies like India pushing back against one-size-fits-all licensing rates, and Mexico’s courts mandating that IP damages reflect genuine commercial impact. The digital transformation adds another layer of complexity, as shown in Disney v. Redbox, where even access codes carried enforceable intellectual property value.

Whether you’re protecting your creative work, licensing your technology, or facing infringement, this episode delivers a crucial message: in intellectual property, real power lies not just in registration but in pricing. Because in the world of IP, value isn’t what you feel, it’s what you can prove.

Zodiac Season, Litigation Rising – Intangiblia™

Can you copyright a horoscope, enhance a century-old tarot deck and claim protection, or assign your stage name and lose it in court? We open the year by charting the legal sky where creativity, belief, and branding intersect—and sometimes collide. From a syndicated astrologer’s claim that near-identical forecasts kept running without a license, to a software company’s short-lived effort to assert control over historical time zone data, we unpack the crucial line between ideas and expression, facts and creativity, public domain and protectable derivative work.We also step into the studio with the icons. The Walter Mercado saga reveals how a personal brand can be transformed into a trademark owned by someone else, with lasting consequences for the artist behind it. Along the way, we explore what separates simple restoration from original creativity in tarot publishing, why databases of raw facts remain free for all, and how small wording choices in daily horoscopes can carry real legal weight. The thread tying it all together: the cosmos is shared; the way we package it is not.Expect practical takeaways for creators, publishers, and entrepreneurs: register original writing, document design decisions, start from public-domain sources rather than competitors’ upgrades, and read every clause before assigning names, logos, or likenesses. If you’re building an astrology app, launching a zodiac product line, or reviving classic esoteric art, this deep dive will help you navigate trademarks, copyrights, and contracts without dimming your creative light.Enjoy the episode? Follow the show, share it with a friend who loves law or the stars, and leave a quick review to help others find us. What boundary do you think should exist between shared culture and private ownership? Tell us—your take might shape a future episode.Send us a textCheck out "Protection for the Inventive Mind" – available now on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. The views and opinions expressed (by the host and guest(s)) in this podcast are strictly their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the entities with which they may be affiliated. This podcast should in no way be construed as promoting or criticizing any particular government policy, institutional position, private interest or commercial entity. Any content provided is for informational and educational purposes only.
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