"Their KPI was the number of patents, not their quality." 58:00
From the episode
How KnowledgeX connects companies and researchers (55:02)
- Sit with a company and read its 3 to 5 year strategy.
- Find challenges likely to hit in year 2 or 3 that the company can't see yet (55:19).
- Bring in a researcher from that field, who either frames the challenge or solves it (55:41).
- If both sides agree, match them ("I bring the two heads together") (56:04).
- Feed the result back into the business. That can mean translating it, as he did for the merchant in chapter 5 (56:46).
Patents treated as a stamp collection (57:21)
A large government body he pitched measured its patents by count. His made-up example is an organisation that patents "phones exchanging files at close range without Wi-Fi". In other words, Bluetooth, which already exists (58:30). Patents carry yearly maintenance fees, which for some organisations add up to millions. Some keep paying for patents the world moved past long ago (59:21).
SPINx: three routes to market (1:00:09)
| Route | What it means | His example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. License for royalties (1:00:17) | Keep the patent and let other companies use it for a fee per unit | "The Swiss model". He cites messenger-style chat as a Microsoft patent that others paid royalties on (1:00:59) |
| 2. Corporate venture building (1:02:05) | A semi-independent team inside the company builds a new product with a startup mindset | Product launched alone or merged into an existing line |
| 3. Spin-out (1:02:42) | Set up a new, independent company around the patent | Salla's research centre spinning out as KnowledgeX |
The product, which he calls "Spinnex" (spelt SPINx on the company's site), scores each route's chance of success. For the best one, it builds a roadmap to the first customer: operating plan, investment, hires and stages (1:03:24). The output is a commercialisation report. That has traditionally been a consulting service that depended on one expert's knowledge of one region. SPINx tailors it to the Saudi market, Vision 2030 and RDIA's priorities (1:04:05).
ESG bonus (1:05:09). The report can also estimate how much patent investment helps a company's ESG and sustainability score. That matters for petrochemical firms and for anyone exporting physical products to the EU (1:06:05).
The idea, explained
A patent is an asset with a running cost. It can earn money by being used or licensed, it costs money every year to keep, and it expires (about 20 years from filing in most countries, under the WTO's TRIPS agreement). So a patent portfolio should be managed like an investment portfolio:
- Keep patents that protect current products or earn licence income.
- Use patents that fit an internal venture or a spin-out.
- Drop patents on obsolete technology, so you stop paying fees for nothing.
Counting patents rewards filing. Managing them rewards using them. That is the shift the episode argues for.
Readiness levels. KnowledgeX's site says SPINx scores four kinds of readiness: technology (TRL), business (BRL), commercial (CRL) and societal (SRL) (KnowledgeX). TRL is a standard 1 to 9 scale that NASA created, running from "basic principles observed" to "proven in operation". The others extend the same idea to the market.
Try it
Answer five questions about a patent and see which route to market fits best. It is a simplified teaching tool, not the SPINx model.
Key terms
Royalties · Licensing · Corporate venture building · Spin-out · Maintenance fees · Patent portfolio · Commercialisation report · TRL.