During this week's Licensing Executive's Society Spring Meeting in Boston, several interesting dynamics are appearing.

Most interesting was the growing willingness of participants to discuss the past few years' "IP bubble" and the recent focus on patents' dollar value calculations and patent valuation.

In a range of discussions from university technology transfer directors to patent attorneys and technology company executives, we appear to be returning to a focus on fundamental components of patent value:

• Understanding the importance of the technology
• Focusing upon the quality of the legal protection

•  And, figuring out the proper or best commercialization strategies