From Old School to WallStreet.com

In a piece in today's NY Times, Julie Creswell shows how venerable Wall Street firms – like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup – are stockpiling patent portfolios. Hey, in the ultra-competitive space of global high-finance, it's hard to maintain any edge.

Basically, these firms are looking at just about all key processes and trying to own them. This includes complex things like derivatives, as well as prosaic things like credit cards. Last year, there were over 6,000 patent applications for financial-related innovations. Interestingly enough, Goldman Sachs has its own chief patent officer.

Finance and technology are certainly blurring. In fact, financial firms are competing against firms like Yahoo, Google and eBay for top-talent.

And, given the huge profits of the giant financial firms, it looks like this investment in technology is quite savvy.

I talked to Vic Lin, who is a patent lawyer at Myers Dawes Andras & Sherman LLP and has his own patent blog. According to him: "The growing trend among financial services firms seeking patent protection goes to show how intellectual property (IP) is becoming a critical component of every business, regardless of the industry. Whether the owner intends to use the patents offensively or defensively, there's a bit of game theory going on - the attitude that 'I better get this patent before someone else does.'"

Tom Taulli is the author of a variety of books, such as the Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and has his own firm, InvestorOffering.com.