I’ve been spending a fair amount of time lately thinking about the history of California’s “IP industries”, the current state-of-affairs, and where we’re headed as an economy.  All grandiose thoughts to be sure, but for the sake of your attention spans I’ll try to keep this reasonably short.  Intellectual property or “IP” has proven to be a very valuable asset since the original IP laws were created.  If you don’t believe me, just take a look at Intel, Microsoft, Pfizer, Disney or the plethora of other such S&P 500 companies whose businesses are predicated upon the creation, transfer, and protection of IP.  So what is IP and what does it have to do with California?

At it’s most basic levels, IP embodies patents, copyrights, trademarks/servicemarks, and trade secrets and are a set of rights afforded by our legal system to the owners of such “assets” to do certain things with said assets and (often more importantly) prevent others from doing certain things with said assets.  Okay, so what does all of this have to do with California?  Simple.  A very large percentage of California’s GDP comes from companies whose businesses are based on IP.  To put things in perspective, just think about all of California’s tech companies and entertainment companies and you’ll get a very real sense of the magnitude of IP’s importance to our economy.  How many such companies can you name?

Okay, enough of the preamble here.  After thinking through this matter the past couple of weeks, one aspect of this struck me as interesting.  Specifically, how certain “IP companies” make money and how such money gets distributed.  I am referring to “bit media” companies.  Most people are at least aware of the fact that the industry is changing, but most are unaware of just how dramatic the changes have been the past few years or how much more dramatic they will seem in a few years time.  Rather than get into the specifics of these changes right away, I want to let you stew over this for a bit so I will follow up with “part 2″ of this post at a later date.  How’s that for a teaser???

For all you night-owl entrepreneurs who struggle to make it  to our early morning affairs, we’ve heard you and are responding.  Register FAST, this will “sell out” ’cause, what’s not to love???  Booze, food, digital media, and Laguna Beach… 3 of my favorite things.

DATE: Thursday, April 23rd

TIME: 5:30-9:00PM

LOCATION: [seven-degrees] 891 Laguna Canyon Rd. Laguna Beach

At OCVG’s first evening event of ‘09, learn from some of the quickest minds in Digital Media how they’re challenging the powers that be, raising BIG $$$ from VC’s and creating some of the coolest companies on planet earth.  As an added bonus, OCVG will host this mega networking event at [seven-degrees] in Laguna Beach — one of the hottest venues in Orange County.  We’ll have lots of munchies and FREE wine & beer.  Don’t miss out.  Stake your claim and RSVP NOW at www.OCVG.com.Our panelists include:

Dennis Mudd, Founder & CEO, Slacker, Inc. – Slacker creates the perfect personalized radio station for every listener by combining the knowledge of music experts with your preferences..  Since inception five years ago, the company has raised $53 million from “A-list” VC’s including Mission, Centennial, Rho, Austin Ventures and Sevin Rosen.  Before Slacker, Dennis was CEO at MusicMatch, sold to Yahoo for $160 million in 2004.

Jason Feffer, Founder & CEO, SodaHead.com – SodaHead is the premiere opinion-based social community for user-generated Q&A on today’s hottest topics.  Founded only two years ago, the company has raised more than $12 million from savvy investors including Mission Ventures, Mohr Davidow, the Tech Coast Angels and legendary Silicon Valley “über angel” Ron Conway.  Before founding SodaHead, Jason was VP Operations at MySpace.

Mark Kern, Founder & CEO, RED 5 Studios Inc. – Red5 is an independent online game developer led by the talent behind Blizzard Entertainment’s Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) hit, “World of Warcraft.”  To help fund their drive to become the leading studio for creative, original MMO games for global markets, the company has raised more than $18 million from top-tier Silicon Valley VC’s Benchmark and Sierra Ventures. 

MODERATOR: Bong Koh, Venture Partner, Prism Venture Partners – An expert in starting, growing and selling companies, Bong focuses on digital media and consumer Internet investments at Prism’s Santa Monica office.  With $1.25 billion under management, bi-coastal Prism is a leading investor in digital media start-ups. Before joining Prism two years ago, Bong was a VC at Advanced Technology Ventures.  Prior to this, Bong was co-founder of Mobilocity, a mobile solutions provider he sold to a joint venture of Qualcomm and global ad agency Omnicom. 

May your start-up get funded

and your customers be plenty

May your company be acquired

for a multiple north of 20

May good luck be with you

wherever you go

and your blessings outnumber

the shamrocks that grow!

So far, so good.  We’re averaging 8 entrepreneurs / VCs so I guess I’ll keep this party going and see where it ends up.  This month, we will be meeting March 19th, 9am-11am, at the Pacific Whey in Ladera Ranch at 25672 Crown Valley Parkway (in the Mercantile West Shopping Center).  Hope to see you there.  As always, any last minute changes will be communicated via http://twitter.com/ocvc.