Profits in the Attic

In Slate, Daniel Gross discusses how Ampex has turned its patent portfolio and the threat of patent litigation into profit: The Profits in the Attic - How an old technology has turned Ampex into America's hottest stock:

The hottest tech stock in America hasn't been surging because of what its products promise to do in the future, but for breakthroughs it made more than a decade ago. Ampex has quietly risen a whopping 2,000 percent in the past six months. It is perhaps the most extreme vindication of Kevin G. Rivette and David Kline's book Rembrandts in the Attic, which argued that companies' patent collections could constitute an overlooked treasure trove. In the past year, Ampex has found several Rembrandts in its attic, and maybe even a Renoir or two.