Patent Law

A reader inquired today on my opinion about Ocean Tomo.  Having not worked with the company before, I could offer no opinion, but it caused me to think that measuring success might prove difficult.  Ocean Tomo provides results of successful auctions, but for those that were unsuccessful or chose not to use an auction approach, finding values for the alternative (private licensing or litigation) might prove difficult.

I did a fair amount of research today and was unable to track down a comparison of Ocean Tomo to alternative solutions, but I did find an interesting presentation from a competitor in the IP Investment/Merchant Bank space -- Inflexion Point.  Art Monk and Ron Laurie of Inflexion Point Analytics, LLC made a presentation titled, "Business Opportunity Alternatives to Assertion-Based Patent Monetization" at the November 6, 2007 IP Society Seminar.

Assertion vs. Business Opportunity

Patent Monetization Models

The assertion-based patent monetization model results from viewing a patent as an exclusionary legal right

? Patent owner options:

? exclude the competition (via injunction) or

? tax the competition (via royalties for non-exclusive license)

? Value proposition: ?Pay us a royalty or we?ll sue!?

The business opportunity model views a patent as a commercial asset (like real estate or corporate securities)

? Patent owner options: multiple bus-dev opportunities

? Value proposition: ?We can both make money here.?

The Players - Assertion/Licensing Model

? Single Inventor Licensing Entities:

? RAKL (Ron Katz), NTP, Lemelson, Fergason

? Institutional Patent Aggregators:

? Offensive - Intellectual Ventures, Acacia, BTG

? Defensive - Open Invention Network (IBM, Novell, etc)

? Corporate Licensing Spin-outs:

? GE Commercial Finance, Lucent,

? AT&T Knowledge Ventures, BellSouth

? Litigation Finance Funds:

? Altitude, Rembrandt, NW Patent Funding, Oasis

? IP/Technology Development & Licensing Companies:

? Rambus, Tessera, Interdigital, AmberWave, MOSAID, MIPS, ARM, TPL

The Players - Business Opportunity Model

? Operating Companies:

- Buyers - e.g., Intel Capital, Microsoft

- Sellers - e.g., IBM, HP, Motorola

? Patent Brokers:

- Pluritas, iPotential, ThinkFire, IP Value

- Semiconductor Insights, Iceberg (UK)

- Bramson & Pressman, Fairfield Resources

? IP Investment/Merchant Banks:

- Inflexion Point, Ocean Tomo

? IP On-Line Exchanges:

- Yet2.com, Tynax

? IP Auctions (on-line and live):

- Ocean Tomo, IP Bewertungs AG, IP Auctions Inc.

See the full presentation here.