This panel will discuss the current state of the secondary patent market, who’s buying, who’s selling, and at what price? It will look at what happens to patents after a sale, including the chance of winning on a bought patent. It will examine both standalone sales and the relatively invisible marketplace in which patents contribute significant value to a deal, including M&As, technology spinouts, JVs, tech-transfers, and exclusive field-of-use licenses.
Secondary Patent Market: Buyers, Sellers, Pricing and Trends
1. Business Sense • IP MattersBusiness Sense • IP Matters 1
Secondary Patent Market: Buyers,
Sellers, Pricing, and Trends
Kent Richardson
December 14, 2017
Contact Information:
+1 (650) 967-6555
kent@richardsonoliver.com
Copyright 2017 ROL
2. Business Sense • IP Matters
Agenda
Look back
Market dynamics
Prediction
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3. Business Sense • IP Matters
What’s the Secondary Patent Market?
3
Seller Buyer
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4. Business Sense • IP Matters
What Is in a Brokered Patent Package?
• List of patents for sale, applicable market, infringement analysis (claim chart), background on the
seller
• Asking price, bid dates, special circumstances (license back, specific encumbrances)
Typical package
• Confluence Patent Portfolio
• Single family (15 US Patents and 7 open applications) relating to social network data aggregation.
• 2006 priority date.
• Received July 2013
• Sold October 2014
• Asking prices: “7 figures”
• Multiple claim charts presented for
• Apple
• Google
• Facebook
• Purchased by an operating company
• Fingerprint Cards AB
Example package from Patent Profit (Will Plut)
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5. Business Sense • IP Matters
LinkedIn – What You Can Do Over Four Years
2011
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
#ofAssets
Portfolio Growth by Priority Year
Organic Portfolio Projected Organic Portfolio
2016
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
#Assets
Total Portfolio by Priority Year
Acquired Portfolio Organic Portfolio
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6. Business Sense • IP Matters
Where Is the Patent Market Today?
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7. Business Sense • IP Matters
Ten Years Ago
Secondary Market
7
2007
IV the
biggest
buyer
Few
brokers
AST and
RPX
Few
capable
buyers
What’s
a good
deal?
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8. Business Sense • IP Matters
Five Years Makes a Difference
8
2012 2017
Sources
Transactions
Pricing
Capabilities
Private Public
Only WSJ
published deals
Quarterly public data
Skewed
Intellectual Ventures
plus select companies
Quarterly public data
SMEs buying
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9. Business Sense • IP Matters
Agenda
Look back
Market dynamics
Prediction
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Deal Flow
10
Sellers
Buyers
Direct Sales
>1000 deals per year hit the market
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11. Business Sense • IP Matters
$0
$2
$4
$6
$8
$10
$12
$14
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
$12.5B in Patents Offered on the Secondary Market
11
Cumulative sum of asking prices of 110,000 plus patent assets in 119 technology categories
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Unsold
Sold
Billions of dollars of unsold patents on the market.
Litigation risks continue to increase
$B
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What’s the Asking Price of a Patent?
$252,367
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13. Business Sense • IP Matters
Caveats – Sure There Are a Few
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14. Business Sense • IP Matters
Asking Prices Reported Quarterly
14
Source: “Intellectual Ventures Back in Brokered Market in Q4,” Bloomberg BNA, March 10, 2017.
https://www.bna.com/intellectual-ventures-back-n57982085043/
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15. Business Sense • IP Matters
$K
Listing Year
Average Asking Prices ($K)
USMean
AssetMean
Asking Prices Are Stabilizing
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What’s Hot in the Patent Market Today
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17. Business Sense • IP Matters
Sales Rates Dropping or Shifting?
Sales Rate by Listing Year
Sales rates by listing year keep falling, even when adding
projected sales
Sales Rate of Inventory by Year
But sales as a percentage of new listings per year are
about the same
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18. Business Sense • IP Matters
SalesRate
# of Listings
2016 broker sales rate by number of listed packages
SalesRate
2016 Sales Rate 10.8%
Some Brokers Are More Effective Than Others
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SalesRate
# of Listings
2015 broker sales rate by number of listed packages
SalesRate
2015 Sales Rate 19.5%
And Some Do Amazingly Well
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20. Business Sense • IP Matters
Valueforbusinesspurpose
Proportion of the patent market
Value Distribution in the Secondary Market
20
Goal: Identify high-value patents to
purchase (1-2% of market)
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21. Business Sense • IP Matters
Sequencing Diligence is Critical
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66%
13%
13%
4%
3% 2%
Distribution of seller type by sale year 2016-2017
Operating company
NPE
Inventor
University/research
Defensive aggregator
Other
Distribution of Seller Type by 2017 Sale Year
Operating Companies Dominate the Market
22
Operating companies represent over 66% of the patents on the market, same as last year
NPEs decreased their sales for the first time in 3 years, but not all sales appear in the
brokered market
Cross-licensing prior to competitor patent sales is a benefit
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23. Business Sense • IP Matters
46%
37%
13%
4%
Distribution of buyer type by sale year 2016-2017
Operating company
NPE
Defensive aggregator
Other
Distribution of Buyer Type by 2017 Sale Year
23
Operating companies remain top buyers
NPE buying is ticking back up to 37% from 32%
IV ended their buying program
RPX and AST tied for top single buyer
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24. Business Sense • IP Matters
Multiple Sellers and Buyers 2016 - 2017
Top Sellers by Package Count
Aaron Emigh
Allied Security Trust (AST)
ATT
Clifford Sweatte
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
Foxsemicon Integrated Technology, Inc.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPe)
Honeywell International Inc.
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
IBM
Intel Corporation
MITRE Corporation
Panasonic Corporation
Rovi Corporation (Before Tivo acquisition)
RPX
Satyajit Patwardhan
Sergey Mavrody
Siemens
Silent Communication Ltd
Verizon
24
Top Buyers by Package Count
Allied Security Trust (AST)
Apple Inc.
Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd.
Belisso Llc
Blackbird Tech Llc
Cria Inc.
Empire IP, LLC
Entit Software Llc
Google Inc.
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Insight Interfaces Llc
Intellectual Ventures
Knapp Investment Company
Kudelski SA
Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, Llc
Microsoft Corporation
Mobile Synergy Solutions, LLC (Monument Patent
Holdings subsidiary)
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Top Buyers by Package Count
Munitech Ip SARL
Nuance Communications, Inc.
Open Invention Network, Llc
Optimum Communications Services, Inc.
Pathunt Ip Management Limited
Rakuten, Inc.
Regional Resources Limited
RPX
Servicenow, Inc.
Sk Hynix Inc.
Spectrum Patents, Inc.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Twitter, Inc.
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Uniloc Luxembourg S.A.
Vector Capital Corporation
25. Business Sense • IP Matters
Litigation Analysis: You Can Model Your Risk
Has Litigation Has IPR
Package Type Prior to
listing date
After listing
date
Prior to
listing date
After listing
date
Sold packages 6.3% 14.3% 0.3% 4.5%
All packages 4.2% 5.0% 0.2% 1.4%
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14.3% of sold packages are litigated – time to update models?
4.5% of sold packages are IPRed after listing – very few before they are listed
Both sold and unsold packages are litigated post listing
Defensive aggregator value may be greater than anticipated
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26. Business Sense • IP Matters
What Happens when You Litigate Bought Patents?
°Operating companies are successful
°33% self-generated vs.
°23% bought
°Conclusion: bought patents work, and factor the spread into your models
Attorney-Client Privileged & Confidential 26
Source: “Patent Purchases and Litigation Outcomes.” Lemley et. al. 2016 Patently-O Patent L.J. 15 (December 2016)
27. Business Sense • IP Matters
Agenda
Look back
Market dynamics
Prediction
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28. Business Sense • IP Matters
Where Is the Market Going?
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29. Business Sense • IP Matters
Trends and Predictions
More international sales
Prices – stabilized
Sales rates – remain low
Faster and simpler transactions expand market
NPEs continue to buy – fewer buyers drive this part of the market
More brokers leave
29Copyright 2017 ROL
30. Business Sense • IP Matters Attorney-Client Privileged & Confidential 30
BUSINESS SENSE • IP MATTERS
ROL Group has over 60 years of IP strategy and execution
experience. We ask the business questions first. We blend in-
house and large law firm experience to create clear steps for
success.
We guide companies through unique IP challenges—like buying
and selling patents, developing licensing programs, defending
against patent assertions, and creating a value-driven IP portfolio.
We give direction to businesses that share our passion for new
ideas, creative problem solving and forward motion.
Contact Information:
+1 (650) 967-6555
info@richardsonoliver.com
Editor's Notes
Private and public deals tracked by the ROL Group
Graph shows the cumulative asking price of sold and unsold assets. Where no asking price is provided by the seller, the average asking price is used.
Results varied by entity type (average across all types was 21% success bought vs. 28% self-generated)
Data set focused on patents that were litigated with the suit brought in 2009-2010 and taken to a substantive decision
Different types of entities had different results with bought patents (e.g. PAEs 11%, failed startups 22%, inventor-started companies 33%)
Overall
Bought patents work, you just need to factor the probabilities into your models
Litigation not the only reason to make purchases