2. Mission Statement
"Patent Connect connects intellectual property/patent
owners with those that can use the innovation to create
profits that both sides can enjoy."
2
3. Hunting for IP
Marketing
Our Goal
Market Landscape
Subscriptions
Royalties & Licensing
3
5. Market Segmentation
• TAM
• 5.2 billion dollars in 2009 : Intellectual Property
Commercialization
• SAM
• Undeveloped patent offices/partially developed patent offices
• 300 million dollars
• Non-Profit research organizations
5
6. Market History
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STANFORD UNIVERSITY
160 WISCONSIN ALUMNI RESEARCH FOUNDATION JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
CORNELL RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
140
120
Number of Patents
100
80
60
40
20 6
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
8. Competitive Analysis
• Direct Competitor
• Virtual Technology Transfer Office, Inc.
• University offices of technology transfer
• Especially The University of Texas
• Indirect Competitor
• Venture Capitalists
• Emerging Companies 8
9. Market Segment
Strategy
• Target four universities which do not have a fully developed
University Technology Transfer Office.
• Patent Connect will provide these offices with our network of
business contacts
9
10. Brian Bigler, COO
CEO Nicole Girsch, CFO
MS-Biomedical Engineering MENG-Biomedical Engineering
MS-Biomedical Engineering
Darshan Shah, CTO Huifeng Zheng, CMO
MENG-Biomedical Engineering MS-Electrical Engineering
assist in IP processing
10
Later, with sufficient funds......
Chief Legal Adviser
12. Competitive Edge
• Will operate as a patent broker.
• Reduced cost structure
• Database Service 12
13. Sales Strategy
• Selling Points:
• Income from previously dormant patents
• Status and recognition for their research
• A cost effective way to transfer new technologies to the
marketplace
• Market research
• Database
13
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-wallpapers/1110.html
18. Break Even Analysis
$16
Millions
$14
$12
$10
$8 Total Operating Expenses
Gross Margin
$6 Net Profit
$4
$2
$0
1 2 3 4 5
18
($2)
19. Projected Cash Flow
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
Cash Received $100,000
Subtotal Cash from Operations $50,000 $150,000 $750,000 $7,500,000$15,000,000
New Investment Received $500,000 $500,000 $0 $0 $0
Total $550,000 $650,000 $750,000 $7,500,000$15,000,000
Expenditures from Operations
Cash Spending $300,000 $300,000 $300,000 $700,000 $756,010
Bill Payments $15,160 $15,843 $16,561 $338,395 $44,990
Subtotal Spent on Operations $315,160 $315,843 $316,561 $1,038,395 $800,000
19
Net Cash Flow -$165,160 -$165,160 $433,439 $6,461,605$14,200,000
Cash Balance $334,840 $668,997 $1,102,436 $7,564,041$21,764,041
--http://www.bplans.com/educational_research_business_plan/executive_summary_fc.php
20. Summary
• Technology Transfer Market is incredibly complex and leaves
useful patents undervalued and overlooked.
• We offer a means to display Universities’ complete patent
portfolio to the competitive industrial landscape
• We give value to the researchers
• Patent Connect requires $1 million to kick start the venture
20
Editor's Notes
Most university offices do not have the time and/or resources, nor the contacts in the business sector to effectively move new technology out to commercialization.
Competitive Technologies (CT) is our direct competitor as a private company that provides this licensing service. CT appears to be sub-licensing the IP and patents from the owners and writing licensing agreements with the end-user. However, in recent years this business model's weakness has shown itself as they have incurred high legal expenses due to patent protection. CT has a very small percentage of the market and, after one profitable year, had losses exceeding $1 million last year due to the litigation. Patent Connects will focus strictly on facilitating the creation of a licensing agreement between the university and the licensee and thereby have no responsibility in the enforcement of patent protections.Most universities already have an office of technology who to perform this function. However, because most university offices do not have the time and/or resources, nor the contacts in the business sector to effectively move new technology out to commercialization, we believe that Patent Connects can perform the sales and marketing for them more effectively and cost efficiently than their current system. It appears that 90% of the market uses in-house methods of distribution for licensing.
Once a potential licensee is found, Patent Connect will take a mediator position and using our license calculation methods, provide a base starting range for negotiations.
Patent Connects will be able to service multiple colleges and universities by spreading operating expenses over multiple clients.Edge over university technology offices.2…. Universities will be able to contact Patent Connects and know that within weeks they will have a list of prospective licensees and contacts at each business. Businesses will be able to contact Patent Connects and know that our database will contain information about our client universities' research projects available for licensing. Patent Connects will be the company to call by parties on both sides of the transaction. This is extremely important because these will be the only barriers to entry into the market.3….Patent Connects will not bring the actual license writing in-house, as that would both entail further hiring of legal resources, which is not a core competency of this company, and possibly require Patent Connects to litigate in cases of patent infringement and/or license enforcement. Once Patent Connects has established itself, an additional competitive advantage will be its reputation for service to both the research institutions and commercial businesses.
Target small technology transfer officesOnce Patent Connects has established itself as a legitimate player in the marketplace, Patent Connects expects to fund a full-time staff. Patent Connects will expand the number of universities that it will target and will be able to promote the network it has recently established. To these new customers, Patent Connects will provide value on two different levels. First, the network of private industry contacts will decrease the time-to-license and the number of licenses possible. Secondly, by using Patent Connects as an outsourcing resource, the universities can avoid the costs of a full-time staff.The future vision for Patent Connects includes regional offices, each with their own expertise, such as pharmaceutical/chemistry, electronics, computer sciences, and etc. This allows each office to provide a local point of contact to Patent Connects but also to avoid the duplication of services that would arise if it tried to service all industries in each office.Patent Connects will use the detailed information provided by the technology analysis to create a list of possible licensees. Using any personal contacts in the industry, we will make initial contact to set up a more formal meeting. Even for those contacts that do not become licensees, we will use the contact time for both contact mining for further possible license outlets and attempt to set up an informal relationship for future information gathering opportunities and licensee searches.
Regional Offices, each with their own expertiseAllow each office to provide a local point of contact to Patent ConnectWill help prevent duplicationFuture vision for Patent Connects includes regional offices, each with their own expertise, such as pharmaceutical/chemistry, electronics, computer sciences, and etc. This allows each office to provide a local point of contact to Patent Connects but also to avoid the duplication of services that would arise if it tried to service all industries in each office.
Pump the numbers upFour patents written in first year.Twelve active patents by end of Year 2 Positive cash flow for the fiscal year.Thirty-five active patents by end of Year 4 Provides enough future to sustain first full-time employment.
University Patents will operate with regional offices out of the founders' homes, without a formal brick and mortar location, into Year 4.The founders will be the only employees and work on a part-time basis during Years 1-3.The average license value to University Patents will be $12,750 (15% of the predicted $85,000 average revenue to the university).There will be a 10% loss of revenue from year to year due to un-renewed licenses.Sales and Marketing and Other ExpensesDepreciationComputer EquipmentUtilitiesInsurancePayroll TaxesISP AccessInformation ServicesTotal Operating Expenses
