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Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 55www.iam-magazine.com
Syndicated
patent deals: the
supercharging of
selling and buying
What is a syndicated patent deal and
how can it provide a better pathway to
monetisation for small and medium-
sized companies buying or selling patent
portfolios? What are the challenges for
sellers and buyers, and what are the main
benefits and opportunities? Here we discuss
the main stages of a syndicated patent
purchase transaction. We share examples of
how and how not to do it, and techniques
to create the optimal conditions for a
syndicated buy opportunity – also known
as ‘superpooling’.
We discuss the anatomy of a standard
patent transaction, comparing it with
a syndicated patent portfolio sale and
answering questions such as:how does
the syndicated deal come about? What
kind of patent portfolio is right for
a syndicated sale? What are the key
advantages and disadvantages of such a
deal? We also highlight the dos, don’ts
and ‘gotchas’ of a syndicated deal,
concluding with an action plan for owners
and buyers of patent assets.
What is a syndicated patent deal?
In a syndicated patent deal, a patent
portfolio is sold to multiple buyers which
are members of a syndicate. This syndicate
is typically pulled together by a third
Some of the world’s largest
corporations joined forces to
acquire patent portfolios in the
high profile Nortel and Novell
deals. Consortium buying also has
advantages for small and medium-
sized entities looking to purchase or
sell patents
By Fas Mosleh
party with experience of patent pooling,
managing and structuring such complex
transactions, which are much like M&A
transactions in their complexity and in
the need for multiple negotiations and
strategic business case development and
presentation.
Creating the optimal conditions for a
syndicated deal is called‘superpooling’(see
Figure 4). But why do it? Simply, in certain
circumstances the pay-off can be worth it (see
Table 1). If you have the right portfolio which
is of enough interest to multiple parties, the
price range is high enough to offset the costs
and complexity and you are willing to take a
greater risk and wait longer, then a syndicated
patent sale is for you (see Figure 2).
How might it come about?
Imagine that I am the CEO of an
e-commerce firm which owns the Z60
portfolio, comprising 60 US patents.
From a recent portfolio segmentation and
valuation exercise, my IP counsel and chief
technology officer have determined that
Z60 is being infringed fairly extensively
and could be worth a significant amount
if licensed or sold. As we do not want to
distract from the company’s main purpose
of building products, I have recommended
to the board that we sell these assets and
we have a plan outlining the options to
monetise these assets through a one-off
sale, rather than licensing.
We hire an analysis firm that assesses
all of our assets and finds that one-third
of them are directly infringed by 30 major
players, plus another 30 smaller players.
We spend about US$120,000 to assess the
entire portfolio and create multiple claim
charts and indication of use documents.
The Z60 portfolio is now valued for
sale at about US$15 million to US$20
million, based on the aggregate product
xxx
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xxx
revenue infringing the assets. However, we
determine that Z60 is a strong candidate for
a syndicated sale because it is large enough
and affects enough players and revenues to be
a significant magnet for multiple corporate
buyers. These buyers will have strong reasons
to buy, as indicated by the strong evidence
of use and mapping of infringing product
revenues in a large market.
I must now decide whether to create
my own team to sell the assets or to hire
the services of a broker or M&A specialist
with experience in large, complex patent
transactions. When it comes to driving a
critical transaction, the internal team is
limited in terms of not only expertise and
connections, but also time and bandwidth.
Therefore, I select an outside firm whose
fees will depend on the close of a successful
transaction. They will have enough skin in
the game to see it to a winning end.
Making a syndicated deal happen: the
perfect storm
Getting to a committed state and selecting the
approach (in-house or external) is a good first
step, but to pull off the deal you need to create
a perfect storm (see Figure 5). The critical
success factors include having the right
(qualified) portfolio and the best business deal
team you can afford, and creating the most
compelling reasons for multiple buyers to sign
up to a syndicated purchase.
Is my patent portfolio right for a
syndicated patent sale?
The basic business, technical and legal
qualification criteria must all be met
(see Figure 6). Further, the seller must be
committed to a patent sale that may take
at least 12 months. The portfolio may be
suitable for a syndicated deal if it passes
muster in the following areas:
•	Quality of assets (enough infringement
on enough revenues to be meaningful to
buyers).
•	Quantity of assets (enough to be
meaningful to buyers).
•	Legal health of assets (no legal glitches).
•	Technical mapping on major product
revenues of multiple buyers.
•	Value exceeds about US$10 million for a
standard sale.
However, be warned: although such
deals are not as distracting as licensing or
litigation, and they produce higher returns
than standard patent sales deals, under the
right circumstances they are all-consuming
for the business deal team owning the
project and are absolutely not for the
faint-hearted.
Key advantages and disadvantages of a
syndicated patent deal
In a syndicated patent deal, multiple buyers
converge, led by a pooling specialist. Such
a deal has both benefits and disadvantages
(see Table 5a and 5b). The key benefits are
that the seller gets a lot more money for
its portfolio, while buyers need not spend
as much to get the benefits of a patent
portfolio.
However, there are numerous
Legal
Finance/
MA
TechnologyBusiness/
strategy/
marketing
Approve
acquisition
Legal
Finance/
MA
Technology
Business/strategy/
marketing
Still
important
Become drivers
for purchase
decision
Figure 1a. ‘Standard deal’ is biased to legal and technology rationale
Figure 1b. Syndicated deals use a much higher degree of finance, MA and strategy/
marketing rationale
Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 57www.iam-magazine.com
xxx
disadvantages:
•	The specialised resources needed.
•	The amount of work that must be done
by the seller or its agent.
•	The cost of business case preparation, as
well as communication and agreement
of terms with so many sophisticated
corporate buyer organisations.
•	The complexity of the sale, which can
lead to delays and buyer drop-outs, as
well as risks in closing the transaction
on time and within the requirements of
the syndicate.
Standard patent sale v a syndicated sale
In a standard patent deal the seller either
hires a broker or arranges a sale directly
with a buyer. The process includes analysing
the portfolio, creating marketing materials,
taking the portfolio to market, supporting
the buyer’s due diligence, managing the
negotiation of the terms of the patent
purchase agreement and conducting the
closing of the transaction. During the
marketing process there may be several
buyers which present offers and competitive
bidding will ensue, resulting in a reasonably
fair, market-determined price.
In a syndicated patent sale multiple
buyers converge, led by a pooling specialist,
to buy the patent portfolio jointly. The
overall process is almost the same as that
for a standard patent sale; however, there are
certain steps with much greater complexity
and requiring extra work and resources, in
order to manage multiple aspects and bring
the pool of buyers together to agree a final
transaction. Additionally, the portfolio must
Table 1. Comparing average patent deal with syndicated deals
Deal parameters ‘Standard’ big deal Syndicated deal Notes
Timing 6-12 months 12+ months Intrinsically slow, especially due to
multiple large companies buying
Cost Low High Higher costs for preparation,
business case development;
communication and negotiation with
buyers, all multiplied many times
Complexity Medium High Many tasks with legal, BD, finance
and marketing and buyer specific
analyses, due diligence  final
negotiations
Price/revenue 100 150 On average 30%-50% higher sale
price
Risk of not closing Medium High Many in flight aspects multiply
chances of failure
A successful syndicated patent sale occurs
• Size of portfolio
• Quality of assets
• Size of market
• # of infringing products
and revenues
• Successful marketing
package
• Persuasive business case
• Successful recruitment of
syndicate members
• Critical mass of buyers
in syndicate
• Transaction negotiations
completed
• Deal closed
Figure 2. Hitting escape velocity
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xxx
pass certain minimum criteria way before it
can qualify as a syndicated deal.
Challenges for sellers and buyers in a
syndicated sale
A multiple-party syndicated purchase can
be exciting and yet challenging for sellers
(see Table 3). The seller’s management and
perhaps the board are expecting more money
and a higher percentage of net revenues, and
can become impatient when multiple buyers
must be brought on board gradually.
In addition, each buyer will almost
certainly want to negotiate and customise
the patent purchase agreement. It is
important that the experienced business
team, which has done this before,can
persuade each buyer to accept the minimum
amount of changes; however, multiple
redlines will likely float back and forth.
Frustration, impatience and concerns
over costs and ultimate net revenue are all
challenges to be expected. In addition,the
risk that the transaction will fall apart due
to an unknown gremlin always keeps sellers
and their teams preoccupied, especially if
one or two buyers drop out; even if done
confidentially, this can cause an unwanted
domino effect if left unchecked.
Buyers which are expecting to share in
the purchase of a promising portfolio are
looking for well-conceived, strategically
compatible reasons to buy. They cannot
tolerate prior art, weak evidence of use or
any other rocky facet that turns up during
final due diligence.
The fact that they have to share the
assets will reduce the strategic benefits that
their companies usually expect to gain, but
they are paying much less for the privilege.
However, the business case rationale for a
complex, multi-buyer deal will have to pass
through higher hurdles and will inevitably
attract the scrutiny of more senior
executives, even though the actual cost is
much lower than an exclusive purchase.
This leads us to understand better what
Pre-
qualification
Analyse/
prepare
Go to
market
Diligence
support
Negotiate Close
Committed seller?
Experienced deal team? MA, BD
technical legal
finance
Size, value, relevance of portfolio = qualified?
Sound analysis
Figure 3. Stages of a syndicated deal flow
Figure 4. “SuperPooling” – supercharged
syndicated pool based buying
Creating optimal conditions for
a syndicated purchase to happen
• The right portfolio
– Legal
– Technical
– Market/financial/business impact
– Identify the critical reasons to buy
• Stable, committed seller
• Identification of multiple buyers with
a reason to buy
• Assembling the business/sales team
– Analytics
– Legal
– BD/negotiation
– Marketing/finance
Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 59www.iam-magazine.com
xxx
is really needed from the seller in order to
bring a sophisticated corporate IP buyer on
board. The buyer must ensure that its patent
acquisition strategy aligns with its broader
patent and corporate strategy. It must assure
itself that the seller portfolio fits within
the realm of targets based on its strategic
objectives, potential synergies, organisational
and product/market needs, and the feasibility
of a deal (see Figure 8). Through rigorous
support of due diligence, the buyer is helped
to understand the potential for value creation
and the contributing drivers (eg, key patents
or applications).
To help the transaction to proceed
smoothly, the buyer must be adequately
supported in structuring the deal,
communicating its rationale to stakeholders
and executives, and planning for integration.
To provide a foundation for success after
the deal closes, the seller or its agent must
help buyers to extract the value for its
organisation according to the transaction’s
strategic objectives.
Some knowledge of the buyer’s internal
processes and capabilities to execute
Dependable
seller
The right
portfolio 
reasons to
buy
Proven business
team
Multiple ready
buyers
Critical success factors
The perfect storm
Figure 5. Making a syndicated deal happen
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xxx
• Valid to be shopped to multiple buyers?
• Enough value to buyers?
• Is investment worth the expense?
Seller agrees
Basic business
Size/segmentation
Market space
Quality
Health/expiry
Legal
Validity
Enforceability
Product mapping
Technical
IOU/EOU
Licensing revenues
(1st pass)
Q
U
A
L
I
F
I
E
D
Key
qualification
criteria
24
0
6 months
Time
12 months
1010
Strategic
NPE
Range
Offerprice(US$m)
Portfolio being sold: assumptions
• 35 assets including 5 apps
• 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs
• US$2b market with 40+ participants
• Top 20 users are targeted
Standard deal
• US$10m standard offer
• Takes approx 6 months to get
• 20% commission fees
• US$200k legal, analysis costs
• Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m
24
0
6 months 12 months
Portfolio being sold: assumptions
• 35 assets including 5 apps
• 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs
• US$2b market with 40+ participants
• Top 20 users are targeted
Syndicated deal (low) US$12m
• 20% higher than standard offer
• Takes approx 25% longer to get
• US$2m contributed per buyer (6)
• US$600k legal, analysis, BD costs
• 20% commission fees
• Costs = US$3m
• Net revenue to seller = US$9m
Standard deal
• US$10m standard offer
• Takes approx 6 months to get
• 20% commission fees
• US$200k legal, analysis costs
• Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m
1010
Strategic
NPE
Range
12
Offerprice(US$m)
Time
Figure 6. Patent portfolio qualification gates
Figure 7a. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ deal
Figure 7b. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ v syndicated low
Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 61www.iam-magazine.com
xxx
successful transactions and its strategic
needs will help to smooth the path to a
complex transaction.
Key stages in a syndicated patent sale
A syndicated patent sale has at least six
clear stages (see Figure 3), starting with pre-
qualification, where the seller or its agent
identifies clearly whether the portfolio is
qualified to be in a syndicated sale. Parameters
such as the size of the portfolio, the quality
of the assets, the size of the market and the
number of infringing products and revenues
are ascertained (see Figure 6).
The next stage of further analysis is
used to build the rationale for the reason
to buy for the target buyers. This involves
deeper assessments including claim
charting and understanding the infringing
products and how their business is affected
by the patent portfolio. The data produced
here leads to a successful marketing package
being built and taken to market.
This package contains a persuasive
business case for the buyers and a minimum
entry price. The next stage is approaching
key buyers in the go-to-market effort and
ensuring the successful recruitment of
syndicate members. Once there is a critical
mass of buyers in the syndicate, which in
principle are agreed to the price and terms
of a sale, the further recruitment of buyers
becomes simpler. The next stage is focused
on intense support of due diligence for each
buyer which is keen to assess the portfolio
for suitability.
The negotiation stage is focused more
on the terms and conditions and gaining
acceptance of a generic purchase agreement
than on pricing. The final stage is the
closing of the overall deal.
Typical questions
The following may be asked by the buyer:
•	Do I pay the same as someone else that
is getting much more benefit than me?
•	How do we co-own and manage the
assets in the future?
•	Do the assets get sold off again?
•	Am I essentially buying a licence?
•	Why are we paying US$x when we
should be paying US$y?
•	Why does this portfolio not deliver
what we need for the price?
Examples of syndicated patent deals
To understand syndicated patent deals
better, let’s look at examples featuring four
deals, each with a varying portfolio size (see
Table 4):
•	Deal A, termed small, is a mid-
seven-figure sale price and is just not
24
0
6 months 12 months
1010
Strategic
NPE
Range
Portfolio being sold: assumptions
• 35 assets including 5 apps
• 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs
• US$2b market with 40+ participants
• Top 20 users are targeted
Syndicated deal (high) US$24m
• X2.4 standard offer
• Takes approx x2 longer to get
• US$2m contributed per buyer (12)
• US$1m legal, analysis, BD costs
• 20% commission fees
• Costs = US$6m
• Net revenue to seller = US$18m
Standard deal
• US$10m standard offer
• Takes approx 6 months to get
• 20% commission fees
• US$200k legal, analysis costs
• Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m 12
16
24
Offerprice(US$m)
Time
Figure 7c. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ v syndicated high
Offer type Offer (US$m) # Buyers Costs (US$m) Net revenues
(US$m)
Time taken
(months)
Net revenue over
standard deal
Standard deal 10 1 2.2 7.8 6 0
Syndicated low 12 6 3 9 8 x1.15
Syndicated
medium
16 8 4 12 10 x1.5
Syndicated high 24 12 6 18 12 x2.3
Table 2. Deal comparison
Portfolio being sold: assumptions
•	 35 assets including 5 apps
•	 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs
•	 US$2b market with 40+ participants
•	 Top 20 users are targeted
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There are things that you should and
shouldn’t do when exploring the possibility
of syndicated patent deals. There are also
events that can catch you out, so be careful!
Do:
•	Find out whether your assets represent
high-quality patents that will have
relevance to multiple large companies for
a syndicated purchase.
•	Explore the relevance of the size of the
portfolio, the quality of assets, the size of
the market and the number of infringing
products and revenues – and vet your
evidence of use by a third party.
•	Bring together an experienced patent
MA team that has done complex
patent deals and structured MA-style
transactions in the past. If you are doing
everything in-house, then ensure that your
legal, business development, analytics
management and financial/marketing
talent is up to the task; otherwise, recruit
an experienced consultant.
•	Obviously, a more favourable impression
is likely to result if the information is
presented in an organised and cohesive
fashion. Whatever sales situation is
presented, it is imperative to ensure that
someone has reviewed the materials
provided in due diligence before they are
made available to the other side.
•	Create a compelling business case with
the critical reasons to buy specified
in the most relevant manner for each
target buyer. There will be a platform of
data and analytics on which a business
case and rationale will be created that is
specific to buyers and their exact needs.
•	Stay focused on the buyers’ goals and
circle back regularly to ensure that they
are being met. Understanding the goals
of the buyers is critical to a timely and
successful transaction. Although the
deal team and the buyers may develop
a rapport and successful working style,
the deal may not close if the process
conducted lacks adequate attention to
the buyer’s specific goals. Ensure that
the team flags potential problem areas
in advance – for instance, if one of the
buyers is seeking to obtain protection
for a specific product and it was not in
the original package, then develop the
rationale that supports it.
Don’t:
•	Assume that you have a valuable
portfolio when you may not – either get
an independent valuation or be sure that
your evidence of use analysis is vetted
by a third party.
•	Assume that you can ask for more than a
certain threshold from each buyer. US$1
million may look like a small sum to you,
but many operating companies have to
get authorisation from several levels and
the higher they need to go, the better the
justification must be. The threshold can
vary for the type of asset, the number of
assets and, of course, the technology
area and the demand for it.
•	Think that it will be a fast deal – this
almost never happens, and especially
not for a multiple-buyer syndicated deal.
•	Think that complex negotiations will be
inexpensive. Some larger deals have cost
upwards of six figures just for the legal
and negotiation costs; this is in sharp
contrast to five-figure sums for standard
patent sales made to a single buyer.
Remember that:
•	Your board or your owners could change
their mind – this can be a very expensive
change of heart!
•	Buyers may agree to buy initially, but
backout during diligence because
some basic legal assessment did
not get done upfront (eg, patents not
expired, invalidity search not carried out
thoroughly enough).
•	Accidental damage or invalidation
could occur if the go-to market process
is not executed carefully; declaratory
judgments (DJs) have been known to
surface in worst-case scenarios
•	Expect the unexpected and deal with it.
You cannot anticipate all the curve balls
thrown at you in a syndicated deal, but
be prepared to be resilient and always
caution your board that the deal is not
done until it is done.
Dos, don’ts and ‘gotchas’ of a syndicated patent deal
Parameter Explanation Seller Buyer
Timing Time taken to close Higher Higher
Cost US$s Preparation, negotiation, closing Higher Lower
Risk Crash  burn Higher Higher
Revenues Sale price Higher NA
Strategic benefit Defensive, offensive use of asset NA Depends – same, higher or lower
Complexity Higher Higher
Table 3. How a syndicated deal compares to a ‘standard’ deal
Key question for buyer:
Does the benefit/cost ratio justify the extra work, time, lower flexibility in use of assets?
Key question for seller:
Does the revenues/cost ratio justify the extra work, time, risk of sale of the assets?
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big enough even to qualify to be a
syndicated deal. The amount invested
and the return received do not justify it
for either the seller or the buyers.
•	Deal B is a medium-sized deal with
Longer to closeTiming
Cheaper for buyerCost to buy
RiskierRisk of not closing
More US$s to ownerRevenue to seller
Very intricateComplexity
Figure 8. Syndicated deals characteristics about 30 assets and 15 good evidences
of use, making it a potential candidate
at the lowest end of the spectrum.
The syndicated deal sale value could
be about double that obtained from an
individual buyer.
•	Deal C starts to hit the sweet spot, with
a sale revenue factor of more than two;
the size of the portfolio and the number
of infringing parties make it worthy of
attention from multiple buyers.
•	Deal D, termed huge because it will hit
the low nine figures, is less common
since it has so many assets of high
quality (50 evidences of use).
The anatomy of a sale
Let us assume that an enterprise software
portfolio is being sold that contains 35 assets,
including five apps. The seller has had 12
claim charts and 15 indications of use built,
and knows that the assets are being infringed
Example Portfolio size
(assets=patent + apps)
‘Quality’ Infringing (licensing)
revenues/players
‘Standard’ deal
(US$m)
Syndicated deal
(US$m)
Small 10 3 EOUs 50/6 3 NA
Medium 30 15 EOUs 100/10 6-8 15-20
Large 80 25 EOUs 300/15 15-25 45-60
Huge 250 50 EOUs 1000/50 50-80 75-150
‘Standard’ deal Syndicated deal
Advantages Easier, simpler transaction More revenue (x1.5 to x3 more)
Closes faster
Less transaction expense
Disadvantages Lower sale price Complex negotiations
Could crash and burn
Costlier to develop materials
Costlier to negotiate with multiple buyers
‘Standard’ deal Syndicated deal
Advantages Easier, simple transaction Less expensive (could be 1/3 to 1/6 of the cost or less)
Closes faster
High control of assets as buyer is primary owner Less control after purchase (multiple owners)
Disadvantages Pay more for the privilege Less control after purchase (multiple owners)
Takes longer to close
Table 4. Example numbers for four scenarios
Table 5a. Advantages and disadvantages for seller
Table 5b. Advantages and disadvantages for buyers
•	 Assuming that the portfolios are focused in the web software or enterprise software technology segment.
•	 Based on average market prices and assuming good to great infringement for each portfolio.
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xxx
by a US$2 billion market with more than
40 participants, with the top 20 users being
targeted. Let us assume that many of the details
have been worked out such that there is high
discoverability, no known invalidity, a clean
chain of title and up-to-date maintenance fees
(see Figures 7a to 7c and Table 2).
In a standard patent transaction (see
Figure 7a), the seller may obtain varying
offers from non-practising entities (red dot)
and operating companies (green dot) over
a period of, for example, six months. The
range of offers will tend to fluctuate, but
then stabilise over a small range around the
US$10 million mark. Assuming that the cost
of legal and analysis is about $200,000 and
the commission being charged by the broker
is 20%, the net revenue to the seller will be
about US$7.8 million at closing. The broker
will absorb the analysis cost many times, so
the actual net could be a bit higher.
Now, let us look at Figure 7b, where
the same portfolio is presented as a
syndicated deal and, after about eight
months, a syndicated offer of US$12 million
is constructed with six buyers being ready
to buy. Each buyer is paying US$2 million
for the privilege. Let us also assume the
deal has cost US$600,000 in legal, analysis
and business development costs and the
commission rate remains the same. In this
case, if the seller closes the deal, the net
revenues are US$9 million, again assuming
that the seller is paying all of the costs. In
this low syndicated deal scenario, it has taken
about 25% to 30% longer to get an offer, and
the net revenues are about 15% higher.
If the seller decides to keep trying to
get more buyers interested, a syndicated
medium offer may occur at, for example, the
10-month mark. This presents a net revenue
opportunity of US$12 million (see Table 2).
However, the seller really wins when
the syndicated patent portfolio sale model
continues for around 12 months and there
are now 12 buyers able and willing to close.
Here the costs in legal fees, analysis and
business development alone exceed US$1
million and the commission – which
remains at 20%, due to many more mouths
being fed in the chain – results in net
revenues of about US$18 million. This is
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xxx
When exploring the possibility of a
syndicated patent deal a seller should
•	Evaluate its portfolio and segment it to
understand what it would like to sell.
•	Get the agreement of the board and
investors to sell assets and create a
sales plan, or alternatively decide to
find a broker to represent the sale.
•	Analyse the assets and
exploretechnical analyses supporting
infringement with indication of use and
evidence of use materials. Understand
the extent of the potential licensing
revenue, the market penetrated, the
product revenues that infringe and
the potential timeframe for which this
technology will remain relevant.
•	Does the portfolio have the right size,
broad relevance to multiple buyers,
quality of assets and reasons to buy?
•	There should be no issues with chain of
title, inventor, ownership, enforceability,
invalidity or scope of protection.
•	Some simple criteria to check the
status of whether assets can be sold in
a syndicate: more than 20 US patents,
50% with strong claim charts; a
valuation of US$10 million or more; no
legal issues; and multiple buyers with
a reason to buy.
For their part, buyers should:
•	Look out for good deals on the market
that bring value but at a great price.
Action plan A
indeed the best result. Even though more
time and dollars were invested, this result
offers net revenues that are 2.3 times greater
than the standard sale. Table 2 shows a
comparison of all four offer scenarios.
As we have seen above, there are benefits
as well as disadvantages of doing a syndicated
patent deal. However, if the seller gets more
for extra effort and risk, and the buyer gets
more for less, and the buyer’s agent or broker
garners significantly more than a living wage,
then provided the additional work, time
and risk involved is heartily outweighed by
these positives, a well executed syndicated
deal is a true win-win-win for all concerned,
especially the shareholders.
So next time you look at your patent
portfolio, do ask yourself:“Is it good enough
and am I strong enough and willing, for a
greater reward, to withstand the oft unsettling
perfect storm of a syndicated deal?”
Fas Mosleh is senior vice president of IP
mergers and acquisitions at Kanzatec IP
Group, Los Altos, California
fmosleh@kanzatec.com

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Syndicated Patent Deals = Supercharging the buying and selling of patents by Fas Mosleh ex-Hewlett-Packard Director of IP

  • 1. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 55www.iam-magazine.com Syndicated patent deals: the supercharging of selling and buying What is a syndicated patent deal and how can it provide a better pathway to monetisation for small and medium- sized companies buying or selling patent portfolios? What are the challenges for sellers and buyers, and what are the main benefits and opportunities? Here we discuss the main stages of a syndicated patent purchase transaction. We share examples of how and how not to do it, and techniques to create the optimal conditions for a syndicated buy opportunity – also known as ‘superpooling’. We discuss the anatomy of a standard patent transaction, comparing it with a syndicated patent portfolio sale and answering questions such as:how does the syndicated deal come about? What kind of patent portfolio is right for a syndicated sale? What are the key advantages and disadvantages of such a deal? We also highlight the dos, don’ts and ‘gotchas’ of a syndicated deal, concluding with an action plan for owners and buyers of patent assets. What is a syndicated patent deal? In a syndicated patent deal, a patent portfolio is sold to multiple buyers which are members of a syndicate. This syndicate is typically pulled together by a third Some of the world’s largest corporations joined forces to acquire patent portfolios in the high profile Nortel and Novell deals. Consortium buying also has advantages for small and medium- sized entities looking to purchase or sell patents By Fas Mosleh party with experience of patent pooling, managing and structuring such complex transactions, which are much like M&A transactions in their complexity and in the need for multiple negotiations and strategic business case development and presentation. Creating the optimal conditions for a syndicated deal is called‘superpooling’(see Figure 4). But why do it? Simply, in certain circumstances the pay-off can be worth it (see Table 1). If you have the right portfolio which is of enough interest to multiple parties, the price range is high enough to offset the costs and complexity and you are willing to take a greater risk and wait longer, then a syndicated patent sale is for you (see Figure 2). How might it come about? Imagine that I am the CEO of an e-commerce firm which owns the Z60 portfolio, comprising 60 US patents. From a recent portfolio segmentation and valuation exercise, my IP counsel and chief technology officer have determined that Z60 is being infringed fairly extensively and could be worth a significant amount if licensed or sold. As we do not want to distract from the company’s main purpose of building products, I have recommended to the board that we sell these assets and we have a plan outlining the options to monetise these assets through a one-off sale, rather than licensing. We hire an analysis firm that assesses all of our assets and finds that one-third of them are directly infringed by 30 major players, plus another 30 smaller players. We spend about US$120,000 to assess the entire portfolio and create multiple claim charts and indication of use documents. The Z60 portfolio is now valued for sale at about US$15 million to US$20 million, based on the aggregate product xxx
  • 2. www.iam-magazine.com56 Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 xxx revenue infringing the assets. However, we determine that Z60 is a strong candidate for a syndicated sale because it is large enough and affects enough players and revenues to be a significant magnet for multiple corporate buyers. These buyers will have strong reasons to buy, as indicated by the strong evidence of use and mapping of infringing product revenues in a large market. I must now decide whether to create my own team to sell the assets or to hire the services of a broker or M&A specialist with experience in large, complex patent transactions. When it comes to driving a critical transaction, the internal team is limited in terms of not only expertise and connections, but also time and bandwidth. Therefore, I select an outside firm whose fees will depend on the close of a successful transaction. They will have enough skin in the game to see it to a winning end. Making a syndicated deal happen: the perfect storm Getting to a committed state and selecting the approach (in-house or external) is a good first step, but to pull off the deal you need to create a perfect storm (see Figure 5). The critical success factors include having the right (qualified) portfolio and the best business deal team you can afford, and creating the most compelling reasons for multiple buyers to sign up to a syndicated purchase. Is my patent portfolio right for a syndicated patent sale? The basic business, technical and legal qualification criteria must all be met (see Figure 6). Further, the seller must be committed to a patent sale that may take at least 12 months. The portfolio may be suitable for a syndicated deal if it passes muster in the following areas: • Quality of assets (enough infringement on enough revenues to be meaningful to buyers). • Quantity of assets (enough to be meaningful to buyers). • Legal health of assets (no legal glitches). • Technical mapping on major product revenues of multiple buyers. • Value exceeds about US$10 million for a standard sale. However, be warned: although such deals are not as distracting as licensing or litigation, and they produce higher returns than standard patent sales deals, under the right circumstances they are all-consuming for the business deal team owning the project and are absolutely not for the faint-hearted. Key advantages and disadvantages of a syndicated patent deal In a syndicated patent deal, multiple buyers converge, led by a pooling specialist. Such a deal has both benefits and disadvantages (see Table 5a and 5b). The key benefits are that the seller gets a lot more money for its portfolio, while buyers need not spend as much to get the benefits of a patent portfolio. However, there are numerous Legal Finance/ MA TechnologyBusiness/ strategy/ marketing Approve acquisition Legal Finance/ MA Technology Business/strategy/ marketing Still important Become drivers for purchase decision Figure 1a. ‘Standard deal’ is biased to legal and technology rationale Figure 1b. Syndicated deals use a much higher degree of finance, MA and strategy/ marketing rationale
  • 3. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 57www.iam-magazine.com xxx disadvantages: • The specialised resources needed. • The amount of work that must be done by the seller or its agent. • The cost of business case preparation, as well as communication and agreement of terms with so many sophisticated corporate buyer organisations. • The complexity of the sale, which can lead to delays and buyer drop-outs, as well as risks in closing the transaction on time and within the requirements of the syndicate. Standard patent sale v a syndicated sale In a standard patent deal the seller either hires a broker or arranges a sale directly with a buyer. The process includes analysing the portfolio, creating marketing materials, taking the portfolio to market, supporting the buyer’s due diligence, managing the negotiation of the terms of the patent purchase agreement and conducting the closing of the transaction. During the marketing process there may be several buyers which present offers and competitive bidding will ensue, resulting in a reasonably fair, market-determined price. In a syndicated patent sale multiple buyers converge, led by a pooling specialist, to buy the patent portfolio jointly. The overall process is almost the same as that for a standard patent sale; however, there are certain steps with much greater complexity and requiring extra work and resources, in order to manage multiple aspects and bring the pool of buyers together to agree a final transaction. Additionally, the portfolio must Table 1. Comparing average patent deal with syndicated deals Deal parameters ‘Standard’ big deal Syndicated deal Notes Timing 6-12 months 12+ months Intrinsically slow, especially due to multiple large companies buying Cost Low High Higher costs for preparation, business case development; communication and negotiation with buyers, all multiplied many times Complexity Medium High Many tasks with legal, BD, finance and marketing and buyer specific analyses, due diligence final negotiations Price/revenue 100 150 On average 30%-50% higher sale price Risk of not closing Medium High Many in flight aspects multiply chances of failure A successful syndicated patent sale occurs • Size of portfolio • Quality of assets • Size of market • # of infringing products and revenues • Successful marketing package • Persuasive business case • Successful recruitment of syndicate members • Critical mass of buyers in syndicate • Transaction negotiations completed • Deal closed Figure 2. Hitting escape velocity
  • 4. www.iam-magazine.com58 Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 xxx pass certain minimum criteria way before it can qualify as a syndicated deal. Challenges for sellers and buyers in a syndicated sale A multiple-party syndicated purchase can be exciting and yet challenging for sellers (see Table 3). The seller’s management and perhaps the board are expecting more money and a higher percentage of net revenues, and can become impatient when multiple buyers must be brought on board gradually. In addition, each buyer will almost certainly want to negotiate and customise the patent purchase agreement. It is important that the experienced business team, which has done this before,can persuade each buyer to accept the minimum amount of changes; however, multiple redlines will likely float back and forth. Frustration, impatience and concerns over costs and ultimate net revenue are all challenges to be expected. In addition,the risk that the transaction will fall apart due to an unknown gremlin always keeps sellers and their teams preoccupied, especially if one or two buyers drop out; even if done confidentially, this can cause an unwanted domino effect if left unchecked. Buyers which are expecting to share in the purchase of a promising portfolio are looking for well-conceived, strategically compatible reasons to buy. They cannot tolerate prior art, weak evidence of use or any other rocky facet that turns up during final due diligence. The fact that they have to share the assets will reduce the strategic benefits that their companies usually expect to gain, but they are paying much less for the privilege. However, the business case rationale for a complex, multi-buyer deal will have to pass through higher hurdles and will inevitably attract the scrutiny of more senior executives, even though the actual cost is much lower than an exclusive purchase. This leads us to understand better what Pre- qualification Analyse/ prepare Go to market Diligence support Negotiate Close Committed seller? Experienced deal team? MA, BD technical legal finance Size, value, relevance of portfolio = qualified? Sound analysis Figure 3. Stages of a syndicated deal flow Figure 4. “SuperPooling” – supercharged syndicated pool based buying Creating optimal conditions for a syndicated purchase to happen • The right portfolio – Legal – Technical – Market/financial/business impact – Identify the critical reasons to buy • Stable, committed seller • Identification of multiple buyers with a reason to buy • Assembling the business/sales team – Analytics – Legal – BD/negotiation – Marketing/finance
  • 5. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 59www.iam-magazine.com xxx is really needed from the seller in order to bring a sophisticated corporate IP buyer on board. The buyer must ensure that its patent acquisition strategy aligns with its broader patent and corporate strategy. It must assure itself that the seller portfolio fits within the realm of targets based on its strategic objectives, potential synergies, organisational and product/market needs, and the feasibility of a deal (see Figure 8). Through rigorous support of due diligence, the buyer is helped to understand the potential for value creation and the contributing drivers (eg, key patents or applications). To help the transaction to proceed smoothly, the buyer must be adequately supported in structuring the deal, communicating its rationale to stakeholders and executives, and planning for integration. To provide a foundation for success after the deal closes, the seller or its agent must help buyers to extract the value for its organisation according to the transaction’s strategic objectives. Some knowledge of the buyer’s internal processes and capabilities to execute Dependable seller The right portfolio reasons to buy Proven business team Multiple ready buyers Critical success factors The perfect storm Figure 5. Making a syndicated deal happen
  • 6. www.iam-magazine.com60 Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 xxx • Valid to be shopped to multiple buyers? • Enough value to buyers? • Is investment worth the expense? Seller agrees Basic business Size/segmentation Market space Quality Health/expiry Legal Validity Enforceability Product mapping Technical IOU/EOU Licensing revenues (1st pass) Q U A L I F I E D Key qualification criteria 24 0 6 months Time 12 months 1010 Strategic NPE Range Offerprice(US$m) Portfolio being sold: assumptions • 35 assets including 5 apps • 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs • US$2b market with 40+ participants • Top 20 users are targeted Standard deal • US$10m standard offer • Takes approx 6 months to get • 20% commission fees • US$200k legal, analysis costs • Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m 24 0 6 months 12 months Portfolio being sold: assumptions • 35 assets including 5 apps • 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs • US$2b market with 40+ participants • Top 20 users are targeted Syndicated deal (low) US$12m • 20% higher than standard offer • Takes approx 25% longer to get • US$2m contributed per buyer (6) • US$600k legal, analysis, BD costs • 20% commission fees • Costs = US$3m • Net revenue to seller = US$9m Standard deal • US$10m standard offer • Takes approx 6 months to get • 20% commission fees • US$200k legal, analysis costs • Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m 1010 Strategic NPE Range 12 Offerprice(US$m) Time Figure 6. Patent portfolio qualification gates Figure 7a. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ deal Figure 7b. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ v syndicated low
  • 7. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 61www.iam-magazine.com xxx successful transactions and its strategic needs will help to smooth the path to a complex transaction. Key stages in a syndicated patent sale A syndicated patent sale has at least six clear stages (see Figure 3), starting with pre- qualification, where the seller or its agent identifies clearly whether the portfolio is qualified to be in a syndicated sale. Parameters such as the size of the portfolio, the quality of the assets, the size of the market and the number of infringing products and revenues are ascertained (see Figure 6). The next stage of further analysis is used to build the rationale for the reason to buy for the target buyers. This involves deeper assessments including claim charting and understanding the infringing products and how their business is affected by the patent portfolio. The data produced here leads to a successful marketing package being built and taken to market. This package contains a persuasive business case for the buyers and a minimum entry price. The next stage is approaching key buyers in the go-to-market effort and ensuring the successful recruitment of syndicate members. Once there is a critical mass of buyers in the syndicate, which in principle are agreed to the price and terms of a sale, the further recruitment of buyers becomes simpler. The next stage is focused on intense support of due diligence for each buyer which is keen to assess the portfolio for suitability. The negotiation stage is focused more on the terms and conditions and gaining acceptance of a generic purchase agreement than on pricing. The final stage is the closing of the overall deal. Typical questions The following may be asked by the buyer: • Do I pay the same as someone else that is getting much more benefit than me? • How do we co-own and manage the assets in the future? • Do the assets get sold off again? • Am I essentially buying a licence? • Why are we paying US$x when we should be paying US$y? • Why does this portfolio not deliver what we need for the price? Examples of syndicated patent deals To understand syndicated patent deals better, let’s look at examples featuring four deals, each with a varying portfolio size (see Table 4): • Deal A, termed small, is a mid- seven-figure sale price and is just not 24 0 6 months 12 months 1010 Strategic NPE Range Portfolio being sold: assumptions • 35 assets including 5 apps • 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs • US$2b market with 40+ participants • Top 20 users are targeted Syndicated deal (high) US$24m • X2.4 standard offer • Takes approx x2 longer to get • US$2m contributed per buyer (12) • US$1m legal, analysis, BD costs • 20% commission fees • Costs = US$6m • Net revenue to seller = US$18m Standard deal • US$10m standard offer • Takes approx 6 months to get • 20% commission fees • US$200k legal, analysis costs • Net revenue to seller = US$7.8m 12 16 24 Offerprice(US$m) Time Figure 7c. Progression of offers – ‘standard’ v syndicated high Offer type Offer (US$m) # Buyers Costs (US$m) Net revenues (US$m) Time taken (months) Net revenue over standard deal Standard deal 10 1 2.2 7.8 6 0 Syndicated low 12 6 3 9 8 x1.15 Syndicated medium 16 8 4 12 10 x1.5 Syndicated high 24 12 6 18 12 x2.3 Table 2. Deal comparison Portfolio being sold: assumptions • 35 assets including 5 apps • 12 claim charts, 15 IOUs • US$2b market with 40+ participants • Top 20 users are targeted
  • 8. www.iam-magazine.com62 Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 xxx There are things that you should and shouldn’t do when exploring the possibility of syndicated patent deals. There are also events that can catch you out, so be careful! Do: • Find out whether your assets represent high-quality patents that will have relevance to multiple large companies for a syndicated purchase. • Explore the relevance of the size of the portfolio, the quality of assets, the size of the market and the number of infringing products and revenues – and vet your evidence of use by a third party. • Bring together an experienced patent MA team that has done complex patent deals and structured MA-style transactions in the past. If you are doing everything in-house, then ensure that your legal, business development, analytics management and financial/marketing talent is up to the task; otherwise, recruit an experienced consultant. • Obviously, a more favourable impression is likely to result if the information is presented in an organised and cohesive fashion. Whatever sales situation is presented, it is imperative to ensure that someone has reviewed the materials provided in due diligence before they are made available to the other side. • Create a compelling business case with the critical reasons to buy specified in the most relevant manner for each target buyer. There will be a platform of data and analytics on which a business case and rationale will be created that is specific to buyers and their exact needs. • Stay focused on the buyers’ goals and circle back regularly to ensure that they are being met. Understanding the goals of the buyers is critical to a timely and successful transaction. Although the deal team and the buyers may develop a rapport and successful working style, the deal may not close if the process conducted lacks adequate attention to the buyer’s specific goals. Ensure that the team flags potential problem areas in advance – for instance, if one of the buyers is seeking to obtain protection for a specific product and it was not in the original package, then develop the rationale that supports it. Don’t: • Assume that you have a valuable portfolio when you may not – either get an independent valuation or be sure that your evidence of use analysis is vetted by a third party. • Assume that you can ask for more than a certain threshold from each buyer. US$1 million may look like a small sum to you, but many operating companies have to get authorisation from several levels and the higher they need to go, the better the justification must be. The threshold can vary for the type of asset, the number of assets and, of course, the technology area and the demand for it. • Think that it will be a fast deal – this almost never happens, and especially not for a multiple-buyer syndicated deal. • Think that complex negotiations will be inexpensive. Some larger deals have cost upwards of six figures just for the legal and negotiation costs; this is in sharp contrast to five-figure sums for standard patent sales made to a single buyer. Remember that: • Your board or your owners could change their mind – this can be a very expensive change of heart! • Buyers may agree to buy initially, but backout during diligence because some basic legal assessment did not get done upfront (eg, patents not expired, invalidity search not carried out thoroughly enough). • Accidental damage or invalidation could occur if the go-to market process is not executed carefully; declaratory judgments (DJs) have been known to surface in worst-case scenarios • Expect the unexpected and deal with it. You cannot anticipate all the curve balls thrown at you in a syndicated deal, but be prepared to be resilient and always caution your board that the deal is not done until it is done. Dos, don’ts and ‘gotchas’ of a syndicated patent deal Parameter Explanation Seller Buyer Timing Time taken to close Higher Higher Cost US$s Preparation, negotiation, closing Higher Lower Risk Crash burn Higher Higher Revenues Sale price Higher NA Strategic benefit Defensive, offensive use of asset NA Depends – same, higher or lower Complexity Higher Higher Table 3. How a syndicated deal compares to a ‘standard’ deal Key question for buyer: Does the benefit/cost ratio justify the extra work, time, lower flexibility in use of assets? Key question for seller: Does the revenues/cost ratio justify the extra work, time, risk of sale of the assets?
  • 9. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 63www.iam-magazine.com xxx big enough even to qualify to be a syndicated deal. The amount invested and the return received do not justify it for either the seller or the buyers. • Deal B is a medium-sized deal with Longer to closeTiming Cheaper for buyerCost to buy RiskierRisk of not closing More US$s to ownerRevenue to seller Very intricateComplexity Figure 8. Syndicated deals characteristics about 30 assets and 15 good evidences of use, making it a potential candidate at the lowest end of the spectrum. The syndicated deal sale value could be about double that obtained from an individual buyer. • Deal C starts to hit the sweet spot, with a sale revenue factor of more than two; the size of the portfolio and the number of infringing parties make it worthy of attention from multiple buyers. • Deal D, termed huge because it will hit the low nine figures, is less common since it has so many assets of high quality (50 evidences of use). The anatomy of a sale Let us assume that an enterprise software portfolio is being sold that contains 35 assets, including five apps. The seller has had 12 claim charts and 15 indications of use built, and knows that the assets are being infringed Example Portfolio size (assets=patent + apps) ‘Quality’ Infringing (licensing) revenues/players ‘Standard’ deal (US$m) Syndicated deal (US$m) Small 10 3 EOUs 50/6 3 NA Medium 30 15 EOUs 100/10 6-8 15-20 Large 80 25 EOUs 300/15 15-25 45-60 Huge 250 50 EOUs 1000/50 50-80 75-150 ‘Standard’ deal Syndicated deal Advantages Easier, simpler transaction More revenue (x1.5 to x3 more) Closes faster Less transaction expense Disadvantages Lower sale price Complex negotiations Could crash and burn Costlier to develop materials Costlier to negotiate with multiple buyers ‘Standard’ deal Syndicated deal Advantages Easier, simple transaction Less expensive (could be 1/3 to 1/6 of the cost or less) Closes faster High control of assets as buyer is primary owner Less control after purchase (multiple owners) Disadvantages Pay more for the privilege Less control after purchase (multiple owners) Takes longer to close Table 4. Example numbers for four scenarios Table 5a. Advantages and disadvantages for seller Table 5b. Advantages and disadvantages for buyers • Assuming that the portfolios are focused in the web software or enterprise software technology segment. • Based on average market prices and assuming good to great infringement for each portfolio.
  • 10. www.iam-magazine.com64 Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 xxx by a US$2 billion market with more than 40 participants, with the top 20 users being targeted. Let us assume that many of the details have been worked out such that there is high discoverability, no known invalidity, a clean chain of title and up-to-date maintenance fees (see Figures 7a to 7c and Table 2). In a standard patent transaction (see Figure 7a), the seller may obtain varying offers from non-practising entities (red dot) and operating companies (green dot) over a period of, for example, six months. The range of offers will tend to fluctuate, but then stabilise over a small range around the US$10 million mark. Assuming that the cost of legal and analysis is about $200,000 and the commission being charged by the broker is 20%, the net revenue to the seller will be about US$7.8 million at closing. The broker will absorb the analysis cost many times, so the actual net could be a bit higher. Now, let us look at Figure 7b, where the same portfolio is presented as a syndicated deal and, after about eight months, a syndicated offer of US$12 million is constructed with six buyers being ready to buy. Each buyer is paying US$2 million for the privilege. Let us also assume the deal has cost US$600,000 in legal, analysis and business development costs and the commission rate remains the same. In this case, if the seller closes the deal, the net revenues are US$9 million, again assuming that the seller is paying all of the costs. In this low syndicated deal scenario, it has taken about 25% to 30% longer to get an offer, and the net revenues are about 15% higher. If the seller decides to keep trying to get more buyers interested, a syndicated medium offer may occur at, for example, the 10-month mark. This presents a net revenue opportunity of US$12 million (see Table 2). However, the seller really wins when the syndicated patent portfolio sale model continues for around 12 months and there are now 12 buyers able and willing to close. Here the costs in legal fees, analysis and business development alone exceed US$1 million and the commission – which remains at 20%, due to many more mouths being fed in the chain – results in net revenues of about US$18 million. This is
  • 11. Intellectual Asset Management November/December 2013 65www.iam-magazine.com xxx When exploring the possibility of a syndicated patent deal a seller should • Evaluate its portfolio and segment it to understand what it would like to sell. • Get the agreement of the board and investors to sell assets and create a sales plan, or alternatively decide to find a broker to represent the sale. • Analyse the assets and exploretechnical analyses supporting infringement with indication of use and evidence of use materials. Understand the extent of the potential licensing revenue, the market penetrated, the product revenues that infringe and the potential timeframe for which this technology will remain relevant. • Does the portfolio have the right size, broad relevance to multiple buyers, quality of assets and reasons to buy? • There should be no issues with chain of title, inventor, ownership, enforceability, invalidity or scope of protection. • Some simple criteria to check the status of whether assets can be sold in a syndicate: more than 20 US patents, 50% with strong claim charts; a valuation of US$10 million or more; no legal issues; and multiple buyers with a reason to buy. For their part, buyers should: • Look out for good deals on the market that bring value but at a great price. Action plan A indeed the best result. Even though more time and dollars were invested, this result offers net revenues that are 2.3 times greater than the standard sale. Table 2 shows a comparison of all four offer scenarios. As we have seen above, there are benefits as well as disadvantages of doing a syndicated patent deal. However, if the seller gets more for extra effort and risk, and the buyer gets more for less, and the buyer’s agent or broker garners significantly more than a living wage, then provided the additional work, time and risk involved is heartily outweighed by these positives, a well executed syndicated deal is a true win-win-win for all concerned, especially the shareholders. So next time you look at your patent portfolio, do ask yourself:“Is it good enough and am I strong enough and willing, for a greater reward, to withstand the oft unsettling perfect storm of a syndicated deal?” Fas Mosleh is senior vice president of IP mergers and acquisitions at Kanzatec IP Group, Los Altos, California fmosleh@kanzatec.com