There’s been an interesting discussion taking place over at TheDeal.com with Steven Hoffman, CEO of ThinkFire Services USA Ltd. (an intellectual property advisory and transactions firm) about the rise of intellectual property aggregators. This rise seems to be intensifying as intellectual property becomes monetized and the desire to generate revenue from IP becomes more pronounced during the market downturn.
These aggregating companies either hold or represent companies that hold a large portfolio of intellectual property assets. Some of these aggregators (like RPX) buy intellectual property rights to protect its member-companies from infringement lawsuits (especially “trollers”). Other aggregators (like Intellectual Ventures) buy portfolios of intellectual property assets in order to attempt to generate licensing and other revenue from infringers of such rights.
TheDeal.com follows up on the discussion in its March 31, 2009 article (Do patent trolls sue more in recessions?).
For small tech companies this rise in aggregators is good news and bad news. Good news because it means an expansion of possible acquirers to make their”exit” possible. Bad news because it means that there are now “Big Brother” trollers out that could flex their muscle against them for claimed infringements.
-Gregg J. Lallier
[...] Importance of IP Management 10 04 2009 Last week, I posted about the valuation of intellectual property asset portfolios, and the trend towards aggregators of IP asset portfolios seeking to maximize profits from IP assets (See The Rise of IP Aggregators). [...]