Patent Sales

As a leading patent brokerage company, we are in constant communication with companies that want to acquire patent portfolios. The technical areas below are in particularly high demand. In most cases, we can obtain a license grant back to the seller, so divesting patents doesn’t need to be limited only to those inventions that you are no longer practicing yourself. Therefore, we are actively seeking to represent patent holders to monetize their inventions.

Please submit patents using the Brokerage Sales Questionnaire, and return to it to [email protected].  We will perform an analysis and help determine the best path of action.  A follow up call will likely be scheduled to discuss recommended next steps.

Background: If you own patents that you think are being practiced by a company, please let us know by completing the brokerage sales questionnaire below and sending it to us. We will proceed with a preliminary review and analysis at no cost or obligation to you to assess the potential of monetizing your patents.

The following guidelines will help you determine which patents are likely to have the greatest value:

The portfolio must contain at least one issued US patent. “Patent pending” alone are difficult to sell, but in conjunction with an issued patent can add value.

The patent(s) should be practiced by industry. Patents are negative rights by nature, meaning they only grant the patent holder the right to prevent others from practicing the invention. They sell primarily for their assertion value and as a result the presence of potential infringement is a key sales factor.  A finding of infringement is primarily a legal matter and each element of a patent claim has to be present in the alleged infringing product or service. It is not a product vs. product comparison and the mere fact that a competitor’s product might “look like” yours doesn’t necessarily means that your patent is being infringed. When contacting us, you don’t have to be certain that your patents are bring infringed; but please let us know if you think someone might be practicing your invention.

Patent(s) that likely will be utilized in future products (no current infringement) with potential high revenue, can be strategic to patent buyers.

The shorter the main patent claim(s), the better. Claims are found at the very end of patent and are numbers sequentially (1, 2, 3….). They form the basis of your monopoly and the fewer limitations they contain, the broader your protection is. Longer claims usually contain additional limitations that make it easier for others to design around and thus avoid infringing the claim.

The larger the patent family, the better. Single patents are much harder to sell as the rate of invalidation of challenged patents in courts is relatively high. A patent family is comprised of patents that are either Continuations, Continuations in Part (CIP) or Divisionals of a parent patent, meaning they all point back to the original patent you filed and simply contain additional claims.

It is preferable to have at least one pending Continuation (or CIP or Divisional) of an US issued patent still active, as this allows you to keep the initial application alive, and buyers like to continue to obtain new claims tied to the original invention.

The earlier the filing date of the patent, the better. For instance, all other things being equal, a patent filed in 2000 is more likely to be construed broadly and less prone to be invalidated by prior art than a more recent filing.

Foreign counterparts are good, especially Germany and China, as they allow the buyer to assert the patent(s) in several major markets.

Backward and forward citations are usually an attribute of patent quality. The more forward cites, the better. Backward citations refer to the prior art cited by the applicant or the examiner during the prosecution of your patent; Forward citations refer to other people who have cited your patent in their own filings. You can easily see this information by going to Google Patents and typing in your patent number.

The patents should be in force and all maintenance fees paid for up to and during the sales process. Patents that have been abandoned or are about to expire rarely sell.