Deadline Extended through June 10 – Calling All Patent Owners! Some of the world’s biggest companies want to buy your patents

Here’s a shout out to all patent owners out there — some of the world’s largest companies have come together to buy your patents. As part of AST’s new Industry Patent Purchase Program, IP3, companies like Google, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia Motors, Verizon, Cisco, Arris, and many other multinational companies have pooled significant resources to purchase patents. Introducing IP3, a new and easy way for patent owners to sell their patents. 

IP3 is a marketplace for patents that’s simple, easy to use, and fast. With IP3, patent owners are in control. IP3 allows sellers to set their own price for their patent assets and reduces the time and complexity usually associated with patent transactions. We invite all sellers to submit your patents to IP3.

IP3 is a first for the patent marketplace – the first time multiple companies can collaboratively select and acquire rights from a large pool of submitted patents, increasing the buying power of participants while reducing costs. IP3 builds on the innovative approach taken by Google with their successful 2015 Patent Purchase Promotion (PPP), and seeks to attract the submission of high quality patents from patent owners across a wide array of industries.

We know that sellers and buyers alike find the secondary patent marketplace challenging at times. IP3 is an effort to simplify sellers’ ability to transact patents by eliminating the common hassles associated with it, such as hiring experts to prepare evidence of use of the invention or hiring lawyers to instigate litigation. Sellers often end up losing out on returns from their assets through contingency arrangements, unnecessary litigation, wasted enforcement efforts, and the lost time associated with waiting for a return or while their patents are sitting on a shelf, adding doubts – particularly among smaller patent owners – that the patent marketplace can still operate fairly and effectively for everyone. IP3 eases the burdens of transacting patents. 

In short, sellers need only identify the patent family and price at which they are willing to transact, IP3 does the rest.

So how will IP3 work?

From May 25, 2016 through June 10, 2016, we’ll open a simple portal for patent holders to identify patents they are willing to sell and the price they are willing to accept. At the end of the submission period, we’ll review all the submissions and by July 29, 2016, we’ll let the submitters know whether we’re interested in buying their patents. If we contact you about purchasing your patent, we’ll work through some additional diligence with you and look to close a transaction in short order. We anticipate that all transactions and payments will be completed by the end of September 2016.

In addition, all patents submitted that are not purchased during the IP3 program will be further considered by AST’s 30 leading high tech members for potential purchase in the normal course of AST’s asset purchase review process. By submitting to the IP3 program, you are also offering your assets to AST and its members for potential purchase. 

You can find more detailed information about IP3 on our website ip3ast.com including the submission form (which will go live on May 25), the form of patent purchase agreement that will be used if IP3 agrees to buy your patent, and other important information. There’s also some terms and conditions that you should make sure you fully understand before participating. We encourage participating sellers to consult with an attorney. Throughout this process, IP3 reserves the right not to transact for any reason.

At AST, we’re always looking for innovative ways to improve the effectiveness and transparency of the patent marketplace, so we think IP3 represents exactly the kind of out of the box thinking we all need. We’re excited by IP3 and hope that you are too.

Please visit ip3ast.com and be part of the excitement. Some of the world’s biggest companies are standing by to buy your patents!

Posted by Russell Binns, CEO for IP3, a Series of AST