Allied Security Trust launches third annual industry patent purchase program

The Patent Investor                 May 22, 2018

Allied Security Trust, the patent aggregator run by CEO Russell Binns Jr., said its third annual industry patent purchase program (IP3 2018) will focus on a narrower set of patented technologies owned by operating companies and be expanded beyond AST members.The Princeton, New Jersey-based company said this year’s program will focus on soliciting patents from the following technology areas: Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning; Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality; Automotive / Transportation Services; Blockchain; Internet of Things / Connected Devices; Smart Home; Software / Web Services; and Wireless.
AST launched IP3 in 2016, a first of its kind industry program, to give sellers an easy way to access the secondary market through a streamlined process using a fixed price, rapid response model. Based on the success of the 2016 and 2017 installments, AST decided in late 2017 to do a 2018 iteration of IP3 with some updated changes.
In an interview, Binns said AST expects IP3 2018 to come in somewhere between IP3 2017 and IP3 2016 in terms of the money spent on patents. While IP3 2016 spent about $5.5 million on patent purchases, the 2017 program spent only $2.5 million.
Binns attributed the decline in part to lower valuations caused by changes in the patent market including recent Supreme Court rulings and the America Invents Act, which set up the inter partes review process to invalidate the weakest patents.
AST’s current members span multiple industries, such as information technology, software, semiconductors, communications, automotive, health tech, and social media and include prominent companies such as Ford, Google, Honda, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Philips, SAP, Sony and Uber.
Because of the enthusiasm for the popular program from across the patent marketplace, whereas IP3 2017 was only open to AST membership, AST is opening IP3 2018 to participation from non-member companies with the payment of a fixed management fee to cover costs based on the size of the participant.
“The continued success of our IP3 programs has proven that both patent sellers and buyers, which include dozens of the top companies in the world, want the opportunity to participate in collaborative, short duration, streamlined buying programs,” Binns said in a statement.
Binns said IP3 presents patent owners with an efficient and hassle-free way to sell their patents quickly.
“We have found the fixed price concept to be very beneficial to both buyers and sellers,” said Kurt Brasch, patent transactions lead at Uber. “The process is extremely efficient and the transaction cycle time is dramatically reduced. That is why Uber has participated in both previous iterations of IP3 and we are excited about the 2018 version.”
Binns said IP3 2018 will focus on patent submissions from a discrete though slightly broader number of technology areas.
“We have also shortened the submission window to better accommodate the sellers’ exclusivity time periods. Because of these key adjustments to the program, we are looking forward to a larger program than last year with more patents and more buyers participating in a focused and efficient selection process for patent acquisitions.”
—To reach the reporter responsible for this story, please contact Dan Lonkevich at 707 318-7899 or at dan@thepatentinvestor.com
By thepatentinvestor| May 22nd, 2018|