Posts Tagged: "EOU"

Patent Sales Rates Decreased in 2016, but Patent Market Remains Viable and Robust

Though patent sales rates have decreased in 2016, the patent market remains viable and robust. We continue to see a trend in the increased speed at which packages sell (over 50% are sold within four months) as well as an increased sales premium for packages with Evidence of Use (EOU) — a 27% price boost. 2016 also saw a rise in sales rates from larger patent packages; its highest sales rates were from packages with between 11 and 25 assets, an increase in package size from 2015, which counted its highest sales rates from packages with six to 10 assets.

Kent Richardson & Erik Oliver & Michael Costa

April 20, 2017

2016 Patent Market Report: Patent Prices and Key Diligence Data

When comparing the per-asset price to the asking price for packages, we found that per-asset pricing is relatively constant in the pricing brackets from $250,000 to $2 million, with the low being $180,000 per asset and the high being $234,000 per asset (Figure 9). We observed a slight premium on asking prices in the $4 million to $10 million range – $323,000 – which was not seen in 2015. However, the $10 million to $20 million range per asset prices dropped significantly, from $356,000 to $257,000. Because of a limited number of packages in the $4 million-plus range, it can be challenging to draw firm asking price conclusions for those packages. However, it may be that sellers are becoming more reasonable; the outliers in the $4 million to $10 million range are being driven by smaller packages with many EOUs, as opposed to large undifferentiated packages. Price per asset continues to drop for packages below $250,000, indicating higher-risk or lower-value patents (eg, no infringement, recent priority dates or almost expired patents).

Kent Richardson & Erik Oliver & Michael Costa

April 18, 2017