Since we started tracking the brokered patent market in 2012, we have seen more than $38 billion worth of patent assets offered on the market. As market information becomes more accessible, more companies participate and close deals.

The IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders guide draws from the worlds of private practice, consulting and other service providers, with specialists from the major IP markets in the America’s, Europe and Asia. Together they boast a wide range of expertise in IP-intensive sectors such as high-tech and life sciences.

After 10 years analyzing the patent market, we have some very direct advice this year. If you are in-house counsel, to borrow a line from Samuel L Jackson: “Hold onto your butts.” These next few years are going to be tough.

In a time of economic uncertainty patent sales often rise and, as Kent Richardson and Cecilia Ågren from Richardson Oliver Insights explain, there are some very clear do’s and don’ts for IP owners to follow when putting assets on the market.

With a way to quickly model the value of a patent purchase, we can have a higher quality discussion about the various assumptions that were made, and as we bring multiple purchases to our boss and use the same model, the decision process will be more consistent.

Our full 2019 Brokered Market Report is now available.

Late last year, Intel resurfaced the sale of a connected devices patent portfolio that was sidelined during the $1 billion sale of the majority of their smartphone modem assets to Apple (which included a pile of cellular wireless related patents). Intel has opened the sale to operating companies, defensive aggregators and even NPEs (non-binding indications of interest are due from bidders at the end of this month).

The current issue of IAM carries the latest annual survey on the brokered patent deals market from the team at Richardson Oliver Insights. Since we first started running this analysis in 2013 (subscribers can see the first piece here) some things in the deals space have stayed the same while a lot, not surprisingly, has changed. One thing that has remained constant is the quality of the insights from ROI with the survey becoming a must-read for anyone involved in IP transactions.

No one has missed the deal that went down between Apple and Qualcomm a few weeks ago, but analysis from our sister company Richardson Oliver Insights and IAM shows that Apple went on a buying spree while preparing its case against Qualcomm. We’ve included an overview of Apple’s patent acquisitions below.

In this article, originally published in IAM Magazine in June 2019, we look at how Alice has influenced the secondary patent market