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Patent auction draws in big numbers |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Tuesday, 08 April 2008 |
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 A recent patent portfolio which covered an online authentication system for consumers auction held by Ocean Tomo IP Auction reached as high as $ 1.1 million dollars.
According to CNET News, there are various other patent portfolios that sold for millions of dollars.
Discovision Associates got $6 million for a large patent portfolio for improving bit streaming, a record for an intellectual patent portfolio at auction. Yoogli, which has a semantic search patent, received a $1.1 million bid, but withdrew the patents because it was below Yoogli's reserve.
Videa got $700,000 for a patent for displaying video files as thumbnails. Another company got $975,000 and hearty applause from the audience for an application that ranked media files according to a user's personal profile. QSIndustries got $400,000 for a digital sound-effects app. A newsfeed aggregator patent went for $400,000.
In addition, slew of patents that related to consumers sold in the $100,000 to $250,000 range. Under the unstated rule of auctions, the crowed applauded and ooohed only if the bidding went past the $900K mark.
These auctions sound like the kind of place I'd like to hang out on a Friday night. I will probably have more fun at an IP auction than being in an amusement park. I wonder when there will be one held in Toronto.
Click here to read more about patent portfolio auctions and the pros and cons of it from CNET News.
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