When To Sell: 3 Patent Monetization Strategies For The Savvy Investor
As a savvy investor, you understand that simply owning intellectual property is not going to make you a dime. When it comes to patent monetization and profiting from your intellectual property, you have three choices:
• Litigate to protect your IP
• License the usage rights
• Sell the patents
Selling patents ensures a quick payoff for your technology. But, how do you know when the time is ripe to generate substantial profits from selling patents in your IP portfolio?
1. Sell If … The Technology Is Not Core To Your Business
Conduct a portfolio assessment and determine if you have any number of patents that are redundant or not essential to your overall business goals. If you are holding intellectual property that is not core to your business, but may be valuable to others, it is wise to sell those non-essential assets.
Some firms may be willing to pay top dollar for the technology. This way, you shed the costly endeavor associated with starting up a business based on a new product.
2. Sell If … The Technology’s Life Cycle Is Waning
Patents have a life span. As a technology’s life cycle is nearing the end of its relevancy, the value of a patent starts dwindling in the last five or so years of its life. Selling before a patent gets to this point is often wise.
As with any investment, you need to know the marketplace extraordinarily well. With in-depth knowledge of the market and some foresight into the future landscape of technology, you are able to conduct a patent assessment and successfully determine a patent’s remaining relevancy.
Patent selling is effective once you know that a piece of technology in your IP portfolio is fading in relevancy. However, depending on where your intellectual property is at in its life cycle, patent monetization may be better achieved by marketing the technology to other investors who are willing to bring the new product to consumers.
3. Sell If … You Do Not Want To Endure Costly Patent Litigation
After conducting a patent assessment, you may come to understand you have patent infringers on certain key technologies in your IP portfolio. In this scenario, you either have to enter patent litigation or pursue patent selling.
If you feel you don’t have the tolerance for risk or funds associated with prolonged patent litigation, patent selling is a very viable option. Non-practicing entities (NPEs) and other companies welcome the opportunity to acquire intellectual property for little else than to sue. Patent trolls are a contentious topic, but they are an option for patent monetization.
Although you may be tempted to sell patents quickly, effective patent selling begins and ends with a strong IP strategy. Any successful patent monetization effort requires a lot of analysis and research to find the right buyer so you reap the most reward.
Ready to learn more about selling patents with the right strategy to achieve the most from your patent monetization efforts? Contact the patent monetization experts at TechPats today.
