The Prior Art

Intellectual Ventures Still Buying Patents: Q&A with the Purchaser-in-Chief

As The Prior Art recently reported, Ocean Tomo’s last San Francisco patent auction was a bust. Still, as was true last year, there was plenty of scuttlebutt about what role giant patent-holding company Intellectual Ventures (IV) might play at the event. TPA reported on some of that speculation, which prompted a note from Kevin Barhydt, director of IV's acquisition program.

Intellectual Ventures does not publicly talk about specific patent purchases or its licensing activity—a policy that was in full effect when TPA spoke with Barhydt last week. Despite the lack of specifics, Barhydt did have some interesting things to say about IV's acquisition program. Over the past several years, the company has acquired more than 20,000 patents. About 15 percent were purchased at auction, 20 percent were bought when sellers approached IV directly, and the rest were acquired via brokers representing sellers or agents representing IV.

Another note: in this interview, Barhydt uses the term 'asset' synonymously with patent, which might be confusing to some. The interview was edited and condensed.

NYT identifies one Ocean Tomo buyer

RPX Corporation, a defensive patent collector, didn't mind telling the NYT's Saul Hansell that it was the buyer that purchased Lot 19 for $300,000. The blog post quotes RPX CEO John Amster, who brokered a settlement with Acacia Research Corp. on behalf of his members in January in one lawsuit. 

 

The buzz begins at Ocean Tomo patent auction; will deals follow?

I wasn't able to spend too much time Thursday at the Ocean Tomo events taking place in San Francisco, but I did manage to sneak in a few interesting conversations with folks in town for the events. One person I sat down with was Steven Hoffman, the CEO of ThinkFire, an IP consultancy and patent brokerage firm. Hoffman and I talked for a while in the Ritz-Carlton's lobby as it slowly filled up with patent wheelers & dealers talking business (or at least talking about the business they wish they were doing.)

This is the second Ocean Tomo event I've attended. Last year, the whispers in the hallways of the Ritz-Carlton were that Intellectual Ventures, Nathan Myhrvold's giant patent-holding firm, would be buying, depending on who was doing the whispering, half or two-thirds or perhaps even more of the patents going on the auction block. (Patent sellers at Ocean Tomo are identified, but the anonymity of purchasers is rigorously protected.)

This year, the talk in the halls is about how much smaller that number will be. No real surprise there: patents aren't immune to the vagaries of the wider economy. And Hoffman says conversations that he has had recently leave him believing that Intellectual Ventures, Ocean Tomo's biggest patent buyer, may indeed be moving out of its "acquisition" phase.

"IV will buy less—they will be less aggressive," says Hoffman. "I just don't know how much they're going to re-trench."