Wellington
So, what do you do if you’ve got a patent, little money, and want to see who out there in therest of the big wide world would be interested in buying it or licensing it?
It is this challenge that’s helped bring about the formation of
IPEXC.com is a Hong Kong based startup with an international team which aims to connect patentowners worldwide with others looking for the solutions the patents’ offer.
Its founder and CEO Hidero (Hidi) Niioka describes its purpose as being a global exchange formonetising IP. Hidi got hold of sticK to bring awareness of IPEXC’s existence to independentpatent holders and innovative SMEs in New Zealand.
At a first blush and following a conversation with the Japanese-born, German-raised,globally-educated Hidi, IPEXC seems like it could be an especially good fit for countries like NewZealand – that is, smaller patent portfolio-holders wanting to get their ideas in front of largercompanies and entities.
The company’s done its market research (and has no doubt also been assisted by a prettyimpressive looking team of advisers ).
Among some of the findings, which will be no surprise to many Kiwi patent holders, is that mostIP brokers and law firms will only work on a contingency basis (i.e. a successful sale percentagefee) for portfolios which contain a large numbers of patents. In addition, most law firms want aretainer of US$10,000 - $15,000 upfront.
Equally, a single patent owner approaching a large company will usually find it isn’tinterested either.
“Up till now there’s literally been no answer for the ‘small fish’ such as individualpatent owners and innovative SMEs, those with limited resources, or none at all,” Niioka says.
So how does it work? The patent owner uploads as many patents as they want for free. Neither thepatent number nor enough information is provided via IPEXC for someone interested in the idea tocircumvent the site.
Under the site’s business model, potential commercialisation agents (IP brokers, law firms,interested technology companies etc.) who want access to more of the patent information, and toconnect with its owner, have to pay a subscription fee (which itself comes at two levels.)
Patent holders pay a success fee only. If there is a successful sale or licence of the patent,IPEXC receives a commission, which varies from 4% - 12%.
The company is also actively marketing patents, It’s using its own trademarked and US patentpending Crowdlicensing aggregator, and bundles like patents to provide critical mass.
“This grouping creates a patent portfolio that is more attractive to potentialcommercialisation agents and gives more leverage to the individual patents in the bundle,” Niiokasays.
Commercialisation agents or subscribed technology companies can view, licence and/or buy on thisbasis.
Niioka has also been successful in attracting the attention of national patent offices (SwedishPatent Office, Danish Patent Office, and the Japanese Patent Office as examples) in a number ofcountries, and providing links to IPEXC from their home pages.
IPEXC has designed its system to give patent holders control over how their patents are sold orlicensed.
“What we’ve created is an example of Web 3.0,” Niioka says. “Much of the discussion andtransactions can take place across our interface, interactively. It also means the patent ownerretains full control of the process.”
Having been involved in business and academia intellectual property, Niioka says the purpose ofthree-month old IPEXC is to “create something useful for everyone”.
For countries such as New Zealand (and so far people from 55 countries have checked the siteout), IPEXC offers a legitimate and credible way to make money from a good idea he says.
“Also, our global reach and multi-language functionality means that patents can be viewed andaccessed by agents from all over the world, increasing visibility and chances of a successfultransaction.”
A January sticK blog (see herehttp://sticknz.net/2012/01/19/innovations-not-easyand-theres-other-ways-to-get-value-from-it/),quoted Chicago-based Steven Steger saying that NZ businesses are completely ignoring the option ofselling or licensing patents overseas.
IPEXC offers one way to maybe remedy that.