History of Firsts
For more than 30 years, Ocean Tomo professionals have led the field with respect to intellectual capital and forensic accounting thought leadership. Select milestones of achievement include:
1985
James E. Malackowski joined Peterson & Co. Consulting where he helped to establish the firm’s intellectual property and valuation practice. Peterson & Co. was sold to Saatchi & Saatchi PLC in 1988.
1986
Johnson Lambert was formed by Larry Johnson and Debbie Lambert to be an alternative to the then “Big-8” firms in providing audit and tax services to the insurance industry.
1987
Organized first national practice to offer intellectual property valuation opinions at a time when the Big-8 accountancies refused to address this growing asset class.
1988
James E. Malackowski, Andrew W. Carter and Robert M. Hess, co-founded and grew IPC Group to become the largest professional services firm specializing in intellectual property valuation and strategy consulting. IPC Group was sold in 1999, later changing its name to InteCap.
1993
Created first integrated intellectual property strategy consulting group offering Intellectual Property Quality Management services to large Fortune 500 clients.
1999
Founded first private equity advisory partnership to originate large-scale investments based on underlying intellectual capital.
2000
Larry Johnson founded Veris Consulting.
2002
Creation of first scaled investment banking practice, in partnership with leading Wall Street firm, dedicated exclusively to patent based structured finance.
2003
Created nation’s first integrated Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc™ firm.
2005
Created nation’s first private equity and debt fund to invest in growing companies with strong intellectual property.
2006
Successfully established a Live Public Auction Marketplace for Intellectual Property rights.
Created the nation’s first index based on the value of Intellectual Property. The Ocean Tomo 300® Patent Index launched in September on the American Stock Exchange.
Created The Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI) the world’s first financial exchange with an Intellectual Property focus.
2008
Created the Ocean Tomo Bid-Ask Market® platform, the first and only voice brokerage and online marketplace for intellectual property.
2009
Created OTI as the first and only comprehensive source of global intellectual property-based market information with free global patent search.
2010
Created the PatentMarking.com, the first and only online platform designed for the management with patent marking data.
2011
Ocean Tomo collaborates with Illinois Institute of Technology for Master’s in IP Management & Markets.
2012
Veris Consulting acquired Buttner Hammock & Company.
2013
Ocean Tomo Partners with TechNexus Venture Collaborative for accelerated development of proprietary products and services supported by corporate partnership.
2014
Ocean Tomo and Liberty Investment Ventures introduced 3Disovered, the first online exchange platform that connects design owners, customers and 3D printing service bureaus to execute transactions of commercial-grade 3D printable designs and products.
2016
Ocean Tomo introduced Ocean Tomo Investment Group, an independent licensed broker-dealer under federal and state securities law.
2018
Introduced along with Sinofaith IP Group, the Gold Book™ platform for product based patent portfolio management.
2019
Ocean Tomo introduced the first study of intangible asset market value for China, the Components of CSI 300 Market Value.
2021
Ocean Tomo, in partnership with Bow River Capital acquired Veris Consulting a financial forensics firm founded by Larry Johnson and lead by Michelle Avery, Jon Couchman and Ed Buttner.
2022
J.S. Held, in partnership with private equity firm Kelso, acquired Ocean Tomo.
Today, our professionals hold leadership roles in the preeminent technology transfer societies, intellectual property focused government think-tanks, intangible finance technical journals, and non-profit invention organizations. Our current and future service offerings are built upon this platform of success and a perspective that can only be achieved from a leadership view.