At the Licensing Executives Society (LES) Annual Meeting this morning in San Francisco, Ocean Tomo CEO Jim Malackowski and Ocean Tomo Managing Director James Trueman announced Ocean Tomo’s next generation intellectual property auction platform.
Ocean Tomo created the live multi-lot IP auction marketplace in 2006, exiting the auction business in 2009, and has now returned to the business it pioneered in response to input from the patent acquisition and divestiture community. The firm’s new offering will incorporate a number of changes requested by operating company buyers and sellers.
James Trueman, the head of Ocean Tomo’s Transactions business unit spoke with dozens of buyers across North America, Europe, and Asia ranging from mid-size to Fortune 100 operating companies with combined acquisition budgets in the billions, and heard a few common themes loud and clear. The strongest among those themes is a “less is more approach” focusing on quality.
Ocean Tomo, which is already back in the market for private IP transactions, has concluded that buyers and sellers alike valued and want to see the return of a simple, transparent system that provides clear timelines for sale, equal access, and price discovery.
Ocean Tomo plans to hold live auctions four times a year, approximately quarterly, with special purpose events in between. No more than 25 lots are planned for each auction, significantly less than the 100-plus lots offered early in the firm’s auction history. The firm will utilize an open outcry auction format for most lots, but has plans to use different auction bidding models for unique lots that will be shared with the IP community at a future date. Ocean Tomo plans to broadcast all events to a global audience with remote bidding which reduces travel commitments for both buyers and sellers. Diligence will again be through access to an on-line data room as well as facilitated interviews with sellers.
Ocean Tomo’s first new auction will be held in the Spring of 2015. Submissions from patent owners looking to sell their patents are now being accepted at [email protected]. Buyers who wish to register to bid or who have questions may contact Ocean Tomo at [email protected].