On April 6, 2006, The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco held a live patent auction. It was the first of its kind auction to allow for the monetization of intellectual property portfolios. The auction was hosted by Ocean Tomo, a leading independent merchant banc focused on intellectual property assets.
Ocean Tomo examined more than 1,000 patents before the event, and selected 400 patents that it thought were marketable. Twenty six of the approximate 78 patent lots available for auction were sold on the floor for $3,026,000. At times, items were withdrawn because the bids failed to meet the minimum reserve set by the seller. Bids ranged from $2,000 to $1.9 million. Sellers in the auction included Fortune 500 firms such as Siemens, Ford Motor, BellSouth, AT&T, Kimberly Clark and 3Com.
Nearly 400 people attended the sold out event. Attendance at the event was anonymous, and the identities of the buyers will not be publicly disclosed. However, those who attended know that attendees included representatives from Fortune 500 companies.
The auction included patents applicable to wireless communications, semiconductors, radio frequency identification, apparel, energy. Post-auction discussions between bidders and sellers may lead to additional sales.
Ocean Tomo has scheduled another auction for October 25-26, 2006 in New York City, where it plans to feature trademarks and life sciences patents.
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