License market, license contracts and method for trading license contracts

Abstract

A license exchange is provided that allows for companies who desire to obtain licenses for intellectual property and speculators to bid in order to set pricing for license contracts that provide for market rates to be set for such licenses. The exchange insures liquidity for such license contracts by providing market makers, scarcity features or modules and predetermined trading periods. In an embodiment the exchange may provide an electronic auction where license contracts may be traded by parties including patentees who may wish to avoid litigation and obtain fair and reasonable royalties for the patents underlying the license contracts being traded. The exchange also provides an alternate licensing resolution process where IP can be evaluated with respect to validity, valuated to determine a fair license rate and auctioned to licensees in a transparent bidding process.

1 . A method for trading a license contract in a computerized marketplace comprising the steps of:
 receiving license contract terms stored in a computer, the license contract including a price that correlates to a royalty rate;   receiving license terms by the computer, the license terms for a license that underlies the license contract and the terms including up front payments, exclusivity terms and a term of the license, but having an open royalty rate term;   posting the license contract on the computer; and   receiving a bid by the computer, the bid being analyzed in coordination with other bids submitted on behalf of other bidders in setting the royalty rate and the computer tracking each bid submitted from all bidders and calculating a favorable bid to be accepted and applied to each license in order to generate a greatest projected amount of royalty revenue.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the royalty rate may be either a) a percentage rate; b) a unit rate; or c) a total amount for a paid-up license. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the bid acts to raise or lower the contract price and adjust the royalty rate of the underlying license either higher or lower at least partially with respect to the bid. 
     
     
         4 . The trading method of  claim 1  wherein the license contract pertains to a patent and the license contract specifies non-variable license terms including the royalty basis and up front payments. 
     
     
         5 . The trading method of  claim 1  wherein the exchange platform provides for electronic trading by buyers and sellers via the internet and the exchange platform further providing a uniform price auction. 
     
     
         6 . The trading method of  claim 1  wherein the license contract covers particular intellectual property and further comprising the step of posting the license contract on the exchange platform as an alternative to asserting the intellectual property in litigation so that allegedly infringing parties may obtain licenses at rates set by the exchange platform. 
     
     
         7 . The trading method of  claim 1  wherein the computer having a purchasing feature and a selling feature for handling the offer to purchase and the offer to sell, respectively. 
     
     
         8 . The trading method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of paying a license contract owner a premium upon purchase of each license contract. 
     
     
         9 . A method for distributing intellectual property (IP) by a computer having a database, the method comprising the steps of:
 posting an IP report to the database, the IP report including an evaluation of the validity of the IP and a value of the IP;   displaying the IP report on a website linked to the computer for review by a potential licensee; and   auctioning licenses for the IP, the computer setting a price for the IP according to an open auction process where a licensor chooses a uniform clearing price selected from a group of differing bid prices.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the computer correlates a price term of a license for the IP using data from the IP report and an offer submitted by the potential licensee in order to correlate a price of the license based on the offer from the potential licensee. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the computer processes simultaneous multiple price bidding terms including a royalty rate, a total rate for a paid-up license and a per unit rate. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the auction is a modified Dutch auction format and offers are placed for license contracts having an underlying license agreement wherein the price term of the license contract correlates to a royalty rate term of the license agreement and the offer acts to adjust the royalty rate. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising a certification step for confirming validity of the IP and setting a reasonable license rate. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising an exchange platform including the computer connected to the internet and the database for storing auction data and for auctioning the IP in a manner that comprises a bidder either accepting or rejecting an opening bid price. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the IP is a patent and the license has a non-exclusive term. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 9  further including a reexamination step where third parties can submit prior art pertinent to the IP via the computer. 
     
     
         17 . An alternative licensing resolution method for distributing IP comprising the steps of:
 receiving a description of IP a by computer database; evaluating the validity of the IP; valuing the IP; posting evaluation data on a website for review by potential licensees; and auctioning licenses for the IP using a networked computer.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the receiving, posting and auctioning occur at a Website and bidders place simultaneous multiple price bidding terms. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17  wherein the auction is modified Dutch auction format. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17  further comprising the step of correlating a bid price for the IP with a royalty rate of a license underlying the licenses being auctioned.