While 2021 has not proven to be free of challenges, much has been happening at LOT Network over the last few months. Here are the highlights:

Continued exponential growth: We surpassed another milestone with 424 new members this year already. We now have over 1,600 companies in our community who are immunized to over 3.1 million patent assets worldwide. The convergence of technology continues to bring new members across all industries and across the globe. Europe’s largest patent holder, Robert Bosch, along with Avery Denison, Trimble and British Petroleum (BP) are just some of the companies to join this year. 

BRIDGE 2021 is happening: Based on the feedback from our member survey, we have decided to make this year’s BRIDGE a hybrid event, with both virtual and in-person options. Please join us on September 16th from 9 AM to 5 PM PDT. We’d like to thank our sponsors, Perkins Coie, Finnegan, Knobbe Martens and Fish and Richardson, who are supporting this event and providing four outstanding presentations that I am sure you will find compelling. For those who can and wish to attend in person, the event will include a diversity networking brunch. And of course, BRIDGE will conclude with our traditional champagne and bon bon tasting event. For our international members, the event will be recorded and made available so you can view it at your convenience. Members can register for BRIDGE here.

New patent sale platform: LOT is always looking for ways to provide more value and to add new members. We have identified two classes of companies that tend not to prioritize risk reduction from NPEs above all else, but that we want to be able to join and enjoy all the benefits LOT Network has to offer. To help tip the scales and provide additional value to these companies, LOT Network is excited to announce that we are launching a member patent sale program. This platform allows members to sell patents between themselves, on their own terms and conditions, without the cost of patent brokers.

The first class of companies we expect this program to attract are those that presently do not have a significant history of being sued by NPEs, but do have a need to acquire patents for defensive reasons (e.g. unicorns, companies in some foreign countries, etc.). For these companies, the addition of the patent sale program provides them with access to high-quality patents owned by our diverse community of sophisticated patent holders. 

The second class of companies we expect to benefit from this program are those with a recent  history of selling assets to NPEs. As reported by the Richardson Oliver Law Group (ROL), over 70% of the patent purchases completed in 2020 through on the open broker market were by NPEs. A key goal of this patent sale program is to provide an alternative group of buyers (the aforementioned first class) for these patent holders to sell to while simultaneously providing them with the immunization value of LOT Network. 

This platform is only available to LOT Network members, and we are thrilled to announce both Facebook and SAP will be listing some of their patents for sale on the platform with our launch. 

When a member wishes to sell some of their assets, we will email a brief description of the assets for sale to our members. Rest assured, LOT Network will not be providing claim charts or any mention of potential infringers in that description. These notifications will be similar to what AST provides to its members of potential patent purchases. If a potential buyer is interested in purchasing those assets, they may contact the seller directly or contact myself or Hisao Yamasaki to ask for further information and assistance. You may opt-out of these notifications at any time using a link at the bottom of any patent sale program email.

Everyone in the community benefits when someone joins LOT Network, and we hope this platform allows our community to grow even faster. We believe that this program will encourage transactions between members, who may have previously thought they could only sell to PAEs, under the protections of our community.

We at LOT wish you an enjoyable summer. We hope you stay safe and look forward to seeing you at BRIDGE!  

Ken Seddon

CEO, LOT Network