LOT Network members to have opportunity to acquire select AST patent portfolios

PHOENIX, ARIZONA — September 8, 2020 — The world’s two largest non-profit organizations offering complementary forms of protection against patent assertion entities (PAEs), LOT Network and AST, have announced that they will provide LOT Network’s more than 900 members with additional ways to mitigate patent risk.

LOT Network members will be offered the opportunity to acquire certain patent portfolios from AST before AST releases those patent assets for sale to the general public through a broker. LOT Network members will also have the opportunity to acquire a license to certain patent portfolios that AST acquires for its own members, on the same terms as the AST members who didn’t participate in the initial acquisition.

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to broaden our reach beyond any one broker’s network,” said Russell Binns, CEO of AST. “We’re able to provide extra value to LOT Network’s members, by offering them the ability to acquire portfolios that we’re selling, before they could potentially end up in the hands of a PAE.”

“LOT has hundreds of companies that are looking to rapidly grow their patent portfolios, including tech unicorns and members in China,” said Ken Seddon, CEO of LOT Network. “This is an opportunity for our members to appreciate the value of AST as a source of information on what’s currently for sale in the marketplace. Through this invitation, LOT members can see AST as the ‘MLS’ of the patent market — a valuable tool for those companies looking to acquire assets.”

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ABOUT LOT NETWORK

LOT Network is the international community of the world’s leading high-tech companies committed to protecting its members from costly patent assertion entity (“PAE”, or “patent troll”) litigation. LOT Network currently protects its more than 900 members from litigation from over 2.5 million worldwide patents and counting. Network members include global market leaders such as JP Morgan Chase, Alibaba, Canon, IBM, Microsoft, Toyota, Tesla and Amazon, as well as smaller companies across industries. Please visit http://www.lotnet.com to learn more.

ABOUT AST

AST began in 2007 as an experiment by a handful of the world’s biggest tech leaders who sought a more effective way to combat unwanted patent assertions and litigation. The result was AST, a thoroughly groundbreaking Member-driven cooperative where representatives from various industries could work together to mitigate risk and promote a better functioning IP marketplace. Today our mission is more significant than ever, and AST now includes Member companies from across multiple industries including information technology, software, semiconductors, communications, automotive, health tech, and social media. AST is an independent, not-for-profit cooperative, that provides a trusted and fully transparent way for Members to analyze patent purchase opportunities including triage, evaluation and acquisition services.  Throughout its tenure, AST has consistently developed and provided innovative solutions to further benefit its Members.  Its comprehensive analysis on litigation and reassignments, bankruptcy services, and new iterations of fAST IP, its Member-analytics platform, are all examples of AST’s commitment to keeping with its innovative origins.

For more information on AST please visit www.ast.com.