Discount Shopping for IP

The Beard Group has issued a (relatively) new service called "The Intellectual Property Prospector" which identifies US and Foreign companies of any size filing for bankruptcy or reporting other financial difficulty and profiles their ownership of intellectual property.

According to the website:

The Intellectual Property Prospector features companies that meet strictly defined, predetermined criteria and is designed to support the efforts of firms and individuals interested in identifying opportunities in the specific area of intellectual property, which includes patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and licenses, among others.

In order to appear in the Intellectual Property Prospector, a company must report ownership of intellectual property assets, as well as meet one of the following conditions:

- An event which indicates financial distress; e.g., default, distressed exchange offer,
preferred dividend omission, debt at deep discount, restructuring, low rating,
audit concerns, covenant problems, and loss/deficit.

- Chapter 11, 7, or 15 bankruptcy filing

- Section 363 Sales

View Intellectual Property Prospector web page (link)

View sample of most recent listing (link).

View archived listings here (link)

Special thanks to Phillip Brooks from Patent Infringement Updates for the heads-up.