Ten years ago, patent monetization was considered a corporate “best practice.” C-suite executives at operating companies spoke openly about unlocking the value of their “Rembrandts in the Attic” and replicating IBM’s success in earning $2 billion annually in licensing revenue.
Thanks to the rise of abusive patent assertion behavior in recent years, however, companies with reputations to protect don’t like to talk about patent monetization anymore. Or if they do, it’s only in whispers because no one wants to be branded a “patent assertion entity” or “patent troll” in the minds of shareholders or Washington, D.C., policymakers.
