Retaining Patent Brokers
$295
About the Course:
This webinar presents unique insights into negotiating retainer agreements with patent brokers and provides a keen overview of the patent brokerage process. Learn key questions to ask when choosing patent brokers and determine what the roles and responsibilities of the patentee and patent broker will be during the patent sales process.
If you don’t know the answers to questions such as these, you really should listen to this webinar:
- What kinds of documents should patent holders prepare before they seek representation from a patent broker?
- What kind of collateral materials will the patent broker prepare to begin marketing the patent?
- Who retains rights to materials that the patent broker produces during the patent sales process?
- How important is a patent valuation report in the selling of a patent?
- How are minimum prices formulated and how are they used in negotiations with patent brokers?
- How are thresholds and tails used in retainer agreements with patent brokers?
- What kinds of conflicts may arise among clients of a patent broker and how might they be best managed?
- What are typical restrictions that sellers seek in the agreements they enter into with patent brokers?
- How do you sell patents that have already been committed to cross-licensing agreements?
- How do patent brokers remove other encumbrances on patents such as liens?
- Do patent brokers typically refuse to sell less than complete patent families?
- Do patent brokers try to sell patent applications? Under what circumstances?
- Does hiring a patent broker enable patentees to save money on patent lawyers?
- Do patent brokers demand exclusivity?
- How do patent brokers subcontract (or coordinate) the selling of patents with other patent brokers?
- Does charging patent holders retainers de-emotionalize their parting with their patents?
- How much should patentees expect in the way of receiving status reports from patent brokers?
- How do the proceeds actually flow once a sale has been made?
Course Leader: Chris Sommers, CEO, ThinkFire Services USA, Ltd.
ThinkFire is a full-service IP business strategy firm supporting clients worldwide, delivering a wide range of services including technical analysis, claim chart development, patent valuation, market landscaping, buyside and sellside brokering, M&A due diligence, and licensing and litigation management. As CEO, Chris Sommers is responsible for the development and execution of the company’s strategy, business development and client service delivery, as well as all internal functions.
Before becoming CEO, Mr. Sommers was senior vice president of client services for ThinkFire, with a primary focus on delivering profit and freedom to enter new markets through patent acquisitions and sales. He has worked with hundreds of high-tech companies worldwide, as well as numerous individual inventors seeking to maximize a return on their inventions. Before joining ThinkFire, Mr. Sommers spent 20 years in ever-increasing leadership roles with Telcordia Technologies (now Ericsson), a leading provider of telecommunications software and services. He held profit and loss responsibility for businesses exceeding $150 million in revenue, and drove significant revenue and profitability growth through acquisitions of intellectual property and development of innovative new products and services, solving business problems for wireless, wireline, mobile virtual network and cable operators worldwide. Mr. Sommers holds a BS in electrical engineering and a BS in computer science from Northwestern University, and an MS in computer science from Brown University.
Course Length: Approx. 1.5 hours
$295 PER USER