Sales

Sale of the Patents

I was excited to receive the patents. I thought about what to do with the patents. I could build a business based on the system I developed. As I was more interested in inventing than running a business, I ruled out this option. I decided to sell them so others could benefit from the technology.

I contacted a number of companies. Most of them just ignored me. I received two perfunctory letters saying that they would contact me if interested. None contacted me again. I almost gave up.

I knew that these companies were using my invention. But I could do nothing because I didn't have time and resources to stop them. My experience was very common, unfortunately. The vast majority of companies didn’t want to pay to use intellectual property of individuals and small companies regardless of the merit of their inventions. They knew that individuals and small companies could do nothing even though their technology were used without payment because of lack of legal knowledge and/or financial resources to protect their rights.

One day I saw an article about a company called TechSearch. It sued Intel for patent infringement. People were interested in the litigation because TechSearch was a small company and Intel was the biggest semiconductor company in the world at that time. Reading this article was like reading a story of David vs Goliath. I was intrigued by TechSearch because it was different from the companies I had contacted before. It was willing and able to take giant companies to court to protect intellectual property rights.

It seemed to me that the only way for individual inventors and small companies to get some returns for their inventions was to sell their patents to companies like TechSearch. I knew I had a great invention and didn't want to get nothing in return after spending so much time and effort to develop my invention. I decided to contact TechSearch to find out whether this new type of company would be interested in my patents.

After some efforts, I was able to talk with the president of TechSearch. He was interested in my patents. As a result, I sold my patents to TechSearch (and all future patents arising from the same initial 1994 filings).

A few years after I sold my patents to TechSearch the company was acquired by another company called Acacia. The next phase of my patents was handled by them. And I am happy that I sold my patents to TechSearch. Otherwise this is the end of the story.