IP P®OSPE©TIVE

Today ICAP Ocean Tomo will host their Spring 2010 IP Auction in San Francisco, which has stirred a lot of buzz lately in the blogosphere because of various sales made before the auction has even started.  Joff Wild has highlighted this trend in a couple of recent posts at the IAM Blog, including a recent post with a word from Avancept IP Counseling’s Tom Ewing regarding a study he has completed on the string of auctions and their trends.  Interestingly, the early sales is not a new trend, and in every auction since the 2006 auction there have been a number of sales take place before the opening hammer - to the tune of almost 30% of all lots sold.  As Ewing described it to the IAM Blog, “the Spring 2006 - Spring 2009 sales cycle was somewhat more akin to one continuous sales event, punctuated by a few public gatherings rather than nine distinct auctions.”  I don’t believe this is bad publicity for ICAP Ocean Tomo, as the main purpose is to be an effective broker of IP assets, and as long as sales occur, it doesn’t seem devastating to the auction setting if they occur before or after the auction hammer drops.  After all, it is the auction setting which places the assets on the block for prospective purchasers to known what is on the market, and which places the pressure on the prospective buyers to act or forever hold their wallet. 

For the first time in two years, I will not be attending the ICAP Ocean Tomo auction and conference.  I had planned to attend but a large project has kept me in town.  I look forward to hearing the results.

(pictured here is a barn on beautiful land near the Andes mountains in Chile)