The marketplace for patents has been heating up for several years now, with a significant increase in the number of patent sellers (individuals, corporations of all sizes, defunct entities) and buyers of all types. Of course, we knew the importance of patents was increasing 5 years ago; the Economist picked up on it in an article regarding Patent Wars. Then again, that was timeframe during which web marketplaces for patents were launched. Gee, what ever happened to the patent e-commerce systems launched by pl-x.com and yet2.com?

Ocean Tomo is moving forward with their Spring 2006 Patent Auction, with the patents having been qualified using "a proven statistical methodology." Oh, software based analysis of patents? Didn't Aurigin Systems try that? As my colleague, Patrick Igoe states, looking for good patents exclusively with software is akin to looking for good real estate by computer analysis of the deeds. I know some weary patent analysts that might like some software to find the good patents in the thousands they look through every month, but for now they are stuck reading (and re-reading) the claims.

With the rise in the number of patent issuances (see David Klein's February 01, 2006 blog entry) and a recognition of not only the importance of patents, but the fact that they can be bought and sold, it's likely that the marketplace will become more efficient, largely by an increase in information regarding the patent commodities. Given the generally recognized (and PTO acknowledged) concerns with patent quality, especially in areas such as software, more information, and in particular analysis of claims and prior art to those claims, will be critical to buyers.