LOT Network announces its new patent sale marketplace and releases a detailed report on the 3.5+ million patent assets within the community
LOT Network Inc. the largest and fastest-growing international community of companies protecting against costly litigation brought by patent assertion entities (PAEs, also known as “patent trolls”), announces that it continues to experience dramatic growth since its formation in 2014. With only six members at launch, LOT Network is rapidly growing at a compounded annual average growth rate (CAGR) of more than 100% year over year. Today, LOT has more than 2,000 members from 54 countries accounting for more than 3.5 million patent assets – which includes over 15% of all active, U.S. issued patents – among its membership. To date, LOT Network members have completed 8 transactions where their assets went to a PAE; those who were LOT members before each sale occurred are of course licensed to those assets.
With PAEs being responsible for 87% of US high-tech patent litigation1, operating companies are spending billions each year litigating and settling with such companies. In 2021 alone, PAEs asserted 1,375 patents in over 2,400 litigations worldwide. Over the last year, global startups as well as major companies joined LOT Network, from all industries and verticals including finance, banking, automotive, entertainment, blockchain, and more. Innovative companies that have joined over the past year include Bayer, Klarna, FedEx, and Deutsche Telekom.
“In seven short years, LOT Network has rapidly transitioned from an experiment of the high-tech industry, to the largest global community of companies solving the PAE issue,” said Ken Seddon, CEO of LOT Network. “Our members have made the same commitment to protect innovation that applies to all of their patents. The LOT Agreement preserves the traditional uses of patents, yet grants a license for only those assets falling into the hands of a PAE.”
Today, LOT Network is also announcing the launch of its patent sale platform, LOT Patent Marketplace. The LOT Patent Marketplace will be an exclusive marketplace where LOT members can conduct patent sales without the use of traditional patent brokers. Because the benefits of LOT Network increase with membership growth, the program is meant to incentivize new companies to join. These benefits may be of interest to companies that either are not typically targeted by PAEs, or those who regularly sell their patents as part of their business strategy. Gaining access to patent assets without the use of brokers may be of particular benefit to younger, post-IPO companies, who are often in the market for quality patents to help defend their businesses until they are able to develop their own organically. More information is available at https://lotnet.com/patent-marketplace/.
“As one of the earliest members of LOT, and the first in financial services, JPMorgan Chase is proud to have contributed to LOT’s growth over the past seven years,” said Daryl Wooldridge, Managing Director and Head of Intellectual Property at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We continue to be committed to increasing innovation and protecting patent rights. LOT provides its members around the world opportunities to come together to create business impact in important areas beyond patent risk, such as diversity, equity and inclusion and ESG, which we’ll continue to help drive forward.”
LOT Network Report 2021: The world’s largest portfolio reduces risk from Patent Assertion Entities, in collaboration with Cipher and Richardson Oliver, shares an analysis of the millions of patent assets within the network, diving deeply into the scale of protections afforded against PAEs across a broad range of sectors including automotive, financial services, technology, semiconductors, AI and blockchain.
LOT Network by the numbers:
- All 8 of the world’s largest cloud providers
- All 7 of the world’s largest automakers
- 9 of 10 largest banks in the U.S., including #1
- 7 of 10 largest retailers in the U.S., including #1
- 2 of 3 largest wireless carriers in the U.S.
About LOT Network
LOT Network is an international, non-profit community of the world’s leading companies committed to protecting themselves against costly litigation from patent assertion entities (PAEs). LOT Network currently protects more than 2,000 members in 54 countries from PAE litigation for more than 3.5 million worldwide patent assets and counting. Members include market leaders such as IBM, Toyota, Visa, Canon, Google, Red Hat, Tesla, Cisco, Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba and Salesforce, as well as innovative companies across industries. Visit www.lotnet.com to learn more or download LOT Network’s agreement.
1Unified Patents. (2020, January 21). 2019 Patent dispute report – year in review. Retrieved from https://www.unifiedpatents.com/insights/2019/12/30/q4-2019-patent-dispute-report.
