Auction: "Sold! US$6 Million to the Bidder on the Phone!"

A portfolio of 82 patents sold at the Ocean Tomo Spring 2008 IP Auction in San Francisco in early April for US$6 million. The bid came from an anonymous phone bidder. It is the highest price paid at an IP rights auction. The patents in the portfolio relate to the processing of digital data bitstreams.

Two other lots at the auction hit the $1 million mark, but most bids do not attract such high prices. Some sold for as little as $10,000. Ocean Tomo held a conference on leveraging IP for investors and corporate IP strategies as part of the two-day event.