Microsoft Buys AOL Patents

[Parsad]

Indirectly gets control of Netscape too...oh the irony!  Cheers!

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4e69b676-8265-11e1-9242-00144feab49a.html#axzz1rZVya38y

[Liberty]

Anyone knows of an easy way to track the average cost of patents traded or something like that? Based on the past couple of years' headlines, it feels like we're in a pretty big patent bubble.

[DCG]

Hope Microsoft acquired the ability to send out millions of trial copies of Windows on cd-rom.

[racemize]

Anyone knows of an easy way to track the average cost of patents traded or something like that? Based on the past couple of years' headlines, it feels like we're in a pretty big patent bubble.

 

As a patent agent, I can speak with some confidence in this area--patents are incredibly hard to value.  While patents have been fetching very high prices as of late, we are currently in very patent-active time, particularly in the mobile space.  If these patent portfolios have fundamental patents in the Internet/mobile space, then they are worth a ton.  However, to really find out if any particular patent portfolio has a patent (and particularly a valid patent) in that space takes an incredible amount of time. 

 

So, in conclusion, it's way too hard--I'd rather value companies than patents honestly.