Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice Advance Access originally published online on June 10, 2009
Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 2009 4(8):545-548; doi:10.1093/jiplp/jpp090
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Practice Point |
Reasonable royalties and the sale of patent rights
Legal context: Reasonable royalties awarded in patent litigation are often estimated with reference to existing licences.
Key points: Many firms purchase and enforce patents which have never been licensed. In such cases, the only market evidence available concerning the parties' valuation of the patents may be the sales transaction itself. The sales price contains information about the expected value of future licensing revenues.
Practical significance: Given sufficient information about the market and its participants, that information may be extracted, providing estimates of the expected licensing terms. Those expected licensing terms may in turn provide useful information for the setting of reasonable royalties.
Correspondence: * Vice President, Compass Lexecon. Email: ashampine{at}compasslexecon.com