A couple of recent patent assignments have underlined the degree to which the semiconductor space continues to drive significant activity in the secondary market.
Earlier this month, according to USPTO assignment records, Samsung picked up a small portfolio of 31 US grants and applications assets from IBM.
The assignment to Samsung continues IBM’s recent track record of closing deals in the chip space. This includes a couple of transactions with WiLAN last year which saw the NPE acquire more than 1,000 US assets in two tranches. Big Blue also offloaded a separate portfolio of assets at the end of 2019 to Xperi subsidiary Tessera.
The deals with WiLAN are particularly notable given that they came after IBM joined the License on Transfer Network in January last year. That automatically places more encumbrances on the tech giant’s assets should they choose to tell parts of their portfolio to an NPE.
But one sector that has been relatively untouched by LOT - at least to the extent that major companies are not members - is the semiconductor space, meaning that Big Blue’s portfolio of chip assets remains of interest to NPEs and operating companies alike.
Another major deal for WiLAN occured at the end of last year. This saw Mediatek offload around 2,000 assets to the Canadian-based NPE (hat tip to David Hoff at the IPHawk for flagging this one). That deal follows a smaller transfer between the pair in September 2019.
The transaction furthers WiLAN’s strength in the semiconductor space adding, as it does, to the deal with IBM last year and to the close relationship it has forged with TSMC.
As the NPE’s CEO Michael Vladescu emphasised in an exclusive interview last May, like several licensing operators at the top of the market, WiLAN has looked to deal directly with operating companies for assets that are not openly for sale.
“We’ve done a lot of deals over the last couple of years through a strategic, key partnerships model where our objective is to acquire patents from some of these strategic partners that are not really for sale,” he said.
WiLAN is by no means the only NPE enjoying success in a sector which has always provided rich opportunities for the licensing community.
Last year Conversant indicated that it would be doubling down on its monetisation efforts in the chip industry after it agreed a landmark licensing deal with RPX for its portfolio of wireless assets.
Others, such as IPValue (which also closed a big deal with RPX last year) and the team at Hilco IP Merchant Bank, have also carved out deep and profitable semiconductor licensing programmes, often with far less litigation than in, say, the wireless sector.