Ocean Tomo LLC, a Chicago-based merchant bank, hosted a live public auction for hundreds of castoff patents, with the goal of establishing a regular market for intellectual property.
The April 5-6 event at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel included patents from stain-removal enzymes to automotive-piston assemblies that owners no longer needed or didn’t think they could market. The patents were once owned by companies including Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX), Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) and Motorola Inc.(NYSE: MOT). Some are now owned by universities or individual inventors.
The auction catalog valued the patents at $100,000 to more than $5 million. Most of the bidders acted anonymously to avoid tipping off competitors in business or in the auction process, said Ocean Tomo President James Malackowski, 42. He declined to say how much the bank made in fees.
Among patents being offered were ones for brake controls and traction-control systems once owned by Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN), the world’s biggest maker of hydraulic equipment.

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Posted: 05|2|06 at 9:13 am. Filed under: US Auction News.