Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Digimarc, Intellectual Ventures In Major Patent Licensing Effort

Beaverton, Oregon-based Digimarc, and Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures have signed a new deal to license Digimarc's patents to Intellectual Ventures, Digimarc said today. According to Digimarc, they two are in a long-term relationship, where Digimarc has exclusively licensed rights to a "substantial portion" of its patent assets to Intellectual Ventures. Digimarc said it will receive $36M, paid in increasing quarterly installments over three years for the rights to the patents, and gain 20 percent of the profits from Intellectual Venturse' licensing program. In addiiton, Digimarc said that IV will take responsibility for approximately $1M in prosecution and maintenance costs it currently incurred, and that IV will also provide $4M in paid support over five years to help Intellectual Ventures maximize the value of the assets. Digimarc will also be provided with a royalty-free, back license to those patents for use in its own products.