European intellectual property auction generates poor sales
Published May 21st, 2007
The first European auction of intellectual property generated a small fraction of the sales that organizers were expecting from the event, as buyers shied away from purchasing complex manufacturing licenses for a range of new technologies and innovations.
IP Auctions, the Hamburg company that held the event Tuesday in Munich, said that the auction generated only €500,000, or $675,000, in total sales. Organizers had said that the 83 lots on auction had a minimum value of more than €5 million.
Manfred Petri, the general agent for IP Auctions, said that organizers did not give buyers enough time to evaluate purchases of complex manufacturing licenses. Prospective purchasers had six weeks to study the intellectual property offered and perform “due diligence” of legal and financial checks.
“That simply wasn’t enough time,” Petri said. “For licenses, buyers need at least three months to do the complex legal checking to make informed bids.”
Petri said IP Auctions planned a second intellectual property auction later this year in Europe. A rival group based in Chicago, Ocean Tomo Auctions, is holding its first European IP auction June 1 in London.
