Executive summary
- Lending against intellectual property as collateral is not new. Famous examples include Thomas Edison starting the General Electric Co with finance backed by his lightbulb patents and David Bowie issuing “Bowie Bonds” to raise debt against his music catalogue. But IP-backed lending has exploded in recent years.
- One trend enabling IP finance to climb so high today is the emergence of intellectual property insurance for financial transactions. Insurance can benefit innovators, operating companies, monetisation companies and investors to achieve their strategic goals.
- Start-ups that aim to attract venture capital investment must learn to tell their IP story compellingly. Profitable, growing companies looking for funds – but not equity dilution – can obtain debt capital using their intellectual property as collateral.
- Patent litigation is expensive. Many patent holders cannot afford it. Legal finance providers can partner with them to fund litigation costs. Still, there are many moving parts to obtaining financing and formulating a successful enforcement campaign. Patent holders must prepare a strategy overview, claim charts, budget, damages estimate and more to grab a funder’s attention.
- The United States has a maturing market for IP-backed loans and insurance, which is going through a metamorphosis as players strengthen qualifications and diligence processes and raise prices in response to some debtor defaults.