Divestiture Process

In order to preserve its mission as a purely defensive organization, AST does not hold patents. In the creation of AST, member companies wanted to ensure by charter that AST could never become an entity that could threaten others with an aggregated patent portfolio. An additional benefit, of course, of the “catch, license and release” model of AST is that members recoup some of the initial investment they made in the original purchase. With no outside investors to satisfy, our process of returning all funds received from the license or sale of our purchased assets encourages members to place maximum bids at the time of purchase, knowing they may obtain some of this purchase price back when the patent is ultimately sold. This ultimately permits patent owners to maximize the price realized when selling their asset in a competitive market.

The first step in divesting a portfolio involves offering it to the original bidding members. Starting with the highest bidder, AST member companies may buyout a portfolio by reimbursing the other original bidders the amount of their original investment plus expenses incurred by AST in acquiring, owning and divesting the portfolio.

If none of the original bidders acquires the portfolio, it is placed for sale with a broker. AST strives for complete transparency with potential buyers. Under strict NDA terms, we disclose licensees that we are aware of at the time of sale. Subject to confidentiality obligations, we make any documents in our possession available.

For a list of portfolios currently for sale, click here.