Health Discovery Corporation (HDC), a leader in support vector machine (SVM) based molecular diagnostic and prognostic test development, announced the signing of an agreement with Patent Profit International (PPI), a Silicon Valley-based patent brokerage firm, with the goal of exploiting the full monetization potential of HDC's extensive pioneering patent portfolio.
Under the agreement, PPI will market HDC's patent portfolio, which includes exclusive rights to SVM techniques and applications that reach far beyond biomarker discovery and the Healthcare Field, to prospective buyers/licensees in a wide range of technologies, including, but not limited to, information technology such as Internet browsers and search engines, spam mail detection, oil exploration, homeland security, and the automotive industry.
As a requirement of any sale of the patent estate, HDC expects to retain a royalty-free, worldwide, exclusive license, with the right to grant sublicenses, in the entire field of healthcare. This strategic initiative would allow HDC to potentially generate significant revenue from its extensive and pioneering patent estate covering the field of SVM technology in non-medical applications while continuing uninterrupted its wide-ranging research, development, licensing and commercialization activities in broad-ranging diagnostic and prognostic areas such as prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, leukemia and other healthcare arenas. This is a strategy designed to transform HDC's underutilized patents into working financial assets to increase shareholder value.
PPI is one of a small number of successful patent brokerage firms that specialize in the sale of patent portfolios and has strong contacts in the high technology arena. Under the commission-based arrangement, PPI will utilize its contacts and market knowledge to identify companies to whom HDC's patent portfolio is relevant and position the portfolio to attract prospective buyers. PPI will then facilitate negotiations to obtain the best possible price and terms and with HDC's approval to close the deal.
The advances covered by the patents in the HDC portfolio represent work by several of the world's leading authorities in the field of SVMs and learning machines including Dr. Isabelle Guyon, one of the original SVM inventors at Bell Labs and a member of HDC's Scientific Advisory Board. A few of the other HDC inventors include Dr. Bernhard Schoelkopf, also a Member of HDC's Science Advisory Board and currently a department director at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany and co-author or co-editor of numerous books and published articles on pattern recognition and learning machines. Dr. Nello Cristianini is a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Bristol and co-author of two well-known books on machine learning. Dr. Peter Bartlett, currently a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC. Berkeley, Dr Jason Weston, a researcher in machine learning at NEC Laboratories America, Dr. André Elisseeff, a researcher in the Zurich Research Lab of IBM, and Dr. Fernando Perez-Cruz, a fellow in the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton University. All of these HDC patent inventors are widely published in the fields of pattern recognition, learning machines and bioinformatics.
"Health Discovery Corporation's intellectual property portfolio, now includes 15 issued and 19 pending U.S. patents and 14 issued and 16 pending foreign patents, and has grown significantly as a valuable asset of the company." stated Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., Chairman and CEO of HDC, "A patent portfolio sale/license back with HDC retaining exclusive, world-wide, royalty free, rights to the patented technology in the entire field of healthcare could unlock the value of these intellectual property assets, provide substantial income to HDC and significantly reduce the cost of patent maintenance, prosecution, and litigation while allowing HDC full use, including sublicensing rights, of the patented technology in the entire field of healthcare; all of which clearly represents a win-win situation for HDC shareholders."
"Today, intangible intellectual property assets are the largest and most valuable portion of the asset base for a majority of companies" stated Jeff Kalb of Patent Profit International, "Patent Profit International is very excited to be working with HDC to monetize the significant value of this very extensive pioneering portfolio of patents. This patent sale/license back strategy will allow HDC to potentially generate substantial income in the near term from the highest bidder for these unique and well protected patents which include the support vector machine (SVM), a technology which has become the subject of considerable interest to some of the largest companies in the world."
The sale of HDC's patent portfolio to a high tech company with extensive resources for establishing an aggressive licensing and enforcement program is a wining solution that could generate significant working capital for realizing HDC's primary mission and allowing HDC to devote its intellectual and financial resources to diagnostic and prognostic test development for personalized medicine and other medical applications of SVMs.
Savannah-based Health Discovery Corporation is uniquely positioned in the field of pattern recognition technology. Through the application of its patent protected technology, HDC is a leader in SVM-based molecular diagnostic and prognostic test development in genomics and proteomics, as well as, digital image analysis in pathology and radiology.
Based in Silicon Valley, California, Patent Profit International LLC helps companies realize revenues and profits from unused intellectual property through a detailed analysis of the IP for sale, explaining its value to purchasers which is possible through the development of long term business relationships with the leading IP buyers and companies around the world.