“What? You want to trade intellectual property?” was often the response that Gerard Pannekoek, president and chief executive of Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), got when he explained the concept behind his exchange. However, “the overall response was one of intrigue”, he says. As the former president of the Chicago Climate Exchange, Mr Pannekoek is used to trading in the unconventional.
He explains that he was astonished by the inefficiencies of the intellectual property (IP) market. Inventors wanting to license their patents have to negotiate with each company that may be interested, which makes it more likely they will only deal with the biggest companies. Meanwhile, all those companies have to do their own due diligence and cannot be sure if they are getting a good deal if they do use the patent.