Patent Citations as an Indicator of M&A Feasibility

Recently, ETRC (Emerging Technology Research Center: http://etrc.co.kr/main/) in S. Korea reported an interesting research result that the number of citations cited by examiner can be a good indicator of M&A feasibility. In its case studies for the acquisitions of IT start-ups, ETRC found that many global IT companies’ patents heavily cited the patents of acquired IT start-ups.

 

TechIPm’s NFC patents research (ref.  http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2015/03/nfc-patents-for-standards-applications.html) also confirm the usefulness of  ETRC’s method for finding a potential M&A target. Broadcom acquired UK-based NFC company “Innovision Research & Technology” at $47.5 M. According to the USPTO assignment search, Broadcom acquired 48 US patent applications and issued patens though the acquisition deal (ref. http://assignment.uspto.gov/#/assignment?id=32400-673&q=7881665). TechIPm could verify that Broadcom’s patents heavily cited the patents of Innovision Research & Technology. 

 

For example, US7881665, a patent of Innovision Research & Technology, was cited 11 times by Broadcom’s patents (ref. https://www.google.com/patents/US7881665?dq=inassignee:%22Innovision+Research+%26+Technology+PLC%22&ei=5-k4VZmHIMuvggTjvoG4Bw&cl=en#forward-citations).

 

 

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