We need patience and a little luck to reach our goal.

Value of the Patent

I went looking for more information about JuxtaComm and the patent and on a Clusty web search was surprised to find a document from the old JuxtaComm Media Communications website a Strategic Market Valuation Report. In 2003 Teilhard commissioned BBG Venture Partners to estimate the value of the United States patent '662.

First the report defines software Patent '662 as information integration brokerage (IIB) by an independent middleware platform and covers the following products:

• Extraction, Transform and Load (ETL);
• Application integration suites;
• Business to Business integration suites;
• Message Orientated Middleware; and
• Portal Solutions

The initial set of defendants in the trial are mostly ETL vendors but this research report shows the patent may also apply to all types of middleware vendors. The defendant list does not include EAI vendors TIBCO, SeeBeyond and BEA systems. BEA Systems is being acquired by Oracle and may be immune under the Tielhard-Oracle licensing agreement but they had revenue of over a billion dollars a year - four times as much as Informatica or IBM-Ascential.

In fact Oracle has become the largest middleware vendor with the growth of Fusion and the acquisition of BEA making the settlement from a couple years ago look like quite a bargain.

The report talks about the patent running from 2004 to 2017 though when it comes to damages I think it can be back dated to the filing date of 2001:

• The global total of IIB/ETL market revenue for 2003 is estimated at $30.7 billion, which includes:
  • $22.3 billion of licensing;
  • $3.3 billion of maintenance contracts; and
  • $5.1 billion of professional services
• The forecast revenues from 2004 through 2017:
  • $1,1129 billion of licensing;
  • $169.5 billion of maintenance contracts; and
  • $259.8 billion of professional services.

The report concludes that the total value of patent 662 over the next 15 years based on 100% infringement by North American companies is $7.3 billion made up of $6.1 billion from licensing and $1.2 billion in maintenance. The value is discounted as it is based on an unlitigated patent - it has not been challenged and defended in a court of law. If Teilhard win the lawsuit and the defendants are found to be 100% infringing then Teilhard is expecting more than $7.3 billion from the patent over the next 14 years.

All the parties in the lawsuit will be submitting calculations for arriving at damages with the defendants aiming for the low side and Teilhard aiming high. Each party needs a calculation that makes sense or the judge will throw it out and take the opposition calculation.