At Conversant, we license quality patents.  In recent years our acquisitions team has assessed more than 600 patent portfolios comprising more than 130,000 patents.  Yet after due diligence we have passed on all but a handful of these opportunities because they didn’t survive our comprehensive and rigorous analysis of infringement, validity, substantive patent prosecution issues, and return on investment. Consequently our portfolio of patents under management contains quality patents from some of the world’s strongest innovators.

That’s why we had to smile when we saw this recent list compiled by CNN, featuring some of the most absurd and obscure patents ever to be filed to the USPTO. They remind us that a patent, in order to have any value, needs to actually be usable by a target market. I doubt there will be much licensing revenue from a patent titled “WEARABLE DEVICE FOR FEEDING AND OBSERVING BIRDS”. After all, 2014 is the year of wearable technology, but I don’t think this quite fits the bill.

Enjoy!