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INCJ invests $27m in Japan patent fund

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Government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) has invested JPY2.75 billion ($27.8 million) in a fund that will buy unused patents and license them to domestic start-ups.

The vehicle, which launched earlier this month, is eventually looking to raise as much as JPY30 billion and will initially focus on patents in the consumer electronics space. 

INCJ is also injecting just under $1 million of capital into the fund manager, IP Bridge, a Tokyo-based firm headed by former Sanyo Electric IP manager Shigeharu Yoshii. According to Nikkei, the fund also counts electronics firm Panasonic Corp. and trading company Mitsui & Co among its investors. 

The fund aims to acquire an initial 5,000 patents. Around half of the 1.35 million patents registered to Japanese businesses and individuals currently produce no revenue. Dormant patents abound in the crowded consumer electronics industry.

The investment rationale is to capitalize on this by bringing together engineers who were involved in acquiring the patents - which cost money to maintain - and have them work to commercialize them.

Patent applications in Japan fell 12% last year compared with 2008, even as they rose in the US and China.

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