Insight into the use of patent auction houses comes from a patent infringement complaint recently filed against Nissan, Toyota, Honda and others by the Kansas-based National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization (NISTAC).
The complaint notes that "the patents at issue resulted from work of Ford Motor Company employees" and that subsequently "Ford assigned the patents at issue to NISTAC. In 2006, NISTAC placed the patents at issue along with additional patents in an Ocean Tomo auction. In preparation for that auction, NISTAC notified multiple automotive companies of the patents and their potential availability as part of the Ocean Tomo auction. The patents at issue were ultimately pulled from the auction and retained by NISTAC."