A newly launched Web site, LegalForce, offers an online “marketplace” for buying, selling and licensing patents. Through July, listing patents for sale costs nothing. Interested buyers can view listings and post bids, which are non-binding as serve as invitations to negotiate. The site also provides a networking forum for inventors, attorneys and IP professionals, where they can participate in topical forums, post videos (illustrating their inventions, for example), post classified ads and list events.
According to the Web site, LegalForce also offers IP legal services, including patent preparation and prosecution, “through a network of U.S. patent attorneys using LegalForce intellectual property support services in India.” According to a white paper, this means that much of the patent work is outsourced through U.S. patent attorneys to patent engineers in India.