As business borrowing gets even more challenging in the recovery, lenders will be looking for good collateral wherever you can find it. How about patents?
Patents are intangible assets, meaning an asset without a physical life. Specifically, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government entity to an inventor or his assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention.
Clearly it has value, but the value is often not clear and difficult to assess.
Sam Thacker is a partner in the Austin Texas based financial consulting firm, Business Finance Solutions which assists small businesses with financing challenges. In his 15 years in banking, he has patents used as collateral twice.
Read his article to learn more about what conditions should exist to consider patents as loan collateral and how it worked out.
