Question
Hello everybody
We are in the process of forming a startup with three co-founders. One of the founders is bringing in two patents on the technology we want to develop into a product. The other founder and I contribute money and equipment. To launch the company properly and to divide up the shares, we would like to know which value to attribute to the patents. Of course they are essential to our whole value proposition (so "priceless" in a sense), but the other founders' contributions have a clear "pricetag" and we think it would be appropriate to put a value on the patents as well. How should we evaluate them?
Answers: 2 public & 1 private
It is impossible, or at least very difficult, to put a price on such patents. You would only know their real value when you would be selling or licensing them.
Having said that, there are various methods to calculate the 'value' of a patent, but all of these methods will be providing different answers, since there is no one, fixed way of determining the value.
In your situation probably the best method is to look at the historical costs that have been made to get the patents (or patent applications) at the stage where they are now. This then should be considered the expenses that your co-founder did have to make and this 'money' is brought to the cooperation.
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