ImageWare partners up to build IP licensing business to power multimodal biometrics for cybersecurity

In response to the growth of multimodal biometrics for cybersecurity identity and authentication, ImageWare is launching an IP licensing program, with the assistance of ipCapital Group.

iPCapital Group will help ImageWare stand up a new business unit and co-create a model for monetizing its IP, giving the biometrics company a new stream of annual revenue. The first two years of the business unit’s development will be overseen by iPCapital, under the terms of the agreement.

Companies leveraging ImageWare’s intellectual property for their own products and platforms will be requested to take a license. The in-house licensing team will operate separately from the company’s main biometrics business, according to the announcement, and drive licensing within the cybersecurity technology sector.

iPCapital has helped companies from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses create profitable licensing businesses and models from their patents. The company is led by John E. Cronin, who formerly ran IBM Research’s “Patent Factory.”

Cronin has previously served as a member of ImageWare’s Board of Directors for eight years, giving him extensive knowledge of the company’s value proposition and differentiation.

“We have developed 100’s of licensing programs to drive revenue and protect intellectual property. ImageWare reminds us of a small telecommunications company that we created a licensing program for. They had minimal revenues, until we helped them initiate a 4 percent royalty licensing program. Once licensing started, the company valuation rose and they were purchased by a Fortune 500 for hundreds of millions of dollars” says Cronin.

He also cites research from Forbes and Global Market Insights suggesting that biometrics for cybersecurity represents a potential $37 billion opportunity for ImageWare.

“Companies around the world are increasingly building-in the use of multiple biometrics into their products and platforms for greater security and a convenient, contactless user experience. Hiring ipCapital Group, the best in the industry in terms of patent strategy, was imperative in our launching and maintaining a successful IP monetization program. Their track record of working with software companies specifically, and delivering large sums of revenue for their IP, was the unquestionable reason we chose to work with them,” comments ImageWare CEO and President Kristin A. Taylor.

“Establishing an IP licensing business unit inside of our existing software product business will allow us to build on our important IP foundation to drive a discreet stream of revenue to further fuel the Company. Additionally, new IP will be developed to align the foundational IP to the new markets as we start to license.”

ImageWare recently gave an update on the cloud service-focused strategy it has taken on since Taylor took over the company in February, and also introduced a new VP of Engineering.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  ImageWare  |  IP  |  licensing  |  multimodal biometrics  |  stocks