IPwe Annuity Payment

Service Model

Patent owners have three options:

1. Handle in-house & build their own agent network – need to build infrastructure and team to manage and is expensive
2. Handle via one or a few managing agents – they use their network to make payments, lack of infrastructure & economies of scale makes it expensive
3. Handle via intermediary – they manage
   local agents, have the technology &
   economy of scale to reduce cost but are
   an extra link in chain and don’t pass
   through all of the savings

IPwe gives patent owners and law firms the technology and infrastructure to handle annuities at the same scale and efficiency as the intermediaries:

• Where direct payment is possible, patent
  owners can pay directly to the PTO via the
  IPwe Platform.
• For other countries, IPwe gives patent
  owners and law firms the infrastructure
  to connect, contract and enact renewals, all
  handled with the IPwe Platform
• Patent owners can assign responsibility to a
  law firm or outside party if they don’t want
  to handle annuities.

Portfolio Accuracy, Onboarding
& Data Access

• Multiple data validation and law
  calculations to determine data accuracy
• Data is stored between different
  proprietary systems, with different number
  formats, incomplete and inaccurate records
• Patent owners to invest significant effort in
  keeping their patent portfolio maintained
  and up-to-date

• IPwe works with patent owners to upload
  and auto-match their cases against the
  Global Patent Registry.
• We work with patent owners & law firms to
  verify non-matched cases.
• All data is stored on the Global IP
  Repository, which has standardized number
  formats is is updated regularly against PTO
  record and always free to access.

Contract Execution

Each contract is handled and managed offline, with limited standardization and no view as to whether each party is getting a good deal.

All contracts are enacted online, with standardized terms. Both parties can benchmark pricing and deal components against the Global IP marketplace

Pricing & Invoicing

• • Pricing and invoicing are managed yourself.
  • Manage yourself – the lack of technology
    & infrastructure makes it hard to manage
    invoicing & reconciliation processes – can
    result in duplicate payments & overcharging.

Manage via intermediary – invoices and fees are consolidated, but are opaque and difficult to understand, making it hard to see the true price vs, markup

IPwe provides fully transparent, itemized invoices, showing each fee component:

• IPwe fee
• Responsible Party Fee (optional)
• Local Agent Fee (where needed)
• Currency cost (optional)
• Official fee

Currency Management

• Expensive and usually accounts for around
  50% of additional invoice cost (outside of
  official fees).
• Usually required to select one currency for
  payment.

IPwe brings the cost down to a 1% FX fee if you required single currency invoicing. You can opt to pay in local currencies and cut out all currency cost.

Payment Proof

Upon request – a combination of PTO receipts (where available) and bank wire transfer proof (which can be difficult to read)

• Each transaction is managed and recorded
  on the Blockchain
• It’s transparent, immutable, instant and free

Payment Terms

Either you pay in advance or you pay up an additional quarter on the invoice value to your provider for credit terms. Credit is generally capped at 60 or 90 days.

IPwe provides rolling credit terms of 1% per month of the total invoice value. We don’t cap credit terms or how long patent owners can borrow for.