IBM assigns patents to cybersecurity company Finjan

IBM has assigned 41 patents and one pending application to Finjan Blue, a subsidiary of cybersecurity company Finjan Holdings, which owns IP covering cybersecurity.

The deal was revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, May 15, the same day the deal took place.

Under the agreement, Finjan Blue will receive 30 US patents, 11 related international patents and one European pending patent application, for an undisclosed amount in cash.

The terms of the deal are confidential.

Finjan Blue has published a list of its patents and applications, which currently number 36, suggesting the list has not been updated to include the latest acquisitions.

This is not the first time the two companies have signed a patent agreement.

When Finjan Blue was formed in August 2017, Finjan Holdings announced that the subsidiary had signed a patent acquisition and development agreement with IBM that “includes pathways for the two companies to consider development efforts in the future”. That deal covered the transfer of “select security-related patent assets”.

IBM has been the leading assignee of US patents for the past 25 years, as reported by WIPR in January. The company’s total of 9,043 patents in 2017 is triple the number it received a decade ago, and it means IBM has acquired more than 100,000 patents in the last 25 years.