Finjan Holdings Commits To Licensing Best Practices

NEW YORK, March 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Finjan Holdings, Inc. (OTC MKT: FNJN) today announced a commitment to its benchmark Licensing Best Practices to ensure candid, transparent and consistent business practices for intellectual property (IP) licensing. In conjunction with the publication of these best practices and its own adherence to them, Finjan calls upon the IP industry to adopt similar initiatives that support technological advancements, investments in innovation, and continued job creation while preserving a strong patent system.

"We understand that defining our core values early in our growth will guide us as a newly public company on how we develop our business relationships, differentiate our brand within the IP licensing industry, and ultimately define our corporate ethos," said Finjan's President, Phil Hartstein. "The Licensing Best Practices are our commitment to lead and influence greater ethical practices, and enable innovation in the IP industry going forward."

For more than two centuries, technological advancements have rapidly reshaped our lives, and IP has incentivized an innovative spirit by driving our modern knowledge economy and providing benefits for those who discover useful and non-obvious inventions that enhance and protect our society. Moreover, patents play a critical role in bolstering the nation's economy and creating jobs. In 2010, patents supported 40 million jobs (27.7% of all jobs in the U.S.) and IP-intensive industries accounted for $5.06 trillion in value added (34.8% of U.S. GDP), according to the Innovation Alliance.

Within the various areas that patents positively affect American business and society, there is an opportunity to encourage continued innovation by clearly defining a set of guidelines to provide both transparency and liquidity in the thriving IP licensing industry and to serve as a platform to promote greater ethical practices going forward.

As such, Finjan, a pioneer and leader in cybersecurity with a history of licensing its patents and technology to major software and technology companies around the world, has developed seven Licensing Best Practices based on the company's core values in an effort to encourage meaningful discussion and drive real change in the licensing practices of all entities that license but do not directly practice their respective patents. Finjan's two recent management hires, VP of IP Licensing, Ivan Chaperot, and VP of Legal Operations, Julie Mar-Spinola, will lead the charge as Finjan ingrains these practices into the core of the company's mission.  

"The IP industry is maturing fast, yet there is still wide a disparity in licensing practices. By promoting the values we stand by and championing these Licensing Best Practices, we encourage collaborative behaviors that will allow the IP industry to better support the broad dissemination of technological advancements, which in turn reward investments in innovation and create jobs," said Finjan's VP of IP Licensing, Ivan Chaperot. "We have formalized how we conduct business in licensing not only at a professional level, but also at a personal one by embodying our core values which include candor and integrity."

Moreover, Finjan is committed to engaging companies, academic institutions, government agencies, industry organizations, and other IP influencers to adopt and support these or similar best practices. 

"In championing efforts to ensure instillation of these standards, we encourage all sectors to have open and candid discussions about the real, not perceived, problems in the patent licensing and litigation arenas," said Finjan's VP of Legal Operations, Julie Mar-Spinola. "We believe greater ethical practices and better innovation starts with enterprise mandating a code of conduct, educating current and up-and-coming individuals in the field on these standards, and engaging the judiciary and government agencies to gain a better and more accurate understating on the challenges and opportunities the industry faces."

Finjan's Licensing Best Practices are to serve as a road map to the industry and include seven actionable elements:

1. Ensure focused licensing and enforcement programs pursuing the provider of the patented technology and not its customers, consumers or end users.
2. Conduct reasonable diligence to determine a patent's enforceability and use with respect to prospective licensees, and make that information available to them.
3. Respect procedural rights and judicial efficiency in the courts and in the prosecution and protection of IP behind the innovation.
4. Be transparent with the intent in each discussion, and articulate the cause and effect scenarios which would prompt a shift in communication and an escalation of each discussion.
5. Provide useful facts to prospective licensees and defendants to foster productive business discussions early and often to aid in informed decision-making.
6. Offer fair value licenses or settlements based on legitimate factors and considerations.
7. Commit to keeping lines of communications open between the patent owner and prospective licensee to preserve a path for the parties to find an amicable solution or resolution for their respective businesses.

Further details on the Finjan's Licensing Best Practices and its commitment to achieve industry adoption are outlined in its position paper at www.finjan.com.  

ABOUT FINJAN:

Through our subsidiary, Finjan, Inc., we own a portfolio of patents, related to software that proactively detects malicious code and thereby protects end users from identity and data theft, spyware, malware, phishing, trojans and other online threats. Finjan's mission is to invest in innovation and encourage the development of core intellectual property. Founded in 1997, Finjan developed and patented technology that is capable of detecting previously unknown and emerging threats on a real-time, behavior-based, basis, in contrast to signature-based methods of intercepting only known threats to computers, which were standard in the online security industry during the 1990s.

Contact:

Media and Press Relations
Katie Hepler
MWW Group
Telephone: (212) 704-9727
Email: [email protected]

Company Investor Relations
Joshua Weisbord
Finjan Holdings, Inc.
Telephone: (646) 568-3313
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Finjan Holdings, Inc.