The Company had developed an online daily photo journal and social networking service that allowed people to share their pictures. It had grown considerably since its creation in 2004 and attained over 2.4 million unique visitors per year across 175 countries and hosted more than five million images. The images were downloaded each day by the British Library, due to their unique historical significance in tracking the lives of many individuals, which resulted in the Company winning a BAFTA.
The Company entered financial distress and Metis Partners was engaged by FRP Advisory to sell the IP assets.
We used our unique Metisology® to discover and assess the value of the IP assets and produced a sales pack which highlighted the significant impact and exposure the brand had achieved. In addition to a registered trademark, we identified a number of unregistered trademarks, a portfolio of domain names, source code, and website content.
We gained broad international press coverage including from BBC News, Yahoo India, Yahoo Singapore, Yahoo New Zealand and CNBC US, which helped to ensure we maximized the recovery for our client. We managed multiple interested parties and facilitated their due diligence inquiries, whilst creating competitive tension.
We brokered a deal with the shareholders of Polaroid, who had previously been involved with a licensing of the brand and therefore recognized the commercial significance of this social media platform and related consumer awareness and brand loyalty.
IP Assets Sold – Brand & Trademarks, Content-rich Website, Database, and Organizational Knowledge.
