NEW YORK, March 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the newly formed joint venture RPG|IMX announced that they are putting an entire 75 patent portfolio up for auction with a minimum opening bid of $500 million. In 2014, L'Oreal paid $150 million for the Sayuki Custom Cosmetics brand that, at the time, owned only a small number of patents. This acquisition was believed to revolutionize personalization and customization in the beauty industry.

"After concluding an exhaustive independent third-party audit, we are confident that these 75 patents, which the beauty industry has collectively cited over 400 times, will fetch a premium well north of the opening bid of five-hundred million dollars," says Bruce E. Teitelbaum, CEO of RPG|IMX.

Understanding What is At Play in the Beauty Industry
"For more than 18 years, I have envisioned all of the ways that the beauty industry would one day leverage the market-shifting power of personalization," says Julie R. Bartholomew, M.D., Chief Innovation Technology Officer of RPG|IMX. "During this time, I have been continuously innovating and designing to amass a deep and far reaching set of intellectual property assets. Now, when combined, this portfolio is ripe for tomorrow's market leader of personalization in the beauty industry to transform the consumer experience."

The power of personalization in the beauty industry has been well documented. Coty, an industry giant, recently made a splash when it announced it had developed Amazon Echo Show Technology as well as unveiled a new augmented reality experience in partnership with Walmart.com. "As innovative as both the new augmented reality experience for Walmart.com and Amazon's Echo Show Technology are," says Teitelbaum, "they both are essentially advanced recommendation engines for existing products. Imagine, instead of recommending off-the-shelf products, a customer's unique biometric data could be synthesized into fully customized products, delivered in real-time and through any sales channel. This is the next chapter of true personalization and why we are so excited to put our 75 patents up for sale."

More Than 9 Multi-Billion Dollar Goliaths Expected to Participate
Today, there are 7 companies that control nearly every beauty product people buy. In addition to L'Oréal and Coty, the equally prominent players include Unilever, Shiseido, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Estee Lauder. Together, these conglomerates own the 182 largest beauty brands and control the vast majority of the $438 billion global beauty industry.

"These 75 patents are the broadest, deepest and most comprehensive protection in the fast-paced, multi-billion dollar beauty personalization space," says Bartholomew. "Our independent third-party model illustrates that within 2-3 years, leveraging these patents will conservatively yield billions of additional revenue for the portfolio holder."

In addition to the 7 largest beauty conglomerates, Amazon and Walmart have both expressed interest in playing a larger role in the sale of beauty products. As each retailer looks to be more like its largest rival, a broad and deep patent portfolio could effectively provide a competitive advantage.

How 75 Patents Can Fetch More than Half A Billion Dollars
All told, these 75 patents have been cited more than 1,000 times when including other non-beauty-related industries. Coca-Cola's patents for its extremely popular Freestyle machine and other soda-related technology innovations, for example, list patents from the portfolio at least 100 times.

"While it's flattering to be cited so many times by some of the largest companies in the world," says Bartholomew, "I believe that the time has come for the various players in the beauty industry to decide who among them will stop merely citing these patents, and instead choose to own and leverage them to grow market share."

This sentiment is why RPG|IMX has decided to put all 75 patents up for auction. In the coming weeks, Teitelbaum and Bartholomew will share a comprehensive due diligence package with interested parties so that each can determine the value of the patent portfolio for themselves. While one company will see value in a specific category of beauty products such as skin care, another company may focus on the disruptive impact of real-time point-of-sale technology.

"Individually, each patent delivers discrete value," says Teitelbaum, "but the real power of the patent portfolio is in the interconnectedness of the patents. When you appreciate just how broad and deep of an interconnected web that all the patents create for their owner, it becomes simple to understand how incredibly valuable they are."

How to Participate in the Auction
If interested in participating in this auction, RBG|IMX will be running it's due diligence period now through April 16, 2018. Go to http://www.rpgimx.com for more information and to get started.

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SOURCE RPG|IMX