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Ocean Tomo, a leading provider of diversified intellectual property-related services, today announced the launch of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index (Amex: OTPAT), the first equity index based on the value of corporate intellectual property. The Index, which is priced and published by the American Stock Exchange (Amex), represents a diversified portfolio of 300 companies that own the most valuable patents relative to their book value. The Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index is the first major, broad-based market equity index to be launched in 35 years, and follows the progression from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896, to the Standard & Poor's 500 in 1957 and then to the NASDAQ Composite Index in 1971.
"The creation of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index marks the first time equity markets can identify and value the role innovation plays in our economy," said James E. Malackowski, President and CEO of Ocean Tomo. "It will be a valuable resource for fund analysts, financial advisors and investors, as the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index would have outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 300 basis points per annum between September 1996 and September 2006."
"Today, nearly 80 percent of the average company's value isn't reported on its books. As the United States continues to shed its industrial past and shift to a knowledge-based economy, the ability to invest in the intellectual capital represented by the Index becomes even more relevant to equity markets," Malackowski added.
Data: Ned Davis Research, Inc.
Cliff Weber, Senior Vice President, Amex ETF Marketplace, said, 'The American Stock Exchange continues to develop innovative and powerful indices and products by working with partners like Ocean Tomo. The Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index is a much-needed new benchmark that brings attention to the underlying role that intellectual property plays in creating equity market value."
The Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index was created by Keith Cardoza, a Managing Director of Ocean Tomo, as well as Chief Investment Officer of Ocean Tomo Asset Management. Most recently, Cardoza chaired the Boeing Company's Investment Strategy and Asset Allocation Committee, where his team was responsible for more than $60 billion in combined pension and 401(k) assets, and was previously a portfolio manager for the Illinois State Board of Investment pension fund.
"Intellectual property today is an inefficient market, and the Index leads to greater opportunities to unlock value for investors," said Cardoza. "Diversified across all sectors, styles, and capitalizations, the Index presents a unique and powerful way for sophisticated investors to enhance their portfolio."
The Index is designed to represent a group of companies that own high-quality patent portfolios. The Index selection methodology identifies six companies within each of 50 size and style groups, reflecting a broad spectrum of market capitalizations and investment styles, including value, relative value, blend, growth at a reasonable price (GARP) and growth by decile, that have the highest ratio of patent value to book value. The analytical engine used to evaluate the value of each company's patent portfolio is Ocean Tomo's PatentRatings software, which calculates the relative attractiveness of the more than 4 million patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1983 and which is widely recognized by the intellectual property valuation industry.
The methodology developed by Ocean Tomo is a 100 percent rules-based, quantitative approach to selecting stocks from a universe of 1,000 companies. The Index constituent selection process utilizes multi-factor proprietary selection rules to identify those stocks that offer the greatest patent value opportunities while maintaining broad-based diversification. The Index annually reconstitutes after the close of business on the last business day of October.
Among the companies that will be included in the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index as of November 1, 2006 are Accenture Ltd., AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp., 3COM Corp., Eastman Kodak Co., Ford Motor Co., General Electric Co., Honeywell International Inc, IBM Corp., InterDigital Communications Corp., Kimberly Clark Corp., Motorola, Inc., Microsoft Corp., The Proctor & Gamble Co., Stryker Corp. and Time Warner Inc. The full list of companies in the Index and other materials are available at www.OceanTomoIndexes.com and www.amex.com. The Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index is available at numerous media outlets including: Bloomberg website (^OTPAT), Bloomberg terminal (OTPAT
The Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index is patent-pending and was created by and is a trademark of Ocean Tomo Capital, LLC. Ocean Tomo's PatentRatings software is protected by U.S. Patent Number 6,556,992.
Web Cast Presentation
Ocean Tomo will webcast a presentation to discuss the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index on Wednesday, October 25, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time that can be accessed by visiting http://www.wsw.com/webcast/cc/ot. A replay of the presentation will be available approximately two hours following the conclusion of the call.
