The Intellectual Property (IP) Marketplace was a new addition to this year's SIGGRAPH. Following a panel regarding Patents and IPs, a mixer was held near the main floor of the convention center. I found myself at this mixer. First off, what is the IP Marketplace? The SIGGRAPH community includes people who generate intellectual property and those who commercialize it. This group of people  typically consists of researchers (both academic and industrial) who develop the ideas and the entrepreneurs who bring them to market. The problem is that unless both parties work for the same entity, there isn’t a smooth way to connect those who develop or own IP with those who want to market it commercially.

IP Marketplace is a listing service for IP: inventors and owners of IPs can list them for sale or license. The listings will be made available on the web and potential buyers can peruse the listings and then contact sellers in person at the conference to discuss purchase or licensing. The details of each deal are decided solely by the buyer and seller. SIGGRAPH’s hope is that IP Marketplace will help inventors and entrepreneurs work together to develop new CG and HCI products and services. As 2008 Director of Encounters, Mk Haley, put it, “think of it as Match.com for IPs.”

All this being said, what was I doing there? Initially what drew me in was not that I needed a patent, rather, I recognized some people I had met at an earlier get together and decided to see what this event was all about. After listening to just a few conversations among the attendees, I was immediately interested. Even as an outsider to this facet of the conference, I could tell this was going to be big. As I made inquiries, I realized things had not quite gone as planned even before the onsite event. Unfortunately, hardly anyone  had taken advantage of and signed up for the program. Even though there was low pre-conference participation, organizers decided to still hold the mixer and panel. In my opinion, this was the right move to make, as it raised awareness about the possibilities of this kind of interaction in the community. Joe Marks, 2008 Conference Chair, as well as future chairs will be looking into what caused the lacking participation in this year's IP Marketplace.  If nothing else, perhaps SIGGRAPH was simply ahead of the curve on this initiative.

As I moved from group to group of people in the mixer, ideas and business cards began to be exchanged. Even though this year's event did not go quite as planned, what I noticed onsite was people showing interest and using the mixer as a chance to gain information for future expansion on this idea. IP Marketplace was an experimental program that provided, at the very least, a  test ground to be developed or learned from for future SIGGRAPHs. The need for such a forum in the community is still there; I am eager to see how this will flourish in the future. I am not an inventor, but I can see the potential of the IP Marketplace. If I had an IP, this would provide a tremendous opportunity to be seen by an established community of CG and HCI professionals. I can see it one day rivaling any other venue at SIGGRAPH.