§Valuation & Commercial Assessment
How much is your patent worth? A range, with the reasoning attached
Commercial Patent Valuation triangulates cost, market, and income approaches into a stated range, with every assumption written down. Use it to plan a sale or license, set a budget, or prepare for an investor conversation.
- Typical turnaround
- 2–4 weeks
- Best for
- Owners planning a sale or license, startups preparing for investors, and teams setting IP budgets
- You receive
- A stated value range, an assumptions register, and the working model behind both
- Delivered to
- You, and anyone you choose to share it with: counsel, board, or advisers
§ 01Deliverables
What you receive
A valuation you can argue with: every number traces back to a source or a stated judgment.
Value range and one-page summary
A low, base, and high commercial estimate, plus a plain-English page on what drives the number most. Written for business readers, not appraisers.
Assumptions register
Every input in one table: market size, royalty-rate references, remaining term, adoption, risk discount, and the source or reasoning behind each. Change one and you can see what moves.
Three-approach workbook
The cost, market, and income calculations in a working spreadsheet, so your finance team can test its own assumptions instead of taking ours on faith.
Sensitivity table
The three or four assumptions that swing the range the most, and by how much. This is usually where the real conversation with a buyer or investor happens.
Technical and market context
The patent family, remaining term, and public status, plus the products and companies active in the field, drawn from public sources and read by an analyst.
Audit trail
Sources consulted, comparables considered and rejected with the reason, and analyst notes. A second analyst reviews every report before it reaches you.
§ 02Overview
When teams use it
Before a sale or licensing campaign
Set a realistic asking range and a walk-away point before anyone else names a number. Pairs with Sell Your Patent.
12Budgeting and internal decisions
Decide which assets deserve the next maintenance fee, a marketing budget, or further investment. For a whole portfolio, start with pruning analytics.
14Investor and lender conversations
Give investors a reasoned view of what the IP contributes, with assumptions they can challenge. Pair it with a due-diligence data pack of the public record.
16Licensing and spin-out planning
Price a technology before a license or spin-out discussion, then find the companies likely to value it.
§ 03Process
How it works
- 01
Scoping call
A free 20–30-minute call to agree on the purpose: sale, license, budget, or investor conversation. The purpose changes the right inputs. You get a fixed-fee written quote within one business day.
- 02
Technical read
After an NDA, analysts read the patent, its family, and its public status, then map the products and markets the technology relates to.
- 03
Three approaches
We build the cost, market, and income views in parallel, each with its own inputs and its own weaknesses written down.
- 04
Reconcile into a range
We weigh each approach by the quality of its data, set the low, base, and high cases, and a second analyst reviews the whole model.
- 05
Walkthrough
We walk you through the range, the sensitivities, and the assumptions you may want to test with your own numbers.
§ 04Insight
A single number is a guess. A range with assumptions is a tool.
Most people who ask “how much is my patent worth?” hope for one number. One number is the least useful thing we could give you. A patent has no price until someone pays it, and the honest answer depends on who is buying, what they would do with it, and how much term is left.
So we triangulate. The cost approach asks what it would take to recreate the asset; it frames a buyer’s thinking but rarely sets the price. The market approach looks for comparable sales and licenses, which are scarce and often private. The income approach asks what the right is worth in use. In its common relief-from-royalty form, it estimates the royalties a company would pay to use the technology over the remaining term, then discounts them for risk and time.
Each method is weak alone. Together, with every assumption written down, they give you a range you can test. Lenders and investors hit the same wall: a 2026 EUIPO report on IP-backed finance found that only 13% of European firms owning IP rights had tried to raise finance against them, and that a large majority had never had a professional valuation. A written range is where that conversation starts, even if a lender later commissions its own appraisal.
Each method is weak alone. Together, they give you a range you can test.
§ 05 — Boundaries
What this is not
- Not a fairness opinion, and not a valuation for tax, financial-reporting, or audit purposes.
- Not investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, or lend.
- Not a legal opinion on validity, enforceability, or claim scope. Where those questions affect value, we record them as assumptions for your counsel to test.
- Not an offer or a promise of a sale price or licensing income. A range is an estimate; the market sets the price.
§ 06Questions
Questions about commercial valuation
Something else on your mind? Call (505) 357-5188 or write to info@metadragons.com.
So how much is my patent worth?
It depends on remaining term, the size of the market for products that use the technology, how easily a company could work around it, and who would pay. We can’t give a responsible number before we’ve read the patent and studied the market. What you get from us is a range with the reasoning visible, so you can judge it yourself.
Can I use your valuation for taxes, a donation, financial statements, or court?
No. Those uses call for a credentialed appraiser or expert working to the relevant standards; with your permission, we can share our research with them. Our valuations are commercial estimates for business planning: sale and licensing strategy, budgets, internal decisions, and investor conversations.
Will a buyer pay the number in your report?
Maybe, maybe not. Buyers price their own risk, budget, and alternatives. The range helps you set an asking price and a walk-away point and spot an offer that is out of line. The market decides the final price.
Is the range different for a sale and a license?
Yes. A buyer prices outright ownership, including the cost of enforcing it. A licensee prices a right to use. We state the purpose on the first page, and the inputs follow from it.
What do you need from me to start?
The patent number or numbers, the products that use or could use the technology, any licensing history, and the decision the valuation will support. Confidential details come after an NDA.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
Typically 2–4 weeks. After a free scoping call, you receive a fixed-fee written quote within one business day, and nothing is billed beyond it without your written approval. Here is how quoting works.
Keep reading
Where to go next
§Next step
Get a range you can defend
Tell us the patent and the decision it supports. After a free 20–30-minute scoping call, you’ll have a fixed-fee written quote within one business day.