San Francisco, November 2015
Intellectual Property/Patent Acquisition Opportunity from Bell and Howell
As part of Gerbsman Partners focus for maximizing value of Intellectual Property, I am attaching for your review and potential interest, two Patent Groups for acquisition from the owner, Bell and Howell, LLC . (please see attached detailed Bell and Howell Patents pptx.)
1. The focus of this portfolio of patents is on maintaining mail processing integrity using Methods and Systems for tracking and controlling mail piece processing using a unique identifier incorporated within the Postal Service Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) or other Postal Authority’s barcode. These Patents incorporate high performance computing, Graphic manipulation, Mail Security and Traceability.
2. The focus of this portfolio of patents is on processing of mail pieces to ensure that the mail pieces are prepared in accordance with postal authority standards.
Bids for the sale of the Patent’s will be due on December 15, 2015 and will be subject to “The Bidding Process” which is outlined below. Separate Bids are requested for each Group.
Group 1: (US Patent Nos. 6,557,755 – – 7,325,732- – 7,741,575 – – 8,063,332) –Group 1
Title:
A. Methods and Systems for Tracking and Controlling Mail piece processing using Postal Mail-Piece Code (US Patent No. 6,557,755)
B. Method and System for Mail Security and Traceability (US Patent No. 7,325,732)
C. Mail Piece Consolidation and Accountability using Advanced Tracking Methods (US Patent No. 7,741,575)
D. Mail Piece Consolidation and Accountability Using Advanced Tracking Methods (US Patent No. 8,063,332)
Group 2: (US Patent Nos. 7,840,414 – -6,793,136 – -6,697,500 – -7,834,289) – Group 2
Title:
A. Mail processing system for address change service (US Patent No. 7,840,414)
B. In-line Verification, Reporting and Tracking Apparatus and Method for Mail Pieces (US Patent No. 6,793,136)
C. Method and System for Mail Detection and Tracking of Categorized Mail Pieces (US Patent No. 6,697,500)
D. Mail Processing System for Address Change Service (US Patent No. 7,834,289)
Assignee/Owner: Bell and Howell, LLC
Group 1 patents:
Innovation: The patents in this group allow a mail processing operation to use a postal authority barcode data to track every mailpiece in the mail factory, the location of that mail piece in the process and what processing steps are required for that mailpiece. This traceability aspect can extend to the delivery of the mail piece to the ultimate recipient. Mail security is addressed in the patents by identifying the mail owner for each mail piece. Mail processing efficiency is enhanced with a method for sorting and commingling mail from a plurality of mail sources and for tracking the mail pieces through the sorting and commingling all with a high degree of integrity, Traceability to the mailer ID, tray and pallet is divulged.
Advantages: Mail processing effectiveness and mailpiece traceability by the association of every mail piece to a unique identifier and the unique identifier to mailer ID, tray, pallet and processing steps is made possible.
Group 2 patents:
Innovation: The patents in this group of patents allow an enterprise to utilize mailpiece processing equipment to generate a properly formatted delivery barcode, such as the USPS Intelligent Mail® barcode, to print the IMB barcode on a mailpiece, to perform inline verification of a mailpiece to ensure it meets postal standards, to correctly enable address change service and to check the mail piece for specific characteristics that indicates additional processing is required.
Advantages: This group of patents is beneficial to any organization that is preparing mail for delivery by USPS and wishing to qualify for postage discounts. Organizations that are preparing mail, whether performed by an in house mail room or by a service provider need to ensure the mail is prepared in accordance with mail standards so that deliver performance is maintained. In addition, updating, culling of undesirable mail pieces and inline verification are all available with the patents.
Market Potential & Application Domain:
These Patents should be attractive to any entity that uses mail as a key part of their business operation, marketing or communication strategy. Potential market segments that could benefit from use of the patents include mail businesses with a mail room, mail service providers, print shops and pre-sort service providers, such as:
1. Credit card companies – (billing, membership solicitations, special offers, etc)
2. Travel companies (airlines, travel agencies, etc)
3. Music and Book Clubs, Letter Shops
4. Corporations (annual and quarterly reports, SEC documents, proxies, meeting announcements, etc)
5. Banks (statements, notifications, etc)
6. Insurance companies (statements, solicitations, etc.)
7. Utilities (statements, etc)
8. Universities (acceptances and rejections, fund raising solicitations, course listings, grades, statements, etc)
9. Large charities (museums, orchestras, religious charities, benefit organizers, etc)
10. Retailers (catalogs, special offers, credit card solicitations, etc)
11. Professional societies (IEEE, APS, ACS, etc)
12. Political parties
13. The USG and state/municipal governments
14. United States Postal Service
15. All First and Standard Class Mailers not using NetSort
Technological Key Words: Mail delivery, Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB), pre-sort. address change service (ACS), inline verification, mail security, move update, mailpiece tracking. Comingling, electronic data records
The Bidding Process for Interested Buyer
Interested parties will be invited to participate with a sealed bid, for the acquisition of the Bell and Howell Patents. Sealed bids must be submitted for each Group separately, and should be received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at the Bell and Howell office, located at 3791 S. Alston Avenue, Durham, NC 27713, attn: Blake Eaddy, General Counsel. Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.
Any person or other entity making a bid must be prepared to provide independent confirmation that they possess the financial resources to complete the purchase where applicable. All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit check in the amount of $100,000. The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days of the Bid Deadline. Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposits returned to them within 3 business days of notification that they are an unsuccessful bidder.
Bell and Howell reserves the right to, in its sole discretion, to accept or reject any bid, or withdraw any or all of the Patents from sale. Interested parties should understand that it is expected that the highest and best bid submitted will be chosen as the winning bidder and bidders may not have the opportunity to improve their bids after submission.
Bell and Howell will require the successful bidder to close within a 7 day period after acceptance of the winning bid. Any or all of the Patents of Bell and Howell will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis, with no representation or warranties whatsoever.
All sales, transfer, and recording taxes, stamp taxes, or similar taxes, if any, relating to the sale of the Bell and Howell Patents shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to Bell and Howell at the closing of each transaction.
About Bell and Howell, LLC
Bell and Howell is a leading global provider of multi-channel communications solutions, providing messaging technologies for print, Web and mobile delivery. They are dedicated to drive positive growth for their customers, and their suite of solutions are designed to be open, flexible, solve unique customer needs, and enable the highest quality and lowest cost production of highly relevant customer communications. Supporting these solutions is one of the largest dedicated service organizations in the industry. Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C., the company maintains development and manufacturing facilities in Wheeling, Ill., Bethlehem, Pa., Rochester, N.Y., Dallas, Texas, and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. For further information, please visit http://www.bellhowell.net.
About Gerbsman Partners
Gerbsman Partners is a private investment bank focused on maximizing enterprise value for stakeholders and shareholders and their Intellectual Property. Our team of experienced experts has helped maximize Intellectual Property stakeholder value for 91 technology, medical device, digital marketing, social commerce, life science, cyber security and solar companies through our proprietary “Date Certain M&A Process” and has restructured/terminated over $ 810 million of prohibitive real estate and equipment leases, sub-debt and creditor issues. Since 1980, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $ 2.3 M&A, financing and restructuring transactions.
If you have any interest in the acquisition of these Patents, please call:
Steven R. Gerbsman (415) 505 4991 steve@gerbsmanpartners.com
Kenneth Hardesty (408) 591 7528 ken@gerbsmanpartners.com
Blog of Intellectual Capital 
Leave a Reply