Most commercial lenders outside of New York, or perhaps Silicon Valley, may never have occasion to accept a patent as collateral. As a result, many lenders, and even some commercial attorneys, become uneasy at the thought of preparing loan documents secured by "intellectual property" or "intangible personal property," concepts that sound more mysterious than terms like "stock certificates," or "Lot 1 of Block 2" references to what would generally be considered "hard assets." But, as we move forward in the Information Age, it will become more commonplace, and for some, use of intellectual property as collateral may actually become routine.

The purpose of this article is to dissuade commercial lenders from the notion that lending against a patent is somehow complex or intellectually taxing, and to demonstrate that it is a fairly simple process that is actually more precise in some respects than lending against what we might other - wise consider to be hard assets.

Readers can access the full article on The Secured Lenders website.