以實質選擇權評價積體電路產業之專利權—以聯詠合併其樂達為例

Abstract

近年來政府為因應國內目前經濟結構轉型的需要，不斷地鼓勵研發並加強專利之宣導與保護，以提高國內的技術水準。在知識經濟的時代，面對產品生命週期短、產業環境變化快的經營特性，高科技企業為保有產業競爭力莫不投注心力於專利之建立與管理。高科技公司取得專利權的保護，透過專利法所附與之排他權不僅可避免技術受競爭廠商剽竊侵權外，更可以將持有的專利授權給其它廠商以獲得授權金。另外，專利權之取得在高科技公司的併購活動中，也已逐漸成為不可或缺的關鍵。企業可透過購買專利或技術，避免自行研發失敗的機率以降低研發風險，或是提升開發效率以縮短產品上市時間。也因此，公司專利技術之鑑價也逐漸成為產業經營之重要課題。然而，專利並不像傳統實體固定資產有客觀的市場價值作為比較基準，所以增加其鑑價的難度，僅能經由買賣公司之兩造不斷地協調議價，以決定雙方可接受之專利/技術價值。 因此，利用實質選擇權法來評估公司專利權組合的價值也逐漸成為依個可行的建議。本研究主要以以實質選擇權法與傳統現金流量折現法來評價台灣IC設計公司專利權的價值。實質選擇權法討論專利技術的價值，較一般現金流量折現法更精確求出決策過程中的彈性價值與時間價值。在本研究的個案中，市場原來認為發動併購公司的出價過高，但是利用實質選擇權法估計的專利技術價格卻貼近併購公司提出的價格，反而沒有過度溢價的情形發生。因此本研究的研果認為實質選擇權法評估專利技術價格仍有一定參考價值，可提供決策者不同的思考決策意見。

In an era of knowledge economy, high-tech firms pay much attention on management of patents to keep competitiveness. The high-tech firms not only prevent competitors from illegal duplication and infringement, but also obtain royalties without any cost by licensing their owned patents to others. On the other hand, the firms can purchase patents from IP providers to reduce their research and development risk, and to speed the time to market. As a result, patent valuation increasingly becomes a critical task for enterprises. However, in contrast to conventional real assets, patents lack a standard patent/technology valuation mechanism. As a result, the prices of patents should be determined via complicated negotiation processes between the IP provider and IP user. Option based valuation approaches are proposed as a useful framework in which to consider management of a company's patent portfolio, and the difficulties of a rigorous application of the method form a fruitful field for future research. This paper employs both real options approach and traditional discount cash flow (DCF) method to evaluate the patents of an integrated circuit design company in Taiwan. The value of the patents using the real option approach is more accurate than that using DCF method due in part to consideration of time value and flexibility value.