Dismay as Avocet IP loses 90% of its patents

by EWAN LAMB

Investors in 'disruptive technology' businesses Avocet and Genfro have been shocked to discover that 90 per cent of the patents linked to the companies have been "lost" since 2019, reducing the value of intellectual property from a possible figure of £400 million to just £69 million.

The disclosure came in an email to Genfro [the firm changed its name from Gennfros on July 1st) shareholders from the inscrutable 'Tim Carter', of the equally inscrutable Parachute Holdings (PCH), the business which now employs Avocet chairman Martin Frost.

The correspondence contained lists of patents which had already lapsed and others which would suffer a similar fate unless fees were paid by the end of June.

Extracts of emails sent to Mr Frost by fellow Avocet director and Genfro life president Bob Jennings warned: "Dear Martin, This is not good news. We have filed some 120 cases in various countries and the majority have lapsed.

"Some others are still live pending further checks, but will need completion fees to be paid by June 30th. All of the rest have lapsed, with little chance of reinstating. The June date is absolute and must be paid if we are to recoup some value."

According to 'Carter' PCH has arranged for a formal valuation of the remaining intellectual property list to ascertain the strength of  Jennings' guesstimate of £69 million. Dependent upon such valuation PCH may than provide the cash to Genfro Limited to purchase Avocet IP Limited from Avocet Natural Capital Plc.

Long suffering shareholders are also told that PCH will pay the overdue fees on the relevant patents and this intellectual property is to be transferred into the ownership of Genfro Limited.

As well as referring to possible dividends for investors, Carter's email states: "PCH is aware that Genfro has strong links with Asset Match – a company which (a) provides online stock market services, (b) offers an electronic trading platform for unlisted private company shares. Notably, Asset Match markets and serves investors and shareholders of private companies worldwide."

In March, Mr Frost circulated extracts from court documents which had been filed as evidence for his bankruptcy hearing which claimed Avocet IP patents had been independently valued by Coller IP in December 2019 with an estimated worth of up to £400 million.

The paperwork also showed there was a pending transaction for the purchase of Avocet/Gennfros 'jet fuel from air' intellectual property for 100 million US dollars to be concluded in mid-April 2021.

After reading the 'From the desk of Tim Carter' update one clearly angry observer told Not Just Sheep & Rugby: "I am astounded by the staggering incompetence of Frost and Jennings who, as directors, allowed all of these patents to lapse and only learned of it on June 25th, 2021. 

"Other than the Loch Lomond jetty, these patents represent the only significant asset that ANC [Avocet Natural Capital PLC] has. Of the 120 patents/applications, according to Jennings, only 28 remain viable and only if the outstanding fees are paid. This is especially galling since the renewal fees for a patent are relatively nominal - for example, in the UK £70-£610.

The contributor said they were equally astonished that nine of the patents now in jeopardy - patents that in total ANC shareholders paid £16 million to develop - were to be transferred to Gennfro(s) if PCH simply paid the very nominal outstanding fees, with apparently no further compensation to be paid to ANC's shareholders.

And our commentator added: "We have the mysterious precipitous decline in the value of the "air-to-fuel" patents. We were originally told that they were to be sold for US $100M; then we learned only US $90M was in escrow, and now we learn that only US $20M is available to be paid out in dividends, and that is to be shared between the Avocet Natural Capital Plc and the Gennfro(s) shareholders, even though Gennfro(s)'s shareholders have no ownership claim on this IP whatsoever. All very strange indeed."