SAN FRANCISCO - July 23, 2009 - RPX Corporation, a defensive patent aggregator, today announced it completed a Series B round of venture financing from Index Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm. Original RPX investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Charles River Ventures also participated in the round.
RPX introduced the first Defensive Patent Aggregation Service in November 2008 to reduce patent assertion and litigation costs initiated by non-practicing entities (NPEs) - a persistent problem that costs technology companies around the world billions of dollars annually. NPEs acquire patents, as opposed to creating them through research and development, solely for the purpose of offensive licensing and litigation against operating companies.
In contrast, RPX acquires patent rights and provides them as a defensive patent aggregation for its members, which pay annual fees ranging from $35,000 to $4.9 million depending on company size. Members benefit from RPX's entire portfolio, and fees can be less than the cost of even a single patent assertion defense.
"RPX has created a great white-hat business by providing a very compelling solution to a well recognized and growing problem faced by many companies worldwide," said Giuseppe Zocco, partner and co-founder, Index Ventures.
Fourteen top technology companies have joined the RPX Defensive Patent Aggregation Service since its introduction in November last year. To date, RPX has acquired more than $90 million in patent rights in the mobile, Internet search, telecommunications, consumer electronics and RFID markets.
"RPX has exceeded our expectations every quarter since the company's inception," said KPCB partner Randy Komisar. "This success during a very challenging economic period validates the attractiveness of the company's solution, and the additional capital will help RPX accelerate its growth as well as expand the scope of its creative and cost-efficient service."
Added Izhar Armony, a general partner at Charles River Ventures "It’s hard to believe RPX has been up and running less than a year. Its growth and accomplishments have been nothing short of extraordinary. Companies are starting to wake up to the need to proactively manage their IP assets as well as IP risk, and the team at RPX offers a great solution and an intimate knowledge of the IP marketplace."

About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology, biotech and clean tech venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed through growth stage companies. Index’s portfolio includes Lehigh Technologies Inc., Playfish and Weatherbill and exits of note include Skype (the pioneering communications company acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world's most popular open source database recently acquired by Sun), Last.fm (the world's largest social music platform, recently acquired by CBS) and BioXell (BIOX, floated on the SWX in 2007). For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com.

About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in over 600 ventures, including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Verisign and Xilinx. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions. The firm has offices in Menlo Park, California; Beijing, China; and Shanghai, China. For additional information visit, www.kpcb.com

About Charles River Ventures
Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures is one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $2.1 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology and media sectors. Over the past 20 years, CRV funds have been ranked among the industry’s top performers. CRV has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA. For more information, visit www.crv.com.

About RPX Corporation
RPX Corporation is the first defensive patent aggregator. RPX acquires patent rights and provides them as a defensive patent aggregation for an annual membership fee to reduce technology companies' patent risks and costs created by non-practicing entities (NPEs). The RPX Defensive Patent Aggregation does not require member involvement in acquisitions, and RPX will not enforce the patents it purchases. RPX management has been responsible for more than $2 billion in patent transactions. RPX is financed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Charles River Ventures and Index Ventures.