Palo Alto-based Legal Force, an online marketplace for patents, has launched.   The site, in comparison to Google patent search, allows for bidding on patents, and includes contact information for inventors and attorneys.

Patents are an emerging asset class, according to Nathan Myhrvold, who founded Intellectual Ventures to invest in invention and patents. [BW article here.]

Another player in the emerging patent space is Ocean Tomo, a sort of investment bank for patent transactions.