IMTL - Image Protect Inc (OTCMKTS:IMTL) Shares in Focus on Huge KODAKOne Partnership
Image Protect Inc (OTCMKTS:IMTL) took off to the upside yesterday on one of its biggest volume days ever, closing higher with better than 33% gains. In retrospect now, it looks like the stock was jumping following a series of strong catalysts as well as some clear insider buying by top execs. But today’s action is likely to be defined by major news on its KODAKOne strategic partnership.
We’ll get to that in a minute. But first, for some perspective, this company is doing some really interesting stuff.
It has a very original approach to monetizing image rights on the internet through its new Fotofy platform. It works like this: if you’re a photographer, and you take an amazing close-up of Tom Brady throwing a pass and making a funny face, you can upload it to your Fotofy library, making it instantly available to anyone anywhere for use and sharing. Let’s say your new picture goes viral and snakes its way across the internet. You can track it everywhere it goes and then flip a switch and enable the ability to have in-image ads pop up inside of your image, wherever it is posted. You can then sell that space to advertisers and make some big money.
Image Protect Inc (OTCMKTS:IMTL) pivoted to this model in 2018. But, in a prior life, it had developed the means to detect image rights infringement online and was in the business of enforcing those rights and helping to process infringement claims and collect fines and fees. It still has a hefty list of infringement claims to be pursued. Each claim is like an asset owned by the company that has to be monetized. To help accomplish this, the company negotiated a landmark strategic partnership with Ryde Holdings and KODAKOne over the summer to have the KODAKOne team chase down the fees related to its backlog of infringement claims.
According to its most recent release, out this morning, the company just announced that major image rights enforcement activities have “commenced in the Company’s strategic partnership agreement with RYDE Holding, the creator and operator of the KODAKOne Image Rights Management Platform, with the full large-batch transfer of 596,270 IMTL infringement claim-related files for processing on the KODAKOne Platform.”
In other words, while the company moves forward with its exciting new Fotofy platform, the team at KODAKOne will be hard at work making it an extra $5 million in revenues over the next couple quarters by monetizing its backlog of infringement claims.
“The big point here is that our Image Rights Infringement segment is now active and on track to make a major contribution to revenue growth,” commented Matthew Goldman, CEO of Image Protect. “The successful navigation of this important step completes the process of pursuing hundreds of thousands of infringement claims through the KODAKOne platform. We can now begin a countdown to revenue given this milestone with the KODAKOne Partnership.”
This is obviously big news and may be part of why we have seen such large insider buying in the stock lately, as revealed in a series of Form 4 filings disclosed by the company yesterday.