The Intellectual Property Exchange International (IXPI) - touted as the world's first centralized marketplace for intellectual assets - has revealed the funding commitments of its founding members ahead of the trading infrastructure's 2012 debut.

"The development comes amid a growing market for intellectual property management," noted Financial Times columnist Phillip Stafford. "Patent applications have been one of the fastest growing areas of business in the U.S. in the last five years amid a wave of patent disputes and lawsuits - particularly in the telecommunication, technology and software sectors."

The Chicago Board Options Exchange - the largest such marketplace in the U.S. - is among several notable supporters along with Dutch technology giant Philips and Rutgers University. The initial commitments have an aggregated targeted market value in excess of $250 million, according to IXPI executives, which will be held in the form of Unit License Rights contracts.

These unique, tradable units provide buyers with the rights to use the IP for a set number of instances in the manufacturing and/or sale of a product or service, according to the Financial Times, theoretically allowing rights holders to sell their assets at an established market price.