As all eye’s in the domain world are looking toward the TRAFFIC show in New York next week and the many domain auctions scheduled around it, another type of intangible asset auction is scheduled for next month in Chicago.

Ocean Tomo LLC, a specialist intellectual property auctions will broker the sale of patents, trademarks, copyrights to individual inventors, multinational corporations and investors.

Three lots at auction are of special interest: For the first time, on Oct. 30, a government agency, Goddard Space Flight Center, part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, will auction off exclusive licensing rights to more than 40 patents or patent applications from its private store of technology development.

Ocean Tomo wants potential buyers to see that, with ever more corporate value coming from intangible property, it’s a good place for beaten down investors to push their cash.

Goddard currently holds a portfolio of 72 active patents.

In just a few years, Ocean Tomo has become the leader in the intellectual-property business.

Seven previous auctions were held in cities from Amsterdam to Hong Kong, drawing hundreds of bidders, including representatives of Fortune 500 companies, and generating millions of dollars in sales.

“We’ve seen patents go for $3 million or $4 million at these auctions, in bidding that takes less than 60 seconds,” he said. “You can imagine that telephone bidders are all huddled around somewhere. They’ve done their homework and they know exactly how much they are authorized to spend.”

Ocean Tomo believes that Intellectual property might be the next big thing for investors, now that hedge funds and wealth managers are hard-pressed to find places to put cash.

If so will domain names be far behind?