Analysis of the EAP, page-122

You can absolutely assign a monetary value to those patents, and in any takeover bid, you would NEED to, given how significant a role the patents--and their ability to exclude competition (which is what patents are: not a right for you to manufacture and sell a given product, but instead the right to exclude all others from doing so; from practising the covered invention)--play in the overall valuation of MSB, a technology company, first and foremost.

There are companies and specialists that focus on valuations of intangible assets like patents, trademarks, copyrights, etc., with a variety of competing methods that can be used to arrive at reasonable estimates of what they are worth. It's a very technical field, but pretty fascinating, particularly when it comes down to arguing competing values, and trying to pick apart the other side's estimate of the worth of your IP.