Last week, President Obama signed the America Invents Act, giving the U.S. patent system its first major overhaul in 60 years. The first to file system will accomplish many things for inventors. It not only brings the U.S. in alignment with international patent practices, but also aims to reduce questions around inventorship and so reduce resultant invalidation claims from “who invented it first”.

We expect the number of patent filings will increase dramatically since inventors will be motivated to file early and often to secure the patent and profit from their innovation. But this increase will inherently cause a challenge in the speed to get a patent to market faster.  This means that competitive advantage will be found in quickly understanding the intellectual property landscape, speeding the processes associated with due diligence on prior art, and streamlining the collection of information needed to initiate the filing process.

This is where Innography customers will always come out ahead. With our advanced capabilities to find the most relevant and accurate information from comprehensive data sources, our customers will ensure they have the best information, as quickly as possible. Using our unique analysis and visualizations to uncover insightful relationships amongst that information, our customers will also maximize their ability to profit from the America Invents Act.

We at Innography are excited about this change in patent law, and look forward to helping our customers navigate the changing patent world. Happy innovating!

I’ve talked a lot in recent posts about the changing IP landscape, and the measures being taken by companies to address those changes.  One of the main challenges I’ve seen is the often time-consuming and tedious task of evaluating a patent portfolio, particularly to identify chain of title issues. Maintaining a clean chain of title is crucial, because without it, you lose the right to take action on that patent leaving it not only worthless to the owner, but also useless in court. Making matters worse, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does not validate accuracy or authorization when making changes in IP ownership records. Most patent holders take the title for granted, but 10-40 percent of patents have chain of title issues due to the lack of maturity in the patent infrastructure. To complicate matters even further, the USPTO office maintains a strictly enforced 90-day window to correct any issues with a patent title before it becomes irreparable.

Keeping patent titles in check is becoming a critical business function, yet remains a challenge for today’s IP-centric corporations.  The most common use cases include M&A due diligence, IP monetization/licensing, and litigation due diligence.  Each of these scenarios potentially represents millions of dollars to the company, and yet the due diligence for chain of title leaves much to be desired, with only 50 percent or so of the issues being found in conventional due diligence processes. In fact, we’ve estimated that lack of record controls and monitoring add up to over $7 billion worth of patents stricken with title issues.

There are several instances that contribute to chain of title problems such as missing inventor assignments, security liens on patents, misreported M&A, recordation issues, theft, and a host of other fascinating examples.  A simple human entry error such as a typo could jeopardize the patent value. And these are relatively simple cases of how title issues can compromise patent ownership, so imagine the problems that occur once bankruptcy, mergers & acquisitions, licensing, partnerships, or even fraud or theft come into the picture.

In response to this growing issue we created PatentGuard™, the world’s first automated IP Title Assurance Platform. PatentGuard is a managed service from Innography that provides portfolio managers and attorneys with an audit report of potential issues, as well as recommending corrective actions to resolve them, assuring the asset is properly protected.  Following an initial scan, PatentGuard can be used to provide an ongoing, cost-effective monitoring service to mitigate future patent title risks.

This is just another example of how we at Innography listen to our customers, and provide IP-related solutions that are growing the IP financial marketplace. For more information on PatentGuard, call us at 1.512.306.8688. We look forward to seeing how we can help you protect your portfolio.

Buzz Aldrin once said, “For every winner, there’s a loser. And that person didn’t really need to lose. They just didn’t understand the game plan.”

So many times we hear our users say they are asked to put together a ‘patent landscape’ without any real guidance on what insights they are being asked to deliver. What is the business goal? Are we looking to identify new partners? Competitive threats? Identify risks of entering a new market? Armed with a well-defined game plan, the researcher is able to streamline the search process, and produce better results in a shorter amount of time.

At Innography, this aligns with our goal to provide better information, faster; ultimately enabling our customers to make well-informed business decisions. In an effort to help our users successfully navigate the sometimes confusing and unpredictable IP landscape, we are formalizing a play book for IP analysis within Innography. The play book is made up of game plans, which identify how to run critical business analysis within the software. Each play documents not only what you can analyze, but when these analyses can be used, and why they are appropriate to the business goals of the firm. In addition to step-by-step instructions, the plays contain repeatable recipes for performing the analyses in the Innography software to enable strategists, analysts and executive decision makers to be consistent in their search functions, keeping the lines of communication clear.

Game plans for M&A due diligence, patent shopping, competitive intelligence and licensing combine a group of plays to form playbooks that deliver the right information to decision makers. These playbooks show users the necessary steps to take when looking for portfolios to acquire on the cheap (Dumpster Diving), or when they are considering assertion and trying to understand the risk of counter-suit (Counter Punch Analysis). We are developing new plays every day and have been very encouraged by the response from our customers who have told us that these will help them get to the next level of IP business strategy.

Over the next several months, you will be hearing a lot more about the playbook, as we will be posting several plays here on Innperspective. Without further ado, here is our first official play titled “Minesweeper,” which falls into the Freedom to Operate category. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more please contact your Innography representative for more information. Have fun playing!

MINESWEEPER
Category: Freedom to Operate
Description: Patents that are asserted over and over again represent litigation land mines in the IP landscape. In addition to performing conventional patent searches, understanding which patents have been asserted, how often, by whom and to what result provides a more complete view of the IP risks when entering a new technology market.
What to analyze
Patents heavily litigated in a technology category
When appropriate
Looking for patent roadblocks when developing new products
Why
Patents that have historically been litigated against similar products or technologies have a higher likelihood of being asserted than patents with no history of litigation.

Innography Capabilities
-    Data Acquisition: Innography scans court documents from patent infringement cases to identify which patents are associated with which case.
-    Data Processing: Innography cross-indexes cases and patents to provide a deeper analysis
-   Advanced Analytics: By running the acquired data through Innography’s rigorous data processing sequence, Innography can now identify:
o    The most litigated patents and their associated cases
o    The most litigated technologies by IPC class
o    Litigation cases by technology class

Innography recently celebrated its fourth birthday, and I used the opportunity to reflect on just how far our company has come. When I started Innography, the majority of patents and intellectual property concerns were confined to the legal department. Now just four years later, the patent landscape has morphed into a complex terrain forcing corporations to create business teams with executive oversight to focus solely on intellectual property; proof that the value of IP is working its way up the corporate ladder.

I recognized the business need for a better understanding of IP assets during my time at IBM. In fact, I believed then, and I still believe now that the best companies are leveraging intellectual property to grow revenues and build a competitive advantage.  Patent-to-product mapping, financial metrics and organizational data are critical to deliver the insight needed to effectively run an IP business unit that increases business value.

Since Innography was conceived, we’ve seen intellectual property transition from a legal cost center to a financial commodity. IP has become a viable financial asset via licensing and litigation, and investments are being made to capitalize on that value. In fact, financial institutions have invested over $8 billion into leveraging patents since 2007, a strong indicator that profitability no longer resides solely in self-manufactured assets. There are now publicly traded companies with over $2 billion of market cap specifically related to patents.

A corollary to the growing recognition of IP as an asset is the trend of corporations becoming much savvier on using information to gain an advantage. Focus has shifted from a defensive strategy to an offensive one. Top performing companies are more creative with their business models and more proactive about asserting their patents. Portfolios are being built and acquired to block other organizations from relevant market spaces and to lock in competitive advantages. Organizations are looking to mine as much revenue as possible from their IP assets by actively seeking appropriate licensing partners. Companies have also learned to work cooperatively to achieve their strategic IP goals by leveraging defensive patent pools, covenants not to sue, and creative cross-licensing models.

Another important trend is the growing understanding that IP-related risks are vital components of overall business and operational risk.  In fact, IP risk is a growing concern at the C-Level.  Mergers and acquisitions, which have a heavy IP component, are projected to increase 36 percent in 2011.  Licensing is at an all-time high as companies struggle to grow in a down economy and speed time to market. IP risks and threats put these efforts in jeopardy.   Litigation has increased with more defendants per case and longer trials.  Even a cursory view of business headlines today emphasizes the neglect of IP risk management and limited appreciation of its implications. Progressive corporations know that integrating sound risk management practices with insightful IP-based business intelligence is important to identify and mitigate these risks.

These observations have become readily apparent to us. We have worked closely with our clients in some of the biggest litigation cases, licensing and M&A deals, and a large array of new product launches. Collectively, Innography has directly impacted over $1 billion of costs and revenue decisions.  I’m very proud of the fact that we have made such a substantial impact for our clients. We supply the data and support they need by delivering structured business intelligence to make critical decisions.  Specifically, our analytics are used for improving licensing revenues, preparing for litigation, performing M&A due diligence, assessing and mitigating risk, and developing innovative and novel products.

We will continue to adapt with the changing market, as I believe the financial viability and infrastructure around patents will continue to become more sophisticated. New business models will continue to emerge in response to that evolution. There will be more transactions and fluidity in the marketplace with increasing attention to how patents impact risk and revenue, and more insightful intelligence will be required for key decisions.  Our goal is to help our clients work smarter, make financially sound decisions and get to market faster, all while protecting their intellectual property.  We have established a strong track record for doing that over the past four years, and will continue to do so in the years to come.

Happy Birthday, Innography!

On June 21, 2007, Innography was incorporated.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our clients, past and present, for having faith in the “new guy” and believing in the technology that we’ve strived to perfect. We believe we provide the most intensive and accurate patent data and analytics available. And judging by our growth rate, our customers agree. Even though we have crushed milestone after milestone, we will continue to grow and change with the landscape, and adapt to the needs of our customers. Customer success has always been our number one focus, and we’re proud that our customers’ experiences reflect that.

I would also like to congratulate our founder and CTO Tyron Stading on his success, and thank him for staying true to his vision and passion for the growing intellectual property arena. I think I can say with certainty that our success is no surprise to him. He saw a gap in the market and addressed it with passion and precision, which is why as I write this, Innography’s customer base has grown to over 200 companies, and we continue to add more users every week. Not bad for a four year old.

Tyron’s ascension into the IP world has been a fast one. He began his research and initial product coding from his apartment in 2006, and after countless cans of Diet Dr. Pepper and jars of natural peanut butter, Tyron incorporated Innography on this day in 2007. The name Innography is a combination of the words “information” and “cartography,” a perfect marriage of his vision, which was to map the intellectual property landscape in a way that had never been done before. Better information, faster. That is what Tyron had in mind when building Innography, and staying true to that vision is what has kept our customer base happy and growing for the past four years.

After the initial incorporation Innography went live with what is now referred to as “Innography classic” serving a customer base of two. By September of 2008, our customers had multiplied to twenty five, and Innography was made up of ten dedicated employees.

In just four short years, over 200 companies have signed on and seen the value that Innography provides. We have aided Fortune 100 and 500 companies alike though mergers and acquisitions, patent litigation, patent licensing, measuring risk and even competitive and business intelligence. When we ask them about the product, they all say the same thing, “Every time I log into Innography, I save time and money, and I know I’m getting accurate results.”

So again, thank you for choosing Innography. Obviously, we could not have made it this far without your loyalty and trust. I could not be more proud of Innography as a company today. We employ the brightest minds, produce best of breed technology, and have a great time doing it. So with that, I’ll raise my glass and toast to Innography. Happy birthday and here’s to many more.

Rob