The importance of IP protection has substantially increased in Europe and the US during the past decade mainly due to the shift towards an 'innovation economy' which resulted from outsourcing of manufacture to cheaper destinations. Nowadays this is reflected in at least a threefold increase in the size of the patent portfolio of many large firms and in the substantial growth of patent litigation

As the volume of patent documents grows, so does the opaqueness of the patent data - making it more complicated to  obtain insight or actionable information. For many companies unfiltered and unclassified patent data looks like a total chaos which reduces their chance to find relevant documents.

To cope with the increased volume of patent data PatAnalyse Ltd has developed revolutionary techniques for patent searching. It is not unusual for us to find up to four times more patents in the clients' areas of interest compared to the results provided by our competitors. Our clients are usually shocked when they learn the limitations of the conventional patent search strategies used by their advisors or internal teams.

We transform the patent search process from 'black magic' into a logical and fully traceable self-learning iteration process

Our tools allow the search to evolve into a self-learning iteration process, improving the completeness of the final results. Our algorithms are unique in providing capabilities beyond iterative assistance with finding and using all relevant patent codes and keywords - albeit critically important. The methodology is based on a pattern recognition algorithm and can find an additional 30% of patents which are misclassified in the European or US patent offices. These extra patents might well contain the documents that prove critical to the patent strategies of our clients

PatAnalyse delivers investigative consultancy projects to answer specific IP related questions which address the strategic business needs of our clients. PatAnalyse is mainly focused on providing premium services which are critically dependent on the completeness of the patent searching results:

• Litigation support for nullifying claims of patents asserted in potentially disastrous legal actions against our clients;
• Comprehensive Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis for achieving relatively accurate risk assessments; special focus is provided to help avoid a wilful infringement and treble damages;
• Due-diligence studies before in-licensing or acquisition;
• Tailored 'Patent Landscape' studies for detailed reviews of international R&D trends, technology scouting, or for achieving strategic portfolio alignment.

In order to deliver comprehensive Patent Landscape studies PatAnalyse has developed innovative methods using modern 'Software as a Service' technologies. Within our tools the power of artificial intelligence algorithms is closely integrated with the judgement of subject area experts. Special emphasis is also given to the efficiency of task distribution, organising collaboration between the experts, and in assisting our clients with mining patent data in the post-project phase.

We are so confident in our ability to find more relevant prior art documents than any other professionals, that we are frequently carrying out the litigation support projects on a success fee basis - charging only a nominal sum at the start of the project to establish a formal relationship and getting paid depending on the number of prior art documents identified by us that are actually used by our clients in the process of invalidating the asserted patents.

On the current market, the consultancy offering from PatAnalyse represents the best accuracy of results combined with the highest efficiency. In any case PatAnalyse is able to deliver Patent Mapping studies at level of complexity way beyond the capabilities of most patent consultancy firms.

Patents have been an underused intelligence resource for businesses of all sizes for some time. If properly analysed, the data they contain is a gold mine for corporate strategists. But patent landscaping, as the process of extracting the data is called, is notoriously difficult to do and especially to automate. PatAnalyse is at the forefront in developing a disruptive technology which transforms patent landscaping into a reliable and affordable business tool. We are proud to be part of the emerging cluster of small specialist companies in Cambridge UK which are breaking new ground in this exciting new field of business strategy.

Mick McLean, Managing Director, Technologia