There are a lot of new patent searching, and analysis tools entering the market these days. Many of these tools offer unique functionality, or are designed to serve an unmet need in the patent information ecosystem. Generally speaking, as they are getting started they rely on source patent data, available from various patent offices to populate their systems, and tools.
Meanwhile, there are existing sources of patent information that have been around for quite some time, and offer unique value because the raw content is curated, or becomes “value added” by way of enhanced versions of the text, or standardized indexing is added. This enhanced content can be very valuable, but usually remains proprietary to the organization that generated it.
In a not often seen move, one of the established players with enhanced content, Thomson Reuters and their Derwent World Patents Index has licensed their content to one of the up and coming players in the patent analysis world, AISTEMOS. It is pretty rare to see this type of partnership but Nigel Swycher, CEO of AISTEMOS does a nice job of explaining why it’s important:
Leading patent content such as that from Thomson Reuters is crucial to the development of CIPHER. Swycher confirmed AISTEMOS’s desire to continue to add to its data when he said, “We will continue to aggregate additional datasets to provide a trusted big data solution to an asset class that has to this point been obscured by unnecessary complexity.”
This is a great move for both companies, AISTEMOS gets value added content to feed their system and tools, while Thomson Reuters becomes integrated in interesting new functionality, and potentially will have their content introduced to a new audience, and industry vertical. Overall the partnership demonstrates the changing dynamics of the patent information world as IP gets applied to additional business processes. The full press release discussing this development is below:
LONDON, August 28, 2014: AISTEMOS, a London based IP data analytics company, signed a licensing agreement with the IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world leader in intelligent information for businesses and professionals, to access its Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPISM) data, the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative collection of editorially enhanced patent documents including English-language translations of bibliographic information.
Commenting on the agreement, Nigel Swycher, CEO at AISTEMOS said, “Cementing our relationship with the world’s leading provider of intellectual property data, Thomson Reuters, is an important milestone in the development of CIPHER as a leading IP analytics product for a business community that needs to understand the innovation landscape.”
AISTEMOS’ agreement with Thomson Reuters ensures CIPHER’s ability to provide instantaneous access to analytics covering more than 30 million patent families across 1.5 million owners, in addition to the content it licenses from ktMINE, Lex Machina, Relecura and 1790 Analytics.
“It is essential that a solution like CIPHER includes content from Thomson Reuters and we are delighted to collaborate with AISTEMOS in its development. As the financial markets engage with IP as an asset class, analytics must be built on the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative patent datasets,” said Cynthia Murphy, senior vice president and general manager, Thomson Reuters Innovation & Asset Management.
In June, CIPHER was released in beta to a pilot group consisting of major corporates, banks, accountants, law firms, insurers and consultants. Deutsche Bank’s Scott Bell, an AISTEMOS non-executive director, said, “Providing real-time access to data that drives the value and associated risk of an asset class that accounts for 70% of the worth of many organisations is essential if IP is to become mainstream.”
Leading patent content such as that from Thomson Reuters is crucial to the development of CIPHER. Swycher confirmed AISTEMOS’s desire to continue to add to its data when he said, “We will continue to aggregate additional datasets to provide a trusted big data solution to an asset class that has to this point been obscured by unnecessary complexity.”
