Adding value, not hours conducting patent due diligence.
Patent Due Diligence
Due diligence is required in every transaction where patents play a role, across the full range of M&A transactions, joint ventures, licenses and collaborations, patent acquisition and divestment activities and even Inbound Patent Assertion.
With Cipher you have a fast and effective way to complete a timely and thorough diligence.
Law firms
Are you a legal professional seeking information? Visit our Law firms page to discover how Cipher can help with your patent-related projects.
On this page:
“We are at a point where budgets do not extend to manual review of thousands of patents. The legal sector is now embracing the potential of what Machine Learning and analytics can deliver.
Nigel Swycher, CEO, Cipher and formerly intellectual property partner with Slaughter and May
Have you ever asked these questions?
How can I improve the efficiency of how I carry out due diligence?
Cipher has been optimised for due diligence. It’s best in class corporate grouping makes for fast and effective identification of any patent owning organisation anywhere in the world. There are no export limits to the number of companies, the size of their portfolios or on the quantity of data you need.
What’s the best way to understand a patent portfolio in context?
A downside of conventional due diligence is that you are limited to the company or assets in front of you. With Cipher you can automatically compare your target patents to any organisation you select or to an algorithmically computed set of similar organisations.
Can I influence the M&A process earlier on?
Adding value to the initial stages of the M&A screening process would benefit all organisations, rather than the IP team being brought in when the deal is done. Cipher allows you quickly screen organisations and conduct due diligence on their patent portfolios and with Cipher classifier, you could find organisations that the M&A team are not even considering.
If these are your issues, Cipher can help you.
The due diligence around the acquisition of ARM by Softbank in 2016 for $31 billion was completed in a matter of days by Cipher, as reported by Forbes.
How ARM is Using Artificial Intelligence to Supercharge its Patents
How to use Cipher for more efficient due diligence
1
Focus on the target
Use Cipher to quickly analyse target’s portfolio by technology, size, age, geography or quality
2
Cluster and compare
Focus on a specific company or consider any other patent owning organisation
3
Review the Litigation risk
Analyse litigation by or against the target and the sector as whole, by operating company or NPE
4
Actionable intelligence
Use analytics and Cipher classifiers to focus on areas where further investigation is required
Taking an efficient approach to due diligence will enable you to contribute more strategically to any commercial transaction.
Explore how Cipher can help you to…
Support M&A activity
How can I conduct efficient due diligence on an acquisition target for my organisation?
Want to find out more?
Explore other ways Cipher can help you conduct due diligence.
As featured in…
“Because Cipher is an automated platform that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is able to uncover companies of relevance, that we might never have discovered on our own.
Jared Engstrom, Head of Patent Development, Red Hat
Case Studies
CFC Underwriting on being data led to accurately assess IP insurance risk
Maddi Brown, Intellectual Property Practice Leader at CFC Underwriting Ltd, shares how Cipher has helped to understand and quantify IP insurance risk.
Read more
ARM on classifiers and managing patent budgets
Rob Calico, VP Litigation and IP, discusses the challenges of managing a sophisticated portfolio in a fast-moving technology environment, and how Cipher has helped them manage their patenting strategy and budgets.
Read more
Seagate on keeping up with technology changes
Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Seagate, Bob Pechman explains the pressures of supporting the business during a period of rapid technological change and how Cipher helps see the patent landscape through Seagate’s own technology lens.
Read more
Centrica on the value of Cipher
Charles Clark, Director of Intellectual Property at Centrica, discusses the efficiency gains from using Cipher and the tasty bits of data gleaned from using Cipher’s AI over conventional search.
Read more
Insights and Events
Due Diligence: don’t make the easy things hard
Advances in automated approaches to due diligence increase efficiency and reduce transaction costs – making the easy things, easy.
Read more
Forbes investigates how Cipher is revolutionising M&A
The due diligence process on Arm’s patents that usually takes a couple weeks was sped through in just a couple of days – all thanks to Cipher.
Read more
Ams completes acquisition of Osram
Ams had final approval to buy OSRAM, but what does this mean for their patent portfolio?
Read more
Shining a light on Panasonic sale to Nuvoton
The sale of Panasonic’s remaining semiconductor patent portfolio to Nuvoton, is a final step for them. But what is the outlook for Nuvoton?
Read more
Due diligence
How can I be sure that I haven’t missed anything?
Cipher includes over 99% of all patents in over 100 countries. While there are discrepancies in the data extracted from national and regional patent offices, these issues pale into insignificance when measured against the benefits of early access strategic patent intelligence – a combination of not just patent, but additional insight from both cost and litigation data.
What approach does Cipher take to corporate grouping?
Understanding who own’s what is a problem that Cipher has been tackling since the beginning. Our corporate grouping is a combination of licensed data (for the top 5000 owners of US assets), algorithmic normalisation and a very significant amount of manual curation, essential to providing an accurate and up-to-date view.
How can the data from Cipher be used?
Cipher enables digital reports to be shared and all relevant data to be exported. The export includes a full range of PPT, csv and excel options.
Can Cipher handle errors and inconsistencies in number formats?
Yes, we are well aware of how irritating this can be and our custom upload functionality does a good job of simplifying this task.
What data sets are aggregated in Cipher?
Cipher includes global patent data from over 100 patent offices. Cipher also includes patent litigation data (including NPEs), cost data and a comprehensive patent corporate tree. Read more about the Cipher platform.
With Cipher you can also…
Gather competitor intelligence
Understand who’s doing what by automating patent to technology mapping.
Model cross licensing
Combine patent and revenue data to determine rational licensing outcomes.
Manage your budget
Justify patent budgets to CFOs and others to communicate the impact of your investment.
Optimise your portfolio
Ensure you have the right portfolio to meet your strategic patenting objectives.
Tackle inbound patent assertion
Be prepared with evidence to create a fast and effective threat assessment.
Benchmark your portfolio
Assess your portfolio in comparison to other owners through your own technology lens.
Monetise your portfolio
Identify opportunities to create value through licensing or sale of patent assets.
Predict technology trends
Track new technologies of today and discover the unknown owners of future disruptive innovation.
Why Cipher
Trained by humans, built by machine to give you independently verified accuracy
“Cipher’s classifiers enable you to understand the patent landscape or analyze a portfolio. Combining expertise in both IP and data science, Cipher provides you with solutions to the strategic problems patent owners face, with quick and accurate results.” Erik Oliver, Richardson Oliver Insights
