How law firms benefit from strategic patent intelligence
Law firms
Adoption of technology solutions for lawyers (LegalTech) is accelerating.
Demand for increased automation and efficiency is driving adoption of strategic patent intelligence solutions to support patent due diligence across a range of corporate transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and IPOs.
Cipher has been optimised to deliver actionable insight faster and more cost effectively than manual alternatives.
94% of patent professionals feel confident in using AI solutions for automating patent research instead of a manual service.
– Outsell Inc, Patent Research Solutions Survey 2022: Automation Opportunities, February 2022
““The role of tools like Cipher and the gigantic amount of data that it has access to is enabling, curious inquisitive individuals and companies to learn an awful lot about the world of intellectual property. So they can make much better business decisions than they ever could in the past.”
David Kappos, Partner at Cravath (from the Cipher Vision Podcast ‘An Era of IP Transparency’
Due diligence
For corporate transactions such as M&A, Cipher enables:
- Identification and verification of patent assets owned by the target and its competitors
- Details of active and settled litigation in the US, and key jurisdictions across Europe and Asia (including identification of non-practising entity (NPE) lawsuits)
- Access to additional integrated datasets such as quality metrics and cost data
- Whether there is significant litigation risk, either now or in the foreseeable future
Cipher does the heavy lifting, you deliver insight
Scope
Brief the Cipher team on the transactions you are interested in. Advise us of the business sectors you wish us to categorise
Analyse
The Cipher experts will conduct the analysis and provide your transaction team with access to the Cipher platform to further interrogate and advise
Report
You will be able to view a report illustrating factors such as: organisation analysis; a landscape showing your client’s competitors; and a review of potential litigation
Business Development
Clients value strategic advice from their trusted advisers. Cipher enables law firms to deepen their relationships with clients and prospective clients by providing the evidence required to support licensing, litigation and strategic decisions.
Cipher also provides both the data, analysis and visualisations to support thought leadership initiatives in areas where your firm wishes to showcase its specific expertise.
An Era of IP Transparency
Our Cipher Vision podcast had a wide-ranging conversation with David Kappos, Partner at Cravath and a former Director of USPTO.
David provided insights on:
- How IP has extreme economic and strategic value
- Legislation, including the Patent Ownership Act
- Global trade and the challenges faced by IP transparency.
Patent due diligence for corporate transactions
Sample report
Download a Cipher Due Diligence Report for a hypothetical M&A transaction, which covers:
- An introduction to the Universal Technology Taxonomy (UTT)
- Target analytics
- Competitor review
- Litigation and NPE risk review
“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
Insights
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
Key Patent Innovations and the BlackBerry portfolio
Following its acquisition by Key Patent Innovations, we revisited our analysis of the BlackBerry patent portfolio, identifying the areas at risk.
Read more
Oil and Gas Supermajors – Energy Transition
Our updated report finds that supermajors’ technology innovation is more evident in the Materials, Mechanical, and Sensors & Optics categories.
Read more
IP Transparency
Episode 8, Season 1 of the Cipher Vision Podcast series features David Kappos, a former director of the USPTO.
Read more
ANT Group IPO
ANT Group, the Alibaba FinTech giant is going for an IPO but what does its patent portfolio focus on?
Read more
Analog Devices buys Maxim
What does rhe Analog Devices acquisition of Maxim Integrated mean for the semiconductor industry? This Cipher report analyses the portfolio strength of both companies.
Read more
Frequently asked questions
Is Cipher available for individual projects?
Yes. While the Cipher platform is provided on a subscription basis, for specific transactions Cipher provides per project pricing that includes delivery of the Cipher Due Diligence Report and access to the underlying data in the Cipher platform for the duration of the deal.
Do we need a sophisticated understanding of machine learning or analytics?
No. The fact that technology is improving all aspects of our lives does not require you to understand how technology works, just to trust that it does. Cipher was founded in 2013 and is trusted by major patent owners across all technology sectors. Our due diligence solution for law firms is fully supported so that lawyers entirely new to Cipher can immediately access the insights required for the task at hand.
Are we liable for inaccuracies in Cipher data?
Cipher is the market leader for the automated mapping of patents to technologies. It is well understood that patent analysis is only as good as the underlying patent data from national Patent Offices – which is not perfect. Patent owners are aware of this and standard disclaimers can handle the residual risk of relying on third party data sources.
Do Cipher due diligence reports rely on classification or clustering?
Both. The Cipher platform was originally developed for instant analysis of a company and its competitors. This was based on unsupervised machine learning (clustering).
More recently, Cipher launched its Universal Technology Taxonomy which is a structured taxonomy for all patented technologies. This uses supervised ML (classification). Cipher will recommend the optimum approach for your matter based in your objectives, budget and timescales.
How long do Cipher Due Diligence reports take to produce?
While this depends on the scope and scale of the project, one thing is always true. Cipher is quicker than humans!
Cipher reviews 61 million patents an hour. Most humans can get through about five an hour.
Typical service level agreements (SLAs) for Due Diligence Reports are three days. Law firms with a subscription to the platform say that preliminary reports can be produced in less than one hour.
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.
Conduct due diligence
Automate manual reviews for efficient execution of Mu0026amp;A and licensing transactions.
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.
Predict technology trends
Track new technologies of today and discover the unknown owners of future disruptive innovation.
