Tell me more aboutTechnology Trends
We provide patent intelligence, you make better strategic decisions
Budget Management
Portfolio Optimisation
Competitive Intelligence
Cross Licensing
Due Diligence
Benchmarking
Inbound Patent Assertion
Monetisation
Technology Trends
Risk Mitigation
What we do
Strategic patent intelligence
At Cipher our mission is to unleash the strategic value of patents for our customers. We do this by enabling patent owners to make rational decisions by providing strategic patent intelligence, powered by machine learning.
Recent highlights
From reports to case studies to podcasts, we’re regularly offering industry insights and providing quality content for IP and patent professionals.
Europe’s Chemicals Industry: The Benefits and Risks Posed by the UPC
Examining the patent landscape of the chemicals industry in Europe following the establishment of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
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LOT Network BRIDGE Members Meeting 2023
We attended BRIDGE, LOT Network’s annual members meeting on Wednesday 27th September.
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SDGs through a patent lens
Episode 7 in Season 3 features Marco Richter, Global Head of Customer Success at LexisNexis Intellectual Property. He highlights the important role that patents play in helping us to become more sustainable, discussing the benefit of measuring innovation in relation to the UN Sustainable development Goals (SDGs).
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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.
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How innovation affects revenue for Big Tech
Big Tech firms thrive on innovation, and patents play a crucial role. Our analysis tracks the activity of Apple, Google, Microsoft and others over the last 20 years.
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Content-Generating AI
OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot has been a sensation since its launch. Our report looks at published patents across Content Generative AI to identify key innovators and invention owners in this space.
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“I’m delighted how we’ve implemented Cipher. We’ve reduced 10-year expenses by nearly half by moving from a system where filings were based on headcount growth, to one where we systematically identify weakness in our portfolio, and file where necessary to ensure our patent ‘wall’ is maintained.” Rob Calico, Vice President IP and Litigation, ARM
“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
“Cipher has been world class for us. It’s easy to use and it provides very powerful visual representations of what we own and importantly what our competitors have.” Dr Bobby Mukherjee, Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, BAE Systems plc
“Our issue was how to fit other companies’ portfolios into that same framework that we use and there’s just no other tool other than Cipher that can do that.” Bob Pechman, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Seagate Technology
“As a leading technology company we need instant answers to who’s doing what. Cipher helps us navigate complex patent landscapes.” Lucy Wojcik, Head of IP, Ocado
With Cipher you can…
Optimise your portfolio
Ensure you have the right portfolio to meet your strategic patenting objectives.
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 and communicate the impact of your investment.
Conduct due diligence
Automate manual reviews for efficient execution of M&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 technology lens.
Monetise your portfolio
Identify opportunities to create value through licensing or sale of patent assets.
Predict technology trends
Track new technologies and discover the unknown owners of future innovation.
Create Risk Mitigation Strategies
Understand the materiality of your threats to define your risk mitigation strategy.
Case studies
How law firms can use data analytics to build long term partnerships with their clients
Calum Smyth, Partner at Wiggin LLP, explains how law firms can become true advisers to their clients by harnessing the latest advances in technology and data analytics.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Richardson Oliver Insights on the challenges of IP Teams
COO of Richardson Oliver Insights, Erik Oliver, talks about the challenges faced by IP teams with managing high value portfolios and the increased demand for both better data and better ways to communicate the value of patents.
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Red Hat on using the Cipher Optimisation Model
Jared Engstrom, Head of Patent Development, talks about the growth in Red Hat’s portfolio, how he has used Cipher’s custom classifiers and how the Cipher Optimisation model has improved their understanding of the competitive landscape.
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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
Access Cipher’s Insights
Read our reportsFAQs
What is strategic patent intelligence?
Strategic patent intelligence is Cipher’s ‘why’. We’ve optimised Cipher’s analysis of patent data to the teams responsible for making strategic patent decisions. Strategic patent intelligence is not only trusted, objective and repeatable, it is actionable.
How to align IP strategy with business strategy?
Communication is critical to aligning your IP strategy to business strategy and any patent strategy you develop too. Many organisations establish an IP steering group with representatives from across the business, with senior stakeholders reporting directly to the board, typically quarterly.
How does Cipher use Machine Learning in its solution?
Cipher has developed proprietary machine learning (ML) across the platform. It uses unsupervised machine learning for clustering and similarity (company analysis) and supervised machine learning for its patent to technology classification. Learn about how Cipher classifies patent data into technology areas using Machine Learning.
What other use cases are there for strategic patent intelligence?
Cipher also helps with due diligence, cross-licensing, pruning, litigation risk assessment and scouting. We also have specific SEP reports in areas such as HEVC. For more information contact us.
Why is Cipher different to patent search software?
Cipher delivers its analysis for strategic decision making without manual intervention. Conventional patent search is designed for technical patent filing and FTO work. Patent search is typically rules-based e.g. Boolean (key words and codes) requiring expert intervention to clean and normalise the data.
How does Cipher help with M&A transactions?
Cipher CEO, Nigel Swycher was a leading IP lawyer in London for over 20 years focussing on the IP aspects of major corporate transactions. The first use case for Cipher was due diligence.
Is Cipher only for patent experts?
No, Cipher is for everyone who makes strategic patent decisions. The user experience and visualisations have been tuned with input from patent leaders to be intuitive and engaging. No patent search experience is required. Knowledge of Boolean strings is a thing of the past.
What datasets 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 best in class patent corporate tree.
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Book a time to talk with our team
Our friendly team is on hand to discuss your IP challenges or to learn what issues you are facing in managing your patent portfolio.
Instantly book a 30-minute exploratory call with our team by choosing a calendar slot to suit you, in your preferred time zone.
