Minesoft
Delving Deep into Patent Data

All the greatest, most renowned inventions start with an idea. Patents are often the first and only source of these ideas as most are never published elsewhere. Hence, companies around the world are very protective of the value held in their intellectual property and realize the importance of monitoring the intellectual property of their competitors. Seeing this need in the market, Minesoft co-founders, Ann Chapman and Ophir Daniel, designed a suite of patent information products as well as a global, searchable patent database to easily search, review, analyze and share patent information across a corporation. Allowing users to harness the knowledge found in patents, gain competitive intelligence, and build on the ideas of others to drive innovation forward has proved a winning formula.

Minesoft’s global, searchable database “PatBase” was launched in partnership with RWS Group, leading international specialists in technical translations, in 2003. Since then, it has evolved to become an industry leader; covering over 113 million patent documents from 105 countries and patent-issuing authorities around the world. From 2004 onwards, Minesoft and RWS began adding complete full text patent documents from around the world and continually work to add to their impressive geographic and language coverage. By adding original language documents accompanied by English language translations, Minesoft ensures that PatBase subscribers have access to the most comprehensive set of patent data available. In 2013, 30 million Chinese documents were added in Chinese Mandarin and English. In late 2014, “PatBase Analytics” was fully integrated into PatBase and PatBase Express, an easy alternative interface for occasional and end users. By providing an advanced patent analysis online software, Minesoft added powerful insights into global patenting trends and strengthen PatBase as a leading resource for competitive intelligence research in technology and science.

The patent data in PatBase has been organized into over 59 million patent families(unique inventions) rather than having to wade through individual documents published in different languages; this saves time when searching and reduces the reading required.

Patents form the backbone of scientific and technological advancements

"We use a common link specially found in patent documents to de-duplicate the data. It brings all the publications together that describe the same inventive step and reduces volumes of data quite dramatically. There can be tens or even 50 or more different publications in the same family, which basically cover the same unique invention filed around the world to get maximum protection,” says Ann Chapman, Co-founder of Minesoft.

Minesoft continues to evolve its product suite to meet the various needs of the market. As many companies race against each other to file patents in a distinct field of technology, they need instant updates of their competitors’ progress to track against their own. Minesoft launched its suite of Tracker products like PatentTracker, Legal StatusTracker, and CiteTracker to provide specialized on-target distribution of published data via automated feeds and alerts. Some are designed for paralegals and patent attorneys, others more for research.

Most recently, Minesoft launched Chemical Explorer, the innovative text mining solution for exploring the full text and images of patents for chemical compounds. At the time of its release, Chemical Explorer was the first web-based full text data mining chemical structure search platform available. Since then it has been further developed to cover more leading patent authorities which publish in English, French, German, Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages.

This continuous innovation was instrumental in Minesoft being awarded the most prestigious business accolade in the UK, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in 2009 and again in 2015. The Award was given for outstanding growth in International Trade, the company having continually rapidly grown export markets in the field of Intellectual Property (patent) information over more than 9 years.

Going ahead, the company will continue to increase its presence and enhance products for use across the world. With offices and representation in Europe, USA and Japan, Minesoft has recently agreed new representation in Beijing and will be embarking on joint programs to meet the growing need for intellectual property information in China. The firm recently integrated Turkish Patent Office data, an example of a modernizing manufacturing country that is promoting innovative practices. Asia is certainly an area of interest. “We are also working on a new “PatBase Analytics” platform for release this year. It will assist visualization of massive amounts of patent data using a customized approach, bringing more powerful choice and decision-making to the hands of the analyst,” says Ann.

Patents form the backbone of scientific and technological advancements. A rich and unique source of legal, business and technical information; a vital company asset, no less. By analyzing patents, companies ensure their resources don’t get squandered reinventing the wheel. With Minesoft’s portfolio of patent solutions, users can turn information into intelligence, empowering them to maintain their competitive edge.