In case you missed the news last week, we are pleased to congratulate the PatentMonkey.com team that demoed at TECH cocktail DC 1 for getting acquired by Patents.com. PatentMonkey.com offered a way for users to search for patent information that was pr…

Patents.com is far more than a restart of Patent Monkey. In the span of just 7 weeks, we completed the acquisition of Patent Monkey, we have also mapped a global vision for the company, recruited the former #2 at the US PTO, partnered with Worldlingo and have engaged high-level dialog with a number of other high impact partners. There is no doubt in my mind that Patent Monkey was a diamond in the rough and the foundation of something significant.

In terms of the team, Paul Ratcliffe (CEO), Steve Walk (CTO) and Steve Pinkos (EVP Corp Dev) are the core of an A-team. I will put Paul’s operating skills up against any other startup exec in the Patent/IP world. Steve Walk had as much technology in the back-room waiting for launch as he had live on the PatentMonkey site. Steve Pinkos brings a deep global network and an external focus which will figure prominently in engaging the patent community.

Another unsung hero in the Patents.com ecosystem is Lars George, CTO of Worldlingo. I have seen the Google Analytics reports with my own eyes. He is serving up translations to 13 million monthly unique users. His highly-tuned platform is doing this with some 90 low-end Linux servers, and with capacity to spare. When combined with category glossaries, the translation accuracy is unparalleled. (Disclaimer: I was an early investor in Lernout & Hauspie back in the late 80’s).

Interestingly, there are some parallels here with other investments that I have backed recently. Demoxi (http://www.demoxi.com) was formed via the acquisition of assets from two prior companies, Dategrity and VoteHere, which had collectively spent $20 million over 11 years. When we first announced the deal, the blogger community was skeptical. When Demoxi launches public beta on November 7, I believe you will find Jim Adler to have been substantially vindicated. Jim and his team has built a very cool product, this time focused on the very real problem of how do you create an internet experience that is simultaneously PERSONAL but also PRIVATE.

I look forward to partnering with the Patents.com leadership team.

I wanted to take a moment to discuss the vision of Patents.com and some of the comments.

First and foremost, our vision is global. We are building a worldwide patent database and translating our database into the 15 most common languages enabling the vast majority of people the ability to search and review worldwide patent documents in their native language.

However, global data is only a portion of our vision. We are also using this global search platform to bring together the global community of inventors, scientists, owners, professionals, buyers, and other constituents to facilitate connections, licensing, and other transactions.

As Goyal pointed out quite well, Google Patents has limited data (approximately 7 million US only issued patents) and limited search functionality.

What we are building will have over 450 million documents. Further, our data is structured and our system will provide all the advanced features that professionals in the patent community need (without the heavy fee) as well as easy to understand interfaces to enable the average user to benefit from Patents.com (www.patents.com).

As for PatentMonkey, the site will remain up until Patents.com is ready and will then redirect traffic. However, everybody on our team views the opportunity to roll up patentmonkey into a bigger plan, with experienced and successful entrepreneurs, under the best domain for the space a clear success.

Regards,
Paul Ratcliffe
CEO - Patents.com

PatentMonkey was reviewed against FPO, Google, and a few other companies (I think on patentbaristas) and found to be close to if not more accurate than FPO. In fact, in my use of both sites (which I would consider to be the two forerunners in the space) FPO has been playing ‘catch-up’ to patent monkey’s features for the last six months. [I still don't see anyone else, even the uspto, that lets you search excluding expired or abandoned patents .. try doing an infringement search without THAT little gem once your used to it.]

Its a shame they could not make it on their own, but good to see that someone thought them valuable enough to buy, then get more VC funding for.

I think there are a lot of patent search engines, and with all due respect to Google, Google Patents doesn’t make the cut.

Since patents are highly technical and the least concern of most people, patent databases and search engines, like Delphion, MicroPatent, and others, still remain paid, secure, and lesser known (basically more business like).

Comparing them with Google Patents is like comparing Photoshop with Paint.NET. Its good but not for professional use.

I would like to highlight some shortcomings of Google Patent Search below -
1. Limited database coverage - No EP or PCT documents
2. No ability to export search results - Try combining it with Google Docs and do some statistical anaylsis.
3. Limited Advanced Search option - Use of proximity operators, date ranges, etc.

Jon

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blog.....hange.html

Isn’t this idea obsolete though?

This would be like somebody ressurecting kiko.com now after they were destroyed by Google?