PatSeer’s Founder and CTO, Manish Sinha on the platform’s features and the LegalTech landscape

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Manish Sinha, Founder & CTO, PatSeer

Question 1 – How does PatSeer leverage technology to streamline the patent search and analysis process for its users, particularly in law firms and corporations?

PatSeer provides an AI-driven platform for streamlining patent search and analysis, catering to the specific needs of both law firms and corporations. It connects the dots across patent publications from more than 108 countries, litigations, standards, and company information into a unified search and analysis interface. Its comprehensive set of capabilities facilitates efficient management and insightful analysis of intellectual property.

For Law Firms: Law firms benefit from PatSeer’s extensive global patent collection, which includes up-to-date patent ownership, legal status, and litigation information, giving them the confidence needed for their consultations with clients. PatSeer can assist in providing the precise insights needed to craft the ideal intellectual property protection and litigation strategies. Law firms that also manage their clients’ patent portfolios can benefit from PatSeer’s unique patent quality scoring model to guide portfolio optimizations, licensing strategies, or IP due diligence. PatSeer also provides insights on patent agents and attorneys, helping law firms keep track of competition and refine their growth strategies in their areas of practice.

For Corporations: Corporations utilise PatSeer’s AI-driven platform to obtain critical patenting insights needed at each stage of their innovation lifecycle. The platform integrates various data sources, offering insights beyond patents that are essential for identifying innovation opportunities, optimising patent portfolios, and exploring licensing or commercialization opportunities. Additionally, PatSeer’s knowledge management and collaboration tools allow for effective patent project management across departmental or third-party collaborators. The platform has a simplified edition for R&D users that enables them to quickly search for any idea, look up a patent, or collaborate with co-workers for joint evaluations.

Overall, PatSeer equips law firms and corporations with robust tools for patent research and analysis. These capabilities ensure efficient intellectual property management, enhance productivity, and support informed decision-making, making PatSeer a vital asset in the realm of patent analysis and strategy.

Question 2 – Can you explain the key technological features and advantages of each of the different versions of PatSeer, including PatSeer Pro X, PatSeer Standard, PatSeer Premier, PatSeer Project, and PatSeer Explorer?

PatSeer offers a range of IP intelligence and analysis software, each tailored to meet specific needs in the field of patent research and management. These versions include PatSeer Pro X, Premier, Project, and Explorer, each with unique technological features and advantages.

PatSeer Pro X: PatSeer Pro X features proven scoring models that evaluate invention families against 30+ quality parameters, identifying key market players. It offers flexible, in-depth analytics with customizable filtering and analysis tools for critical insights. The platform integrates diverse IP data points for informed decisions on building, buying, licensing, and risk evaluation. Additionally, it allows users to create and share insightful dashboards with comprehensive visualisations, enhancing stakeholder communications. The AI-driven search enhances the retrieval of contextually similar patents related to the queried patent or paragraph. This cutting-edge approach revolutionises the way of exploring and discovering relevant intellectual property, providing a more efficient and precise method for patent research.

PatSeer Standard: PatSeer Standard is a robust patent search platform for professionals with advanced Boolean + AI search capabilities and basic analytical features. This web-based platform provides global coverage with over 250 searchable fields. It also supports flexible data exports in various formats. It includes power review tools for efficient navigation and specialised views, along with a range of charting options for comprehensive analysis. The platform also supports large-scale record analysis and customization through metadata import.

PatSeer Premier: PatSeer Premier offers a comprehensive package for patent research, analysis, and collaboration. It includes all the features present in the PatSeer standard version along with sophisticated search capabilities, including smart drawings. It also has comprehensive monitoring tools for updates. Premier also improves collaboration and analysis through its project management features, allowing users to organise work, invite feedback, and utilise multi-dimensional charts for in-depth analysis.

PatSeer Projects: PatSeer Projects is a comprehensive platform for analysing and collaborating on patent and non-patent literature. It integrates IP and scientific data from various sources, offering powerful analysis and workflow tools for team-wide information streamlining. Features include enriching research data with hierarchical categories and annotations, creating and sharing interactive dashboards, and platform-level collaboration with robust data control, ensuring both flexibility and security in information handling.

PatSeer Explorer: PatSeer Explorer offers a secure, AI-powered search platform designed for R&D teams to screen ideas efficiently. It ensures complete privacy for research, unlike free platforms that use machine learning on user interactions. Explorer allows simultaneous searching across patents and journals, with both keyword and semantic search options, making it accessible even for novice searchers. It also features a comprehensive set of filters to navigate large patent result sets easily, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the innovation process.

Each version of PatSeer caters to different aspects of IP management and analysis, from in-depth analytics and portfolio management to collaborative knowledge management and secure research capabilities.

Question 3 – In the context of educational institutions, how does PatSeer use technology to facilitate patent research and innovation for students and researchers?

With its worldwide translated patent coverage, PatSeer offers a wealth of technical information, catering to the diverse needs of researchers and faculty in educational institutions. Patents contain invention details that can be used when planning a new patent application. Expired patents or patents not applied for in one’s country can be a critical go-to reference when designing a new product or as a source of inspiration.

PatSeer’s Explorer edition is designed to be simple enough to be used by a researcher who doesn’t need to have in-depth knowledge of patents. Some of the functionalities that benefit such users within educational institutes are:

Key functionalities of PatSeer that benefit educational institutes include:

1. AI to simplify complex searches – Use the latest LLM-driven AI search to make it easy for researchers to look for the most relevant patents against their ideas.
2. Facilitates open innovation and collaboration with industry – By connecting the dots across inventors and normalised company information, PatSeer provides quick insights to researchers about the companies and other institutes that are actively working in the same area of interest.
3. Streamlines access to and collaboration over patent data – One-click sharing of identified patent literature (along with associated charts and analyses) with anyone else in the institute allows faster decision-making over ongoing research projects.
4. Provides insights for licensing and commercialization – For inventions already filed by the university, PatSeer contains a wide dataset of normalised companies and universities, corporate hierarchies, NPE’s that will give the technology transfer departments a lot of alternatives to choose from and decide a prospective match for technology transfer.
5. Optimization of patent maintenance spends – IP departments of universities continuously must balance their budgets against the new research findings being filed and older existing patents held by the university. PatSeer provides multiple qualitative analytics and scoring metrics to help give IP managers the right inputs for making critical renewal or abandonment decisions.

Question 4 – PatSeer is used by non-practicing entities (NPEs) to manage patent portfolios. Could you elaborate on the advanced technology tools and functionalities offered to NPEs for patent portfolio analysis and management?

PatSeer offers a range of advanced analysis tools and insights to non-practising entities (NPEs) for efficient patent portfolio aggregation and commercialization. Key features include:

1. Licensing Research: PatSeer provides comprehensive global patent information, interactive trend analysis, dynamic technology clusters, and R&D investment patterns. This assists in identifying potential licensees, particularly those already utilising the patented technology.
2. Assertion Support: The platform offers extensive text-mining capabilities over global patent content, combined with ownership information, to expedite infringement investigations. It supports multi-generation citation maps, claims trees, and translated documents.
3. Buying Patents: PatSeer enables informed purchasing decisions by offering data on legal status, litigation, opposition, patent transactions, standards, and qualitative IP metrics. This helps assess the legal, competitive, market, and technological potential of patent families.
4. Patent Pooling: The platform aids in patent pooling by providing due diligence and background research tools. It includes easy search options for complementary patents, up-to-date SEP information, corporate ownership, litigation, and analyzable legal status information, essential for effective pooling strategies.

Question 5 – How does PatSeer use artificial intelligence and machine learning in its platform to improve patent search and analysis, and how does it benefit its users?

AI and Machine Learning in PatSeer’s Platform

PatSeer has integrated a new AI-driven semantic search powered by a custom-trained GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) model. This fine-tuned LLM (Large Language Model) is tailored to comprehend the complex details of patent semantics. By utilising this model, PatSeer improves result accuracy and precision in patent searches across various scientific fields. The integration of this model marks a significant technological advancement, bridging the gap between traditional Boolean and AI-based search systems.

Benefits to Users

By combining expert search tools and superior AI search capabilities in a single patent platform, PatSeer provides a one-of-its-kind solution for patent professionals who no longer need to rely on two separate systems for their day-to-day IP tasks and therefore do not have to waste time combining results from separate systems. Users are no longer restricted by the contextual understanding limitation of previous/earlier AI-based search systems since PatSeer’s AI algorithm can interpret and predict the user’s intent accurately. The platform further enables seamless transitions between semantic and Boolean searches, allowing users to iteratively refine search results. Many other AI tools integrated into the platform simplify and save the user’s time when reviewing and analysing results. For instance, AI-driven semantic re-ranking of Boolean results allows users to find the most relevant record faster. AI-generated patent summaries help reviewers save time since they can gather the key aspects of the invention contained within the patent without going over its full text.

For research and monitoring workflows, PatSeer provides an AI classifier that automatically classifies and directs newer patents to the right department. For larger companies that are monitoring many different areas of technology, this eliminates the need for human intervention in the classification process.

Question 6 – PatSeer provides data visualisation and reporting capabilities. Can you explain how technology is harnessed to generate meaningful insights and reports from patent data in PatSeer?

PatSeer’s data visualisation and reporting capabilities are centred on transforming complex patent data into accessible and actionable insights:

Multi-Dimensional Charts:

PatSeer excels in data visualisation by offering a variety of multi-dimensional quantitative and qualitative charts. These tools enable users to rank and compare patent datasets, providing a comprehensive overview of specific technology areas. The platform’s visual representations make it easier to identify trends, patterns, and relationships within patent data, enhancing the understanding of complex information.

Customizable Reporting:

In terms of reporting, PatSeer allows users to create customised reports tailored to their specific needs. These reports are highly adaptable, making it easier to communicate complex patent data effectively. Whether it’s sharing insights with stakeholders or presenting findings within an organisation, PatSeer’s reporting capabilities simplify the process of conveying crucial information. This combination of robust data visualisation and flexible reporting tools empowers users to make informed decisions and strategize effectively in the realm of intellectual property management.

Together, these visualisation and reporting tools make it easier for users to interpret patent data, identify trends, and make informed decisions based on comprehensive analyses of intellectual property landscapes.

Question 7 – With technology evolving rapidly, how does PatSeer stay updated with the latest trends and innovations in the field of patent analysis, and how does it reflect in the platform’s features and capabilities?

PatSeer keeps pace with evolving patent analysis trends and innovations through continuous data integration, advanced analytics tools, user feedback, and R&D efforts. The platform is regularly updated with patents, litigations, standards, and corporate data, and incorporates AI and machine learning for search and analysis. With an agile development model, the team can proactively respond to user feedback and provide them with any desired capability within 45-60 days. PatSeer is laser-focused on ensuring that the platform’s features and capabilities are always aligned with the latest challenges faced by the user community and ensuring that it is at the forefront of advancements in the patent analysis space.

With the latest trend of AI taking over all industries in various sectors, PatSeer has been an early investor in AI, and users are already able to reap the benefits offered by it within the software. PatSeer is the only platform in the IP space to combine Expert with AI searches to maximise the accuracy and relevance of search results. AI Search in PatSeer is a powerful feature that uses the ability of LLMs to understand user intent and use that to provide accurate results. The AI search engine is periodically fine-tuned to improve the existing search relevance.

Question 8 – PatSeer offers integration with other tools and platforms. Could you discuss how technology enables seamless integration and data exchange between PatSeer and other software commonly used by its clients, such as legal research tools or corporate databases?

PatSeer provides a range of APIs that allow clients to directly integrate PatSeer’s data or analyses into their systems. Built over the latest API frameworks, these APIs facilitate easy integration with various external tools and platforms, catering to a wide range of client needs.

PatSeer’s APIs allow partners and end-users building in-house solutions to:

1. Quickly integrate Boolean or AI-based Search within their systems.
2. Build AI Classifier models and run predictions against trained models.
3. Get real-time trends, X vs Y charts/analysis on more than 30+ fields against a company inventor or technology area.
4. Obtain patenting insights against the corporate owner (holding co.) as opposed to an applicant.
5. Access litigation details or analyse patent litigation trends by company or technologies.
6. Obtain quality ranking details against a patent or a portfolio of patents.
7. Retrieve updated patent legal status, invention’s family hierarchy, etc.

These APIs help power third-party providers in related legal and technology insight domains to connect their data points with patents. Financial institutions developing investment or risk models for innovation-driven firms leverage such APIs to integrate both quantitative and qualitative insights into their modelling. Vertical-focused portals, such as those in FMCG, healthcare, and electronics, can integrate customised datasets of highly relevant patents against a product or technology.