The Need To Innovate And Create A Company
The German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) registered around 40,000 patent applications from Germany in 2021. A further 19,000 applications were filed from abroad. Looking beyond continental borders, more than one million new patent documents join the ranks each year. In 2020 alone, around 3.3 million patent applications were filed worldwide. What is more, everything that has published since James Watt’s steam engine and even earlier to the present day is considered to be prior art.
In this article, we would like to discuss why the world of patent search is changing, why artificial intelligence has become indispensable, and how predori will change the future of patent search in the long run.
Artificial intelligence as the key to information overload
When it comes to patent searches, you are fighting against a flood of information, which is why patent searches are difficult and time-consuming simply because of the amount of data involved. In addition, as anyone who has ever stepped into the world of patent searching knows, patent searching has so far required a lot of experience in terms of workflow – inventors cannot easily start searching.
Digitization in the patent system has so far meant that the workflow has been shifted from paper to the computer: PDF instead of paper as an evolutionary step. However, the patent search workflow has not evolved since the days of the great paper mountains. From today’s perspective, artificial intelligence is proving to be the means of the day, not to work against the “digital paper mountain”, but to interact with it.
However, the language barrier poses a further and much greater problem, because patents are granted the right to introduce their own vocabulary. The German Federal Supreme Court has coined the phrase that “patents form their own lexicon”. For example, if inventors are searching for a particular camera lens for a smartphone during their development process, they may not always hit the words “focusing device for an arrangement for capturing images in a mobile terminal for telecommunications” in their search entry exactly. However, the same idea may be described in patents.
This is where predori’s artificial intelligence comes in.
No satisfactory solution so far
Stefan Brehm and Konstantin Schmitz, founders of predori GmbH as well as developers of the patent search tool of the same name, encountered this problem in patent searches in 2018.
Knowing what one is allowed to do from a patent law perspective without infringing third-party rights and what is still protectable in order to expand your patent portfolio is a prerequisite for a large number of business decisions. It is no secret that quick patent searches are risky and good patent searches are expensive.
And it was precisely to overcome this status quo that predori was developed and founded. As a patent assessor, Stefan Brehm opened the door into the world of patents, and as an AI developer, Konstantin Schmitz paved the way for a completely new approach to patent search and monitoring. After a series of prototypes, they finally found the right way to sustainably simplify and improve patent search in 2020. The expertise in patent law and artificial intelligence complemented each other perfectly in the development of predori.
Driving innovation with predori
Highly precise and accurate searches and monitoring can be achieved in no time with predori. Artificial intelligence supports users in an interactive workflow with the latest machine language processing.
The AI-based patent search and patent monitoring tool helps its users to translate general language descriptions into “patent language”. This allows users to expand their search with suitable terms that they would not have considered themselves. This enables them to find what they are really looking for.
At the same time, AI support also enables faster searches by processing large volumes of text in a user-friendly way. Against the backdrop of ever-increasing amounts of data and the ever-increasing number of patent disputes, no company or patent law firm will remain competitive without the support of AI in searches.
The best of both worlds
predori’s AI supports users step-by-step in performing a search. In contrast to traditional searches, predori uses a linear workflow. The graphic gives a small insight into how a search with predori can look.
The first step for AI is to help users identify the technical features of a search query. It then suggests alternative formulations from the more than 150 million patent documents.
In addition, the AI analyzes the results, elaborates the relevant text passages and highlights the reason why a document is considered relevant. The central approach of predori is to combine the best of both the world of AI and the human mind. The patent research tool sees itself as a tool for users, because it is clear – and this will not change – that patent research cannot do without human expertise.
The interaction of human intuition and artificial intelligence creates something that has never existed before – something revolutionary and completely new. With predori, not only patent professionals, but also developers and product managers who are not specialized in patent search, can easily find patents.
predori therefore stands above all for human + AI interaction.
Related posts
Transformation in Patent Law Firms: Empower Business Activities and Enhance Success
