Robert Ambrogi Blog
The Boston-based company Anaqua, which provides a cloud-based IP management and workflow platform, today announced its acquisition of two sibling IP technology products, AcclaimIP, a patent analytics application, and Free Patents Online, a free patent search tool, both of which were previously owned by partners James Ryley, Erik Reeves and Matt Troyer, with offices in Baltimore and Austin.
Anaqua is used to manage the IP process from cradle to grave, from idea to patent to portfolio asset, Anaqua’s senior vice president of marketing Steve Preston told me yesterday. Its customers include major corporations such as Coca-Cola, Ford Honda and Panasonic, as well as IP law firms.
Anaqua plans to integrate AcclaimIP into its platform, while also maintaining it as a distinct product. AcclaimIP provides advanced patent searching, analytics such as clustering, and visualization tools such as bubble charts and citation maps.
Free Patents Online will remain a standalone product, Preston said.
“We’re finding there’s more expected of law firms and corporations to be more strategic about how they build an IP stratedy and manage a portfolio,” Preston said. “We knew we needed a more intelligent platform, a better way of looking at market trends and build that kind of intelligence into the platform.”
AcclaimIP includes more than 100 million global patent records, cofounder Matt Troyer told me.
One example of how the integration could work would be an attorney working within Anaqua to draft a patent claim, Troyer said. As the attorney is drafting the claim, without leaving the platform, the attorney could use AcclaimIP’s analytics to get insights into the strengths of the claim.
Both Preston and Troyer said they have aggressive plans to integrate the two products and that the first round of integration should be ready by this summer.