Article One Partners
Encyclopedia
Article One Partners, L.L.C. is a venture-funded online prior art search community based in New York City
, New York
.
firms Alleghany Capital Corporation and General Catalyst Partners
, with initial investments totalling $8 million.
prior art search services by utilizing an online research community. Patent
s are posted online as a request for relevant research submissions. The patents are mainly based around ongoing patent infringement
cases, and the requests call for information that can invalidate the patents. Rewards of up to $50,000 are posted for each patent, and are paid to the researchers based on the quality of the submissions. The company also runs a modified profit sharing
program where the researchers can earn a portion of the company profits.
became the first official member of the program, with Chief Patent Counsel Bart Eppenauer citing the need to reduce risks and costs associated with patent litigation as the main reasons for joining the program.
. The patents in question were central to the ongoing patent infringement suits filed by NTP against Apple, Google
, Microsoft
, HTC, LG, and Motorola
. The patent review studies were launched with rewards of $10,000 going to researchers who present the most relevant evidence around mobile email technologies.
, a non-practicing entity co-founded by Paul Allen
and David Liddle
. The patents were the subject of a lawsuit filed by Interval Research Corp. against defendants Apple, Google, Facebook
, Yahoo!
, AOL
, eBay
, Netflix
, OfficeMax
, and Staples. In the lawsuit, Interval Research Corp. asserted that the defendants used technology on their websites that was originally created by a company owned by Allen.
companies. This examination was followed by another announcement that 3 studies were launched focusing on patents held by patent licensing company, Lodsys
. These patents were involved in patent infringement claims against several application development companies, as well as larger companies including Sam's Club
, Best Western
, Adidas
, Best Buy
, and others.
, the partnership mixes both community collaboration through the profit sharing system and corporate sponsorship. Official corporate sponsorship in October 2010 was focused on the launch of the second Peer To Patent pilot program.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
History
The company was incorporated in November 2008 by founder Cheryl Milone. It was backed by venture capitalVenture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firms Alleghany Capital Corporation and General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in early stage technology-based companies including software, infrastructure software and applied technology businesses. The firm has also includes a growth capital team that focuses on later stage...
, with initial investments totalling $8 million.
Products and services
Article One Partners provides crowdsourcedCrowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
prior art search services by utilizing an online research community. Patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s are posted online as a request for relevant research submissions. The patents are mainly based around ongoing patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
cases, and the requests call for information that can invalidate the patents. Rewards of up to $50,000 are posted for each patent, and are paid to the researchers based on the quality of the submissions. The company also runs a modified profit sharing
Profit sharing
Profit sharing, when used as a special term, refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses...
program where the researchers can earn a portion of the company profits.
Litigation avoidance
Litigation Avoidance targets the patents held by non-practicing entities and is designed specifically for frequent targets of patent lawsuits. The service uses the company’s research community to unearth prior art in an attempt to reduce the number of low-quality patents being asserted. In June 2011, MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
became the first official member of the program, with Chief Patent Counsel Bart Eppenauer citing the need to reduce risks and costs associated with patent litigation as the main reasons for joining the program.
NTP, Inc.
In December 2010, Article One Partners launched community examination of 3 patents owned by Non-practicing entity, NTP Inc.NTP Inc.
NTP, Inc. is a Virginia-based patent holding company founded in 1992 by the late inventor Thomas J. Campana Jr. and Donald E. Stout. The company's primary asset is a portfolio of 50 US patents and additional pending US and international patent applications. These patents and patent applications...
. The patents in question were central to the ongoing patent infringement suits filed by NTP against Apple, Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, HTC, LG, and Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
. The patent review studies were launched with rewards of $10,000 going to researchers who present the most relevant evidence around mobile email technologies.
Interval licensing
In March 2011, Article One Partners launched community examination of patents owned by Interval Research CorporationInterval Research Corporation
- External links :* Wired Magazine, December 1999...
, a non-practicing entity co-founded by Paul Allen
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates...
and David Liddle
David Liddle
David Liddle is co-founder of Interval Research Corporation, consulting professor of computer science at Stanford University, and credited with heading development of the groundbreaking Xerox Star computer system. He has served on the board of many corporations. He was chair of the board of...
. The patents were the subject of a lawsuit filed by Interval Research Corp. against defendants Apple, Google, Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, OfficeMax
OfficeMax
OfficeMax , is an American office supplies retailer that was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.-History:On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Bob Hurwitz and Michael Feuer. Hurwitz served as executive chairman and chief executive officer and Feuer...
, and Staples. In the lawsuit, Interval Research Corp. asserted that the defendants used technology on their websites that was originally created by a company owned by Allen.
Mobile Application Developers
In June 2011, Article One Partners launched community examination of a patent owned by Macrosolve. The patent is central to Macrosolve's patent infringement claims against 30 Mobile application developmentMobile application development
Mobile application development is the process by which application software is developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones...
companies. This examination was followed by another announcement that 3 studies were launched focusing on patents held by patent licensing company, Lodsys
Lodsys
Lodsys, LLC is a company located in Marshall, Texas. The company has been accused of patent trolling. On May 13, 2011, it was reported that they had demanded that a number of iOS application developers obtain licenses from them. Apple has written to Lodsys stating that Apple's licenses protect...
. These patents were involved in patent infringement claims against several application development companies, as well as larger companies including Sam's Club
Sam's Club
Sam's Club is a chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. , the Sam's Club chain serves more than 47 million U.S. members...
, Best Western
Best Western
Best Western International, Inc. is the third largest hotel chain, with over 4,195 hotels in nearly 80 countries. The chain, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, operates more than 2,000 hotels in North America alone. Best Western has a marketing program involving placement of free...
, Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
, Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, and others.
Other litigation
Although the company stresses the importance of client confidentiality, the company launch in 2008 included the announcement of multiple high-profile cases. These cases included:- PfizerPfizerPfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
assertion against Teva Pharmaceutical IndustriesTeva Pharmaceutical IndustriesTeva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. , is an international pharmaceutical company headquartered in Petah Tikva, Israel. It specializes in generic and proprietary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients...
over a cholesterol medication. - Research In MotionResearch In MotionResearch In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
assertion against MotorolaMotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
around wireless deviceWirelessWireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
technology. - Konami CorporationKonamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
assertion against Harmonix Music SystemsHarmonix Music SystemsHarmonix Music Systems is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States...
, MTV NetworksMTV NetworksMTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...
, and ViacomViacomViacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
in the video game industry.
Peer To Patent
Although originally considered a key competitor, the USPTO's Peer-to-Patent project joined Article One Partners in a strategic partnership. With paralleled goals around public participation in patent examinationPublic participation in patent examination
The involvement of the public in patent examination has been proposed and is currently used in some forms to help identifying relevant prior art and, more generally, to help assessing whether patent applications and inventions meet the requirements of patent law, such as novelty, inventive step or...
, the partnership mixes both community collaboration through the profit sharing system and corporate sponsorship. Official corporate sponsorship in October 2010 was focused on the launch of the second Peer To Patent pilot program.
Other international organizations
See also
- Public participation in patent examinationPublic participation in patent examinationThe involvement of the public in patent examination has been proposed and is currently used in some forms to help identifying relevant prior art and, more generally, to help assessing whether patent applications and inventions meet the requirements of patent law, such as novelty, inventive step or...
- Internet as a source of prior artInternet as a source of prior artIn the context of patent law, using the Internet as a source of prior art when assessing whether an invention is novel and inventive, is problematic since it is often difficult to ascertain precisely when information on websites became available to the public...
- List of crowdsourcing projects