It has been a privilege building ClearAccessIP these past few years. From a minimally viable product in 2014, to the focus of my fellowship research at Stanford between 2014-2016, and ramping up the engineering, product and go to market team in 2017, it has been a real joy to apply machine learning to intellectual property’s biggest pain points. As we look to tomorrow’s developments in biotechnology, robotics, and engineering, ClearAccessIP is preparing for a new “normal” in how IP developers and managers think about these dynamic innovation assets.
For one, we know that much is lost in transaction costs and unrealized return on investment. It is estimated that over $400B in legal fees are spent annually creating and maintaining patent assets. Of the generated IP, less than 4% is converted into commercial opportunity. This ongoing, and growing misalignment of the rights to make and use innovation, and the friction between innovators is a destabilizing force in the economy – it is a patchwork system that is being held together by the legal profession rather than a system that is sitting on well-oiled tracks set to accommodate the next evolution of technology.
In the sixteen months since our initial ramp up began, we have met hundreds of IP professionals and all have expressed the same concern: increasingly complex legislation and case law, growing pressure due to pricing constraints, and inflated overhead costs. We’ve sat with GCs and IP Directors of technology companies who are excited to revamp their IP infrastructure to align with the pace of industry trends, but haven’t yet wrapped their head around how to do so.
Our DNA at ClearAccessIP is automation research and engineering for the IP ecosystem. We care deeply about the mechanics of the IP industry, its various levers and motivations. At the core of these mechanics is the end user IP professional who is making critical decisions on behalf of their organization. We are working with these leaders of IP on a new information architecture that connects all the players in order to consolidate the conversation around IP so that business leaders and innovators are operating at a much higher capacity.
In 2017 we brought on our first round of seed investors: tech founders and fund managers in industries such as biotech, Blockchain and IT. As we grow our team in 2018, we are planning an expansion of the executive management group to ensure we maintain a strong foundation and continue to exceed the expectations of our end-user community. It is a complete joy hearing that our newest tools are excelling in interpreting and analyzing inventive concepts, and we’re excited about rolling out improvements in our AI in the coming months. I applaud the creativity and courage of our product, engineering, and data science team for their ability to juggle an ambitious development schedule, and deliver exceptional customer support to our platform users.
Wishing you a happy and joyous new year!
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