Article One Partners

Article One Partners, L.L.C.
Private
Industry Prior art search
Crowdsourcing
Founded November, 2008
Headquarters New York City, New York
Key people
Marshall Phelps, CEO
Cheryl Milone, Founder and Chairwoman
Paul DiGiammarino, President
Peter Vanderheyden, CPO
Rick Schwartz, COO[1]
Products Patent research services
Number of employees
 15-30
Website Articleonepartners.com

Article One Partners, L.L.C. is a venture-funded online prior art search community based in New York City, New York.[2][3]

History

Article One Partners (AOP) was founded in November 2008 by attorney Cheryl Milone.[4] It was backed by venture capital firms Alleghany Capital Corporation[5] and General Catalyst Partners, with initial investments totalling $8 million.[3] In 2009, Article One Partners won the Silicon Valley Startup of the year. In 2013, Marshall Phelps became Chief Executive Officer.[6]

Since launching in late 2008, AOP has conducted over 1,500 research projects and rewarded more than $5.8 million to its international researcher community.

Products and services

Article One Partners provides crowdsourced prior art search services by utilizing an online research community. With years of experience conducting over 1,500 IP research projects and a proven record of saving clients millions of dollars, AOP offers a variety of options to address client research needs.[7] Article One Partners Studies are tailored to address three main areas of client research needs: innovation, defense, and monetization. [8]

To conduct the research projects, referred to as "Studies," AOP posts project requirements and descriptions online as a request for the crowd of researchers to submit relevant research submissions. [9] The Studies are mainly based around ongoing patent infringement cases, and the requests call for information that can invalidate the patents.

Rewards of up to $6,500 are posted for each Study and are paid to researchers based on the quality of their submissions.[10][11]

Past public studies

NTP, Inc.

In December 2010, Article One Partners launched community examination of 3 patents owned by non-practicing entity, NTP Inc.[12] The patents in question were central to the ongoing patent infringement suits filed by NTP against Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, LG, and Motorola.[13][14] The patent review studies were launched with rewards of $10,000 going to researchers who present the most relevant evidence around mobile email technologies.[12]

Interval licensing

In March 2011, Article One Partners launched community examination of patents owned by Interval Research Corporation, 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.[15] 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.[16]

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 development companies.[17] 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.[18]

Other litigation

Although the company stresses the importance of client confidentiality,[15] the company launch in 2008 included the announcement of multiple high-profile cases. These cases included:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Article One Team". Article One Partners. Retrieved 2014-07-21.
  2. ↑ Galen Moore (2010-04-19). "VCs Bet on the Spread of Business Crowdsourcing". American City Business Journals, Inc. Retrieved 2011-02-16.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nick Saint (2010-07-27). "Startup 2009 Winner Article One Partners Raises $5 Million". Business Insider, Inc. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  4. ↑ "Internet Firm to Reward Researchers for Patent Evidence". The Washington Times. 2008-11-24. Retrieved 2011-03-16.
  5. ↑ "Allegany". 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
  6. ↑ http://www.worldipreview.com/news/aop-announces-new-chief-executive
  7. ↑ "Article One Solutions Overview". 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  8. ↑ https://www.articleonepartners.com/
  9. ↑ https://www.articleonepartners.com/research-community/become-a-researcher
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Joelle Tessler (2008-11-18). "Online startup aims to improve patent quality". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  11. ↑ Asher Hawkins (2008-12-18). "Patent Vigilantes". Forbes.com, LLC. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Grant Gross (2010-12-09). "Crowdsourcing Group Targets NTP Mobile E-mail Patents". PC World. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  13. ↑ Rob Pegoraro (2010-07-09). "NTP sues everybody over alleged wireless e-mail patents". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  14. ↑ Micheline Tang (2010-07-09). "NTP Sues Apple, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft, and Motorola for Infringement of Wireless Email Patents". PR Newswire. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Michael Hickins (2011-03-02). "Paul Allen's Foes Hope for Help From the 'Crowd'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  16. ↑ Dionne Searcey (2010-08-28). "Microsoft Co-Founder Launches Patent War". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 31 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  17. ↑ Alison Frankel (2011-06-07). "No App for That: Trolls Launch Suits against 47 App Developers". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  18. ↑ Josh Lowensohn (2011-06-15). "Scoop: Bounty set for Invalidating Lodsys Patents". CNET. Retrieved 2011-06-27.
  19. ↑ "Article One Partners Strengthens Global Automaker Patent Claims". RedOrbit. 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2011-03-12.

External links