The year is officially in the rearview mirror. It’s hard to believe 2018 has come and gone. As I look back there’s a lot that happened, not only within ktMINE but in the marketplace.
We went through a lot of changes at the end of 2017 into early 2018 when I became the CEO after being the CTO for nine years. Over those nine years, I’ve seen the company grow significantly in the market along with our team. This past year we went on a hiring binge to further build out our tech, data, marketing, customer success, and sales groups.
Patents took center stage in 2018. The patent data market has been in such a state of change as patents become more important to a corporation’s value. As emerging economies hop on the IP rights bandwagon, you see China developing their system further and realizing a need to foster a friendlier relationship between IP owners and R&D happening in their economy.
Through the use of massively scalable AI platforms processing data at high speeds, we will continue to see new analytical advancements that IP owners are in search of. The IP market is not slowing down, rather speeding up due to these new technologies that are becoming more widespread. At the end of the day technology advancements are helping our customers enhance and leverage the intrinsic value of their IP portfolio.
Gone are the days of filing a patent application, prosecuting the patent, and finally getting it granted just to sit on the shelves and collect dust when there’s potentially significant value in multiple forms sitting untapped or underutilized for years.
Though patent litigation is down in the United States, there are a lot of corporations looking elsewhere to assert their IP rights. A perfect example is the activity you see coming out of China. As their sophistication has increased, the need for clarity is becoming ever more important. This is an interesting development; from my experience, this is great for a data company, because of the need for the data to be made readily available increases. That’s why we have plans to continue expanding our data footprint of not only patent data but anything relating to IP in general. Our goal is to create a product that anyone can use to quickly find the unique insights and analytics they need.
Heading into 2019 we see a number of areas that could alter the environment, from USPTO Director Iancu’s “war on §101” to China’s regulatory advancements and even the impact of trade tariffs between China and the United States. Finally, Brexit and the Unitary Patent could have a significant impact in IP protection in Europe.
At ktMINE, we are thrilled to see what’s around the bend. We have a whole lot of new features and technology advancements that will be rolled out over the upcoming year to help our customers perform research and obtain the actionable business insights they need.
What changes did you identify within the market? How did they impact your organization? What trends are you betting on in 2019?