Patents are an important economic tool to encourage innovation and growth. As technological developments are creating new waves in the global market, businesses are increasingly using patents to protect inventions and for competitive intelligence. Minesoft provides convenient information solutions including a global patent database, legal alerts services, document delivery and custom workflow solutions. Ophir Daniel and Ann Chapman-Daniel, Co-Founders of Minesoft were with the CEOViews team to share details about how they are maintaining their legacy in business growth.
Minesoft develops a range of innovative products that can deliver different kinds of patent intelligence.
The journey from its inception
The company’s history spans over 20 years of innovation and development. Ann and her husband Ophir, started Minesoft as a small family-run business with an overriding desire to remain profitable. From day one they competed with larger international corporations and other smaller firms specialized in the same sector and managed to carve out niche expertise which helped to win clients over. Their first own-label product in 2000, was a legal status tracking tool for patent documents. “This was a tiresome task back in the day, like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the person looking needed to be a patent specialist.” Explained Ann Chapman-Daniel, “we know we managed to save people many hours of time checking meticulously through patent registers!”
In 2003 they began a close cooperation with RWS PLC, a publicly quoted UK specialist translation company, one of the biggest corporate translation companies in the world today. Together, they built up a collection of about 150 million patent documents in many different languages. Today, Minesoft has established their niche in the field of professional patent searching and has clients all around the globe.
Maintaining legacy
CEO View has recognized Minesoft as one of the ‘Most Innovative companies to watch’, and this is not the first time that the company’s efforts have been noticed. In 2009 and 2015, Minesoft won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for outstanding achievement in rapidly growing export markets in the field of Intellectual Property (patent) Information. Already in 2023, Minesoft has been recognised as one of the Best Legal Tech Solution Providers to Watch in 2023 by The Enterprise World and one of the World’s Best Workflow Solution Providers in 2023 by Worlds Leaders. Speaking of these recent wins, Ann and Ophir said, “Success comes with a deep sense of responsibility. This legacy can only be maintained by paying attention to the needs of the sector in a more concentrated way.”
Idea of Innovation
Minesoft develops reliable and powerful digital solutions to access the technological and scientific information which is often only available in patent documents. The company invests a lot of time and effort in designing and developing the search tools according to feedback received from users, so they are equipped to handle the multiplicity of data and sources. Ann explained, “Giving unfettered access to this data helps to drive innovation globally and supports advancement in the scientific and technological fields, whether it’s a new pharmaceutical drug or technology for electric vehicles… building on these ideas can change the world for the better.”
Minesoft works with R&D departments in multi-national corporations unlimited corporate or departmental-wide access to an expression based search system (PatBase Express) as well as a fully integrate workflow tool called Pat-KM is required, which links legal, business, and R&D professionals within a framework to simplify and manage internal IP knowledge.
People and Culture
At Minesoft, the people and culture depend on two factors. Firstly, putting customers first. This is exemplified in the fact that Minesoft has the highest retention rates in the IP market and their product development is strictly influenced by customer feedback. Secondly, and equally important, is valuing employees. Many people at Minesoft have been with the company for extensive periods and for some, the majority of their careers. The company strives for close relationships and high levels of trust, developing an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Ann and Ophir believe that it is important for businesses to have a positive role in the global community. The company has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the ASPI program, an initiative to give researchers in developing countries free or low-cost access to sophisticated tools and services, like PatBase, for retrieving and analyzing patent data to help drive innovation worldwide.
Market trends
Today, all kind of users want easy-to-query databases and the ability to seamlessly create everything from board-level presentations to detailed invalidity reports. Search and analytics platforms need to allow users to quickly go from initial query to intelligent graphical output, just as easily as to create search results ready to submit to worldwide patent offices.
Minesoft has constantly innovated its solutions to allow professional searchers as well as business executives to quickly gain the ability to answer business critical questions in the timeliest manner. Search platforms should be built for users, by users, irrespective of what background these user communities have. Minesoft has tried to strike the balance between development cycles, all the while listening to clients’ feedback.
Future Vision
In the next 10 years, the company will continue to grow further and faster after a recent investment from MLM 2 and Warburg Pincus. At present, Artificial Intelligence is a big buzzword in the Online Publishing Industry and Minesoft is designing new ideas in this area to further automate and streamline products. Adding more to that, Ann and Ophir said, “Right now, we are hosting about 150 million patent (sci-tech) documents and the number is increasing every week. Such a large body of research material needs to be made accessible to companies who are working to pioneer new solutions.”
Search speeds are getting exponentially faster, the computer industry and data delivery mechanisms (including the Internet) are developing themselves each day, so Minesoft is looking forward to continuing this legacy with the introduction of some of the most powerful AI patent searching available in the industry.
