MINESOFT: PIONEERING THE GLOBE WITH SCI-TECH PATENT SOLUTIONS
Minesoft is a global firm innovating the arena of patent solutions through online solutions for patent search and analysis, patent monitoring, competitive intelligence, and knowledge management systems for many Fortune 500/FTSE 100 companies across a wide variety of industry verticals around the world, as well as national patent offices, professional search firms, patent attorney firms, and academic institutions. The Company was curated in 1996, by a well-nurtured leader of the patent information field, Ann Chapman-Daniel, and her husband Ophir Daniel.
Ann has garnered vital experience in online publishing, managing and directing companies in the field of published patents, sci-tech, and business information. She is commended as “Gamechanger of the Year (2020)” by ACQ5 and “Information Professional of the Year (2019)” by PASSWORD. On the contrary, Ophir has gained exposure in various dimensions of product design, IT and infrastructure. He is a very talented innovator, a remarkable engineer and an in-demand web-based developer working from the early internet era. Minesoft was established to provide innovative patent solutions to its clients by combining the expertise of Ann Chapman and Ophir Daniel. To this date, Minesoft has done an incremental business around the world, flourishing to other countries like China, Germany, and the USA.
LAYING DOWN A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL
“We started from scratch, around our kitchen table, with an overriding desire to remain profitable”, says Ann. Completing 23 years of indomitable business, Minesoft stands as an international specialist with a wide array of products. The Company worked closely with other Intellectual Property (IP) service providers for about five years in marketing, sales, and product development before branching out with their own products in the first decade of 2000. Then in 2003, they established a close association with RWS PLC – one of the biggest IP translation specialists in the world.
With the co-operation of RWS, they crafted PatBase – An online, searchable patent database. PatBase is a robust platform built to aid clients in performing intuitive searches of the amalgamated data and review, comment, share, and analyze critical patent information to stimulate well-informed strategic decisions. The platform comes with a free training module and a highly supportive team that works with its clients throughout the transition process. After this, the Company has shown a steep growth by conceiving several innovative products for the IP sphere like PatBase Express, PatentOrder, PatDocs, IPShare, PatentTracker, Legal StatusTracker, CiteTracker, Chemical Explorer, Pat-KM, and PatBase Analytics.
A STEP AHEAD OF COMPETITORS
Prioritizing accessibility, listening to clients’ needs and constructive feedback, these are the measures taken by the Company to stay competitive in the market. Minesoft has acquired a highly intellectual client base, having adept knowledge in the patent information field. Hence, the Company has devised automated systems, helping them to relieve their large workload. They have created their solutions for use across the entire IP lifecycle, whether it’s R&D, Legal and commercialization, making them a preferred choice for clients. They have an in-house development team, who work on continuously enhancing and even making small tweaks on their product based on the customer’s feedback.
The Company has completed 2+ decades of business without any outside investment while spreading with their services, throughout the globe. From its inception, it has proved to be a great competitor in the arena and has served a multinational client base, especially to manufacturing countries where patenting is an important activity to secure IP and sell goods abroad. The Company initiated its operations as a small supplier for large brands but today they stand as a notable name in the arena with qualified solutions and a global clientele.
FACTORS HELPING THEM TO EXPAND
Two chief factors help Minesoft, to grow and innovate at an exponential level. The first is the Customers. The Company has devised a wide trove of avant-garde solutions, which helps them to maintain a high retention rate. Every product is tailored to the customer’s needs and feedback, making Minesoft a prominent choice in the industry.
The second keystone of growth is Employees. Along with a progressive client base, Minesoft has experienced employees across all departments, like Customer Support, Business Development, Marketing and Leadership. Many of their people have been associated with them for an extended period and some, the majority of their careers. The Company maintains the lowest turnover rates, which further helps them in maintaining a strong bond with their clients and stay accommodated to products and market insights. Moreover, the Executive Board is structured with people of vivid skillset who bring a collection of different ideas and perspectives to the people.
KEEPING AN UNBREAKABLE FAITH
Whether it’s a multi-national corporation or SME, having access to a commercial patent database helps companies to make strategic business decisions, protect their innovations and monitor the competitive landscape. Clients are looking for search and analytics features which allow them to make detailed, board-level presentations and reports. Keeping this in mind, Minesoft has shown consistency in building a platform, with easy access for both professional searchers and business executives. Their products ensure answers to business-critical questions in a time-effective manner.
Moreover, Minesoft believes their products should be built for users, irrespective of their background or communities. As such, they ensure product development by comprehending to clients’ needs and feedbacks. “We have benefitted from our users’ feedback. If our clients have ideas about how we can further help them, we will do so. Even if the benefit is focused on a particular vertical market segment.” – says Ann. Minesoft has developed many products in the field of biotech, chemical, and life sciences which stands as examples of their approach. Another instance is their development of PatDocs. This innovative product has been developed to streamline the workload of IP and legal professionals through:
- Fully automated patent family trees.
- Create a fully filled in SB-08 information disclosure document.
- Download any number of patent PDFs (bulk or individual).
- Create and share work between colleagues or between inside and outside counsel.
A POSITIVE ROLE IN SOCIETY
Apart from business, Minesoft has played a quintessential role in elevating society. Between 2018-19, they were active players and sponsors of the Richmond initiative to raise awareness of plastic pollution in rivers. In the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, Minesoft has donated to local charities providing food for frontline nurses and doctors in Critical Care Units at two key NHS hospitals in London. As the region returns to work, Minesoft has co-funded wide Town Centre deep cleaning and regular anti-viral spraying in the public areas, for the rest of this year.
They also sponsor International charitable organizations like the World Monuments Fund that focus on conserving buildings. Also, they have built an alliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the ASPI Programme, to provide researchers in developing nations access to free or low-cost PatBase service.
COMMENDABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
For its formidable business, Minesoft has won:
- Prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise (2009 & 2015).
- Best Overall Company of the year by the Regional Chamber of Commerce.
- Legal Tech Company of the Year from ACQ5.
A PROGRESSIVE FUTURE
With 23 years of progressive business, Minesoft is looking at substantial growth in the upcoming years. In the recent most, Minesoft has established themselves in German and American markets by inaugurating Minesoft GmbH and Minesoft LLC. The Company is presently in process to devise many innovative products such as PatBase 2.0, with functionalities in areas of language searching, instant faceting of millions of documents and semantics. Furthermore, they are also developing automated translations, landscaping analysis and are emphasizing on the area of Artificial Intelligence. Incepted in an ideal ‘technology time’ moment, Minesoft is expecting a very prosperous future, with its state-of-the-art solutions.
