AI-assisted Tool Compares Ideas and Patents

Helsinki-based software-as-a-service provider Teqmine has developed an automated artificial intelligence-assisted tool that allows users to enter a text description of their idea and compares it to over 16 million full-text patents to help to determine its novelty and identify ways to improve it further. Co-founder and company CEO Hans Toivanen is of the opinon that employees who come up with an idea with commercial promise, are discouraged from progressing further when faced with toilsome patent procedures.

“Our contention is that we’re the world’s only company that has created an artificial intelligence system trained with full-length patents, which can be anything from two to 800 pages long,” said Toivanen, adding that the patent similarity tool is accessible from anywhere. “We’ve designed it primarily for people who either have never made a single patent search or find making them unpleasant,” he elaborated. “We’re essentially making them smarter.”

With data security naturally an integral aspect of the service, particularly for corporate clients, the company stores all images and descriptions and conducts all patent searches and analyses on its private servers in order to provide a level of data protection comparable to that in online banking. The tool can also assist in the search for business and research partners by identifying organisations developing similar or related technologies.

Teqmine has also begun developing a supplementary system that utilises the wealth of patent data to predict technological trends and the future inventions of technology leaders such as Apple and Nokia, which they are expecting to be available within the next 12 months.