Dennemeyer acquires German patent search start-up
Dennemeyer Group has bought Munich-based Octimine, a provider of semantic patent search, analytics and machine learning.
The start-up and its employees will be fully integrated with Dennemeyer’s existing service offerings and the company will retain its name.
Founded in 2015, Octimine provides patent searching and patent analysis technology using artificial intelligence (AI). Its tools are used by Siemens, Deutsche Post and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, among others.
Octimine’s search software, which is used for prior art, freedom to operate and opposition searches, provides interactive visual analytics in real time. It also offers patent valuation, legal risk and innovation speed metrics allowing users to browse and analyse technological landscapes and lifecycles.
The company originally stems from a research team at the Max-Planck Institute and was founded by Michael Natterer and Matthias Pötzl, who will become part of Dennemeyer’s management team.
Reinhold Nowak, CEO of the Dennemeyer Group, said Octimine’s technology and products will enhance Dennemeyer’s existing IP product and service portfolio. He noted that the exponential growth in patents and publications requires advanced big data algorithms for research, patent search and patent analytics.
Nowak added: “Out of a database containing over 100 million patents worldwide, searches deliver in seconds scored, ranked, and prioritised lists of patents, landscapes, clusters and analytics.”
Matthias Pötzl, co-founder and managing director of Octimine, added that “combining our search and analytics capabilities with the full range of IP services, as well as the global structure of the Dennemeyer Group, creates exciting new opportunities”.
Michael Natterer, co-founder and second managing director of Octimine, said: “We are fully convinced that Dennemeyer’s owner-managed organisation, fast decision making and entrepreneurial culture, as well as its long-term orientation, are a perfect fit for us.”
Financial details were not disclosed.
The announcement follows the news that US-based Clarivate Analytics has bought TrademarkVision, an Australian company that uses AI to conduct visual trademark searches. That deal was also revealed just weeks after CPA Global acquired the IP management business of Clarivate.
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