Questel acquires majority stake in Brandstock
French IP service provider Questel has acquired a majority stake in German provider Brandstock, according to a release issued on Saturday, May 18.
Charles Besson, CEO of Questel, said: “Brandstock is the right fit for Questel. Germany is now Questel’s main place for business in Europe, and Brandstock markedly expands our catalogue of IP services.”
Questel currently provides IP services to more than 5,000 clients and 1 million users across 30 countries, with a focus on providing software designed to search, analyse, and manage inventions and IP assets.
Meanwhile, Brandstock serves approximately 400 clients across the world, offering global trademark search and clearance services, multi-territory filing programmes, and IP portfolio management and enforcement.
According to the release, the acquisition is part of Questel’s ongoing strategy to build a “one-stop-shop offering in the areas of IP and innovation”.
“Brandstock’s trademark filing service is highly synergetic with Questel’s international patent filing service,” the release said. It added that, with the Brandstock acquisition, Questel will achieve an annual turnover of approximately €150 million ($167.5 million).
Volker Spitz, founder and CEO of Brandstock, said: “Brandstock already holds one of the top market position for trademark renewals and is a serious contender for patent renewals. We have an ambitious plan to disrupt the patent annuities business, and Questel has just the right market leadership and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate that plan.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Questel’s purchase of Brandstock comes within a year of it acquiring MultiLing, a Utah-based patent translation company.
There’s been plenty of merger and acquisition activity in the IP service provider space in the past 12 months.
In October last year, CompuMark acquired Australian artificial intelligence company TrademarkVision.
CompuMark’s parent company Clarivate Analytics sold its IP management business to IP services provider CPA Global in October 2018, just months after CPA Global bought market insight tool Filing Analytics and patent alert tool Citation Eagle.
Earlier this year, in January, Clarivate Analytics announced plans to merge with Churchill Capital Corp, a public investment company, in a deal that values the combined company at $4.2 billion.
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