Newly Launched Patent Database Opens Free Search Access to IBM's Open Source Software Patent Collection
PatentCafe's Natural Language Based OSS Patent Search Engine™ Accelerates Software Developers' Use of IBM's 500 Pledged Patents. Freely accessible by the entire OSS community, PatentCafe's Open Source Software Patent Search Engine adds significant value to IBM's contribution by accelerating the integration of IBM's patented technology into the marketplace, helping to foster worldwide interoperability standards.
Yuba City, CA (PRWEB) February 1, 2005 -- Initially populated with IBM’s 500
pledged software patents, PatentCafe today announced the opening of its Open
Source Software (OSS) Patent Search Engine™ devoted entirely to worldwide search
access of OSS patents. Now, through PatentCafe's new OSS Patent Search Engine
(http://www.IAMcafe.com)
software developers can search this important collection of OSS patents, and
find the patents most related to their software projects.
On January 11,
2005, IBM pledged open access to key innovations covered by 500 IBM software
patents to people and groups working on open source software that meet the Open
Source Initiative. This means that qualifying software developers can now
develop their OSS software without fear of IBM asserting these patents against
them.
According to PatentCafe CEO Andy Gibbs, as important as IBM's
patent contribution is to the Open Source Software community, the profound
economic and product impact on the software industry will be realized when OSS
developers begin delivering programs built on IBM's patents. First, they must
identify the single best patent to use for their software programs. Smart
searching further helps establish the freedom to operate for their own OSS based
software innovations. That's where the PatentCafe OSS Patent Search Engine™
comes into play.
The Benefits of PatentCafe's Patent Search
Engine:
Because of the complexity of patent documents, searching patents has
historically been the domain of skilled patent searchers. The OSS Patent Search
Engine is a vital component to making software patents accessible to software
developers since searchers can use natural language search queries describe the
concept of the software functions they are looking for.
The advanced
Latent Semantic Analysis search engine technology then automatically creates a
hierarchical list of results with the most relevant patents ranked first. PDF
copies of all 500 patents are available online for a nominal fee.
Freely
accessible by the entire OSS community, PatentCafe's Patent Search Engine adds
significant commercial value to IBM’s contribution by accelerating the
integration of IBM’s patented technology into the marketplace, helping to foster
worldwide interoperability standards.
Many software terms and industry
jargon change over time, making patents very difficult to find because search
keywords often don't exactly match words contained in the older patents. For
instance, the term “business method” was not a widely used term found in patents
during the early 1990s. Traditional Boolean searching for “business method” will
therefore miss many applicable patents that don’t contain that exact
phrase.
PatentCafe's semantic analysis search engine has indexed the
concepts of all 500 patents. The engine understands that “business method” may
also refer to “a system that does...”, or “a process that results in...”, and
identifies the most relevant IBM patents even if they do not contain the words
used in the search query.
Developers still need to remain vigilant even
if using the information in a pledged IBM patent. Their software programs
written to take advantage of the “safe harbor” of an IBM pledged patent could
still be found to infringe a different company’s patent.
Will
PatentCafe's OSS Patent Search Engine ever contain more than IBM’s 500 patents?
Gibbs only says: “IBM primed the pump; time will tell whether it leads to a
flood”.
About PatentCafe
PatentCafe.com, Inc. is a privately held
provider of intellectual property management resources and advanced patent
research solutions. Its web properties include ICO Global Patent Search Engine,
containing over 23 million patents, one of the world's top 3 patent databases,
and IPFrontline.com, the intellectual property & technology magazine. The
company's web-based solutions are used by leading Fortune 500 technology
innovators and patent law firms for competitive patent research, infringement
litigation strategy and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and FASB 142 mandates.
The company publishes the weekly IP200™ lists of top patent law firms and
corporate patent leaders, and tracks patent trends in 14 industry
segments.
www.IAMCafe.com - Patent Search Engine and Management Solution
for Enterprise
www.IPFrontline.com - Intellectual Property & Technology
Magazine
For more information, or to arrange interviews, please
contact:
Todd Brabender
Spread The News Public Relations,
Inc.
785.842.8909 / e-mail protected from spam bots
Kevin Cooksy
VP
Corporate Development
Email: e-mail protected from spam bots
Direct:
916-337-2975
Andy Gibbs
Chief Executive Officer
Email: e-mail
protected from spam bots
Assistant: 530-671-0200 Ext. 203
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb202391.htm