A small, Reston-based company has launched a new Web site to help match up patent owners with companies interested in licensing their technology.
Invequity Inc. launched PatentMonkey.com last month, designed to provide a quicker and more comprehensive search option than the U.S. Patent Office’s own site.
PatentMonkey will eventually serve as a portal to bring patent owners and prospective technology licensers together, Chief Executive Officer Paul Ratcliffe said Monday.
PatentMonkey lists 4.5 million pages of patents, providing quicker text scanning and the ability to download multiple patents at once, Ratcliffe said.
Though individuals can use the site for traditional searches, the company will take the site further. In the next 30 days or so, it will update the site to become a marketing platform for patent holders, he said.
Invequity makes money through advertisements on the site and premium site subscriptions, and also allows companies to pay for personalized pages on the site that prospective licensers can use to get in touch with them, Ratciffe said.
Invequity also offers marketing services to patent holders, providing advice for getting in touch with licensers and often contacting firms directly, Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe formerly handled patents for Black & Decker of Hunt Valley, Md., which is now an Invequity client.
Invequity hopes to appeal to large companies that aren’t widely perceived as open innovators with technology available for licensing and individuals with patents who don’t understand the licensing process.
Malcolm McGowan, a D.C.-based intellectual property attorney with the firm Bingham McCutchen, said PatentMonkey’s site offers some unique features, but said patent holders often face significant financial and legal hurdles that sometimes even a third party can’t help resolve.
“The average solo inventor doesn’t have the wherewithal to try and strategize itself, and most of them know they need help,” McGowan said. “Whether these guys are going to be able to provide that help remains to be seen.”
