6 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- CrowdIPR enters the $2bn patent market and brings IP search services to the masses
- As Rhapsody expands into Europe, why should you choose it over the competition?
- Webdoc’s new SoundCloud, Songkick and Topspin widgets make it a lot more useful to musicians
- 500 Startups company provides ‘Love With Food’ and a social good twist
- Yuri Milner’s strategy: ‘stick with the founders as long as they’re pushing the envelope’
- Lark expands from a sleep monitor to a full on coaching service
- Social Media: The New American Brain Drain
| CrowdIPR enters the $2bn patent market and brings IP search services to the masses Posted: 29 Jan 2012 03:01 AM PST  Two weeks ago, The Next Web went along to meet a bunch of young startups to emerge from the UK’s first £1m startup accelerator programme. Ignite100 launched nine new companies which, as we wrote at the time, was a proud moment for England’s Northeast startup scene. We’ve already covered one of the startups – Artspotter – an app which helps users discover art and cultural events and exhibitions. Next up, it’s CrowdIPR. In a nutshell, CrowdIPR is an online professional network of technology and intellectual property experts. It’s a platform that enables the sharing of collective knowledge to provide accessible and affordable intellectual property (IP) research services. It’s aimed at those carrying out patent, technology, trademark and design searches.
So…where’s the business in this, you ask? Well, Taavi Raidma, CEO and founder of CrowdIPR, says the technology and patent research market is worth a whopping $2bn a year. That’s not to be sniffed at. "In the past twenty years, the issue of intellectual property has gone from being a gentleman's game to a battlefield," says Raidma. "We see these massive tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple going after each other and suing each other for patent infringements. There is true value for individuals and companies in whatever they create to protect it. With a change in the market there's a growing need for new and innovative ways for gathering and analyzing IP data. This is what CrowdIPR does. “Our platform connects technology companies and universities with a global network of tech experts,” continues Raidma. “We have graduate students, patent professionals, law professors and so on. We recently did a study with an Estonian university which had an early-stage IT development idea. Our community was able to find a patent from 2010 that somebody else had developed, describing exactly the same thing they'd been planning to develop. As a result, they could avoid wasting resources and instead build on the existing knowledge that was out there. And avoid a potential lawsuit.” Patenting explainedCrowdIPR is a similar proposition to the peer-to-patent pilot scheme that was rolled out in the UK last year. The pilot was born out of an independent review of UK IP, which was led by Professor Ian Hargreaves and his report was published last May. The peer-to-patent system draws on the expertise of people across the globe to help enhance the quality of patents. Patent examiners have different backgrounds and experiences, but typically they're all academically qualified to a high standard, are specialists in a chosen field – such as engineering or computing – and they are all trained in the art of examining patents. The examiners review patent applications to determine whether the invention/innovation in question should be granted a patent. This involves researching existing patents and scientific literature databases for prior art, and examining the patent applications in depth to determine whether the application meets ‘patentability’ requirements. The patent examination process has to be very precise and meticulous, as there is a lot of ground to cover. But no matter how experienced and qualified a patent examiner may be, they don't always have access to all the information they need to build a comprehensive case for granting a patent. This is why crowdsourcing patent examinations can be particularly powerful. However, the UK peer-to-patent scheme is only a pilot at present, and CrowdIPR is ramping up its efforts to offer a much more extensive patent-searching system. “Our business model is simple, we charge per research project,” says Raidma. “At the core of the platform we have smart algorithms that help us determine who the key contributors are to each research project. Based on that we can distribute part of the proceeds to the researchers. “In addition, the researchers can enhance their professional and social profiles by interacting on the platform as well as taking part in different research projects”, he continues.
So CrowdIPR is attempting to take a traditional service to a new level, and Raidma reckons that by using its platform, designers and technologists can have far more people working with them to identify ‘prior art’ and patents than what’s possible through other means. “There are research firms that do IP research, and some of the national patent offices offer similar service,” he says. “In their cases, you get one or two researchers working on your project. But we have on average ten researchers per project working on our clients' work. This means you have more researchers and global coverage, and you can collaborate with them in real time. You can also act on important information as soon as it comes up and don't have to wait 'til the end of the research project.” The CrowdIPR team bring together experience from various fields, including marketing, business development, intellectual property and software engineering. There are three co-founders, and one of them, Mikk Putk, has been involved with patent and prior art studies for over ten years . He’s also the co-founder of an IP-focused social network called IP-insiders. Although the company is based in Newcastle, it also has a presence in London and Tallinn (Estonia). We’re told that the platform currently has a community of three hundred technology and patent researchers and, during its private beta phase, it completed 18 projects with a number of universities and tech firms. “Our mission is to make intellectual property services affordable and accessible to everyone,” says Raidma.
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| As Rhapsody expands into Europe, why should you choose it over the competition? Posted: 29 Jan 2012 02:18 AM PST  As we recently reported , music streaming service Rhapsody has acquired Napster International, allowing it to expand into the UK and Germany – its first European presence. At Midem in Cannes today, I caught up with Rhapsody president Jon Irwin to find out how the company plans to differentiate itself from the competition in a highly competitive market. Rhapsody is pitching itself as a ‘premium’ paid service that offers exclusive editorial to help users discover new music. In a competitive market with the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Simfy and more all expanding rapidly though, will that be enough? Irwin’s opinion on artists who criticize the lack of revenue they get from streaming music services is that services like Rhapsody are cannibalising piracy, not paid downloads and that incremental revenue from streams is a useful augmentation to traditional revenue. You can listen to the full interview below. Keep up with all of The Next Web's Midem coverage here. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Webdoc’s new SoundCloud, Songkick and Topspin widgets make it a lot more useful to musicians Posted: 29 Jan 2012 01:02 AM PST  Webdoc, the service that allows users to create easily shareable multimedia content for when a tweet just isn’t enough, has enhanced its usefulness to those who want to promote their creative work today with the launch of three new widgets. Audio hosted by SoundCloud can now be uploaded and added directly via an HTML5 player, while concert information in the Songkick widget will allow bands to sell tickets directly to fans straight from a Webdoc. The Topspin widget brings that service’s direct-to-fan sales and marketing platform, used by artists and filmmakers, to Webdoc as drag-and drop elements. Webdoc is already used by music industry names like Universal Music Group as a marketing tool to allow fans to express themselves in new ways (see our coverage of its Nirvana campaign). For a better understanding of how Webdoc’s flexible platform works, our original coverage is here. I met up with Webdoc co-founder Vincent Borel at Midem in Cannes to find out more about the new features and the startup’s future direction. Keep up with all of The Next Web’s Midem coverage here. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 500 Startups company provides ‘Love With Food’ and a social good twist Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:53 PM PST  If you know any geeks who pay attention to technology trends, you may have heard that “curation is going to be hot in 2012″. Of course, curating things that are of interest to you has sites like Pinterest busting at the seams, but the idea of curation isn’t limited to technology. While I was at the 500 Startups Demo Day last week, there were teams tackling big data, stitching together concert footage, and providing reviews in the tiniest of ways. One team with a very simple premise stood out to me, and it calls itself “Love With Food“. Love With Food is a monthly subscription service that lets you sign up to receive tasty goods sent right to your doorstep. The company carefully curates its treats into red boxes for just $14 a month.
Along with your $14 a month subscription, you’ll get five or more curated gourmet foods, points for free products, and member-only access to discounts. The shipping is even free. The company is taking the same approach that sneakpeeq is, by building relationships with these gourmet food creators, which allow them to offer samples at such a low price. The samples then serve as a way to sell more product through the site. The twist? Every time you buy a box of yummy goodness from Love With Food, the company donates a meal to “No Kid Hungry“. To date, Love With Food has donated 4,680 meals, and that’s awesome. Along with the monthly service, the site provides recipes submitted by its community and provides an overall feeling of being a part of something that both provides a valuable curated service and some social good at the same time. With only $50k of investment so far, Love With Food is primed to take a bite out of two trends in 2012, social commerce and curation. The price is right, it makes a great gift, and your participation feeds kids who aren’t as lucky as you are. It’s a win-win for everyone! This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Yuri Milner’s strategy: ‘stick with the founders as long as they’re pushing the envelope’ Posted: 28 Jan 2012 12:31 PM PST  With many suggesting that Facebook could go public as early as Monday of next week, people are already starting to look ahead at what the next hot things will be to invest in. Not that going public is the end of the line for former Facebook President Sean Parker, who was mum on the IPO details yesterday, but huge exits for those that have invested big in Facebook are expected. One of those who should see big returns is founder of Digital Sky Technologies, Yuri Milner. The firm was a part of a $500M direct investment into Facebook last January. Bloomberg discussed Facebook’s impending IPO with Yuri Milner and asked him point blank if he’d be inclined to cash out and take his money elsewhere. Milner replied and shed some light on his long-term investment strategies at DST:
Watch the full interview below: Along with Facebook, other Digital Sky Technologies investments include; Spotify, Twitter, Zynga, Airbnb, and Groupon. Needless to say, Milner is someone who we can trust as a gauge of what’s next in technology. And according to him, countries like China are going to skip physical stores altogether and go right to the web:
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| Lark expands from a sleep monitor to a full on coaching service Posted: 28 Jan 2012 12:15 PM PST  The Lark, which began its life as a ‘silent un-alarm’ clock armband that wakes you with gentle vibrations, has been expanded to become a full-on sleep coaching system. The new Lark ships with a free comprehensive sleep analysis using data gathered by the band itself and feedback that doesn’t just tell you you’re not sleeping well, it tells you why. If you’re unfamiliar with the device, it consists of an armband with a small USB enabled wafer attached. The device will slowly vibrate you awake at your time of choosing, but it also contains sensors that will detect when you awake in the night to toss and turn before falling back to sleep.
We covered the Lark back in April of last year and found it to be an interesting concept with clean iPhone integration. Apple agreed with us and began selling the devices in its stores worldwide. Now, Lark is using the measurements provided by the device to help you figure out why exactly it is that you’re not getting the right kind of sleep. The biggest addition is a free 7-day sleep assessment that is built out of analysis from a collection of sleep experts. You wear the device, transmit a weeks worth of data to Lark and they compile a recommendation and report that tells you how to take action to correct your patterns.
The apps have also been tuned up to give feedback on your patterns, with recommended actions and a daily rating of your sleep habits, including how restless your sleep is. There are also a set of badges that reward good habits.
One of the coolest additions is the ability to enter the types of activities, like eating, watching TV or browsing the internet, that you’re engaged in before bed. This will allow you to track which of these hurt or help your sleeping. This should help you to tune what you’re doing to eliminate issues. Lark is in many ways a simplification of the field of sleep study. There are many things that a full-featured sleep clinic can tell you that the simple monitoring of the Lark cannot. But for many of us a clinic isn’t the answer as our patterns aren’t broken enough to warrant a stay at one. With the addition of the new 7 day assessment document, the habit tracking and the feedback, the Lark looks to be a good bet for those interested in tuning up their sleep habits. Even if you just want to get a handle on how you feel when you wake up and why you do so, the $99 pricing for the basic Lark seems like a bargain. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Social Media: The New American Brain Drain Posted: 28 Jan 2012 09:04 AM PST  You went to an Ivy League school, you mastered the Socratic method as an infant and solving the Rubix cube in less than 5 minutes is your favorite party trick; in short, you're brilliant. Allured by the large paychecks and flashy lifestyle of champagne adorned tables in swanky New York clubs, you take your talents to finance. It's the Great American Brain Drain: Our brightest minds sucked into a world of extreme capitalism. But a second brain drain has now emerged, the Social Media Brain Drain. The recent procession of Princeton, Yale, and Harvard graduates to Silicon Valley was triggered by the rising cultural idolization of social media entrepreneurs and the boom in angel and seed investing in social media. The combination of easy money and the glamour of appearing in magazines and on television as an "entrepreneur" has driven some of our best and brightest to dedicate themselves to social start-ups. The result is a loss of soul in technology, a rise in Hollywood culture, and a misallocation of human resources. Entrepreneurs on a Pedestal
Now, as a country that reveres innovation and hard work, we should make Mark Zuckerburg a cultural icon. The problem is that the cultural fruits that accompany successful entrepreneurship are now the central goal of newly minted entrepreneurs, rather than an incidental byproduct of their sweat equity. Just as the beautiful in society seek out fame and fortune in Hollywood, the brightest innovators are now seeking out Silicon Valley. The California gold rush has never been so alluring. Investors Need to Rediscover RealityAs budding social media entrepreneurs rush into the ecosystem, angels and seed round investors are investing massive amounts. TechCrunch reported a 33% increase in angel/seed investing from 2008 to 2010. Angels are chasing returns as the price of Facebook and other private social media companies’ stock continues to skyrocket. In January 2010, Facebook stock was valued at approximately $14 billion. Two years later, the rumor is a planned $100 billion IPO. Investors hate missing the early stages of a trend. Many missed the early stages of the social media trend and are now trying to compensate by piling onto the social media bandwagon to claim their piece of the pie. Stopping the Brain DrainEntrepreneurs can stem the Social Media Brain Drain. Technology should be the industry of innovation, of striving to improve the human condition in ways people only 10 years ago could not imagine. Our best and brightest need to stop viewing social media as a quick avenue to fame and fortune. A rise in entrepreneurship is a good thing, but the underlying cause of wanting cultural significance is a bad thing. These entrepreneurs should look to build significant companies, realizing that their dreams of big exits and magazine interviews will follow after their hard work. At the same time, angels and institutional investors need to realize that giving $41 million to a photosharing app that does not yet exist is foolish. Investors should be investing to create returns, not to see their name in the press. The idolization of social media entrepreneurs may be a permanent societal shift, but the funding interest doesn't have to be. Investors can help course-correct by cutting off the supply of irrational funding. It's not too late. As a community, we can rally around great entrepreneurs. We can be honest with ourselves that the tide of Harvard graduates invading Silicon Valley comes from both a renewed interest in technology and a new Hollywood culture that weakens the tech community. As we lose our soul to magazine covers and movies, we can begin to reclaim it by putting entrepreneurs of substance on a pedestal—even if that includes a GAP ad appearance. image: rawcaptured via shutterstock This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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