BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., Jan. 8 , 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
ipCreate announced today that it has completed its merger with Article One Partners (AOP), a global leader in patent quality services. ipCreate previously completed a minority investment to acquire 31% of Article One Partners in cash and this transaction marks the completion of the remaining 69% via stock-swap merger. The merger is expected to be immediately accretive to ipCreate and positions the combined company as the leading provider of strategic invention services to premiere technology companies throughout the world. Following the merger, Article One Partners will continue to maintain its own brand and business operations, while operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ipCreate.
Founded in 2008, Article One Partners has built a leading patent quality service through its innovative crowd search platform, with:
The merger is expected to provide both revenue and cost synergies to ipCreate, as well as a number of strategic benefits including the ability to leverage AOP's existing customer base, strong "white-hat" branding, enhanced patent intelligence, patent quality services and increased depth in executive leadership through the addition of Marshall Phelps and the AOP management team.
Founded in 2012, ipCreate will continue to provide industry leaders in the US, Europe and Asia with on-demand patented inventions at the chokepoints of disruptive market change, with the patents themselves and related landscape opportunity systematically vetted by AOP's global network of prior art researchers adding to quality assurance. With poor quality patents a growing burden on business and the subject of mounting challenges by the courts and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the integration of patent quality control processes early in the invention process is expected to fill a vital customer need.
Commenting on the merger, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of the USPTO David Kappos, who is also an ipCreate advisor said: "One of the lessons my 3 1/2 years as head of the Patent and Trademark Office taught me is that businesses benefit greatly from a systemic approach to improving the quality of their patents - and the earlier in the innovation process, the better. With this merger, ipCreate has now put all the pieces in place to provide clients with high-value innovation on demand backed by unusually high-quality intellectual property."
Key to facilitating the merger was Marshall Phelps, who is both the Chairman of ipCreate as well as former CEO of Article One Partners. "For our two companies, this is obviously a very strong move," said Mr. Phelps, who was previously the only person ever to lead the worldwide intellectual property operations of two of the world's most powerful technology companies, IBM and Microsoft. "Simply put, it gives our combined company an absolutely unmatched product platform."
John Cronin, CEO of ipCreate said: "When I was IBM's top inventor and ran its "patent factory" in the 1990s, some people thought it was just a numbers game - about having the most patents. That was never what it was about. Our goal was to develop high-quality patented inventions in disruptive technologies. That's how IBM invented the future. With Article One Partner's help, that's what we intend to do again. Only now we plan to invent "on demand" to suit the specific needs of our partners and to the highest standards of quality."
About ipCreate
ipCreate is the world's premiere Invention On Demand® company, partnering with global technology companies in the US, Europe and Asia to create off-budget patented inventions that complement their own internal R&D efforts. Working with select leaders of industries undergoing rapid technological disruption, ipCreate employs its proprietary tools and resources to identify promising innovation areas and then rapidly creates pioneering patented inventions at the chokepoints of disruptive market change. The company intends to fund and execute more than 100 strategic invention projects backed by thousands of foundational patents by the year 2017. www.ipcreateinc.com
About Article One Partners
Since its founding in 2008, Article One Partners (AOP) has become the world's largest intellectual property (IP) research community. By leveraging a growing crowd of over 30,000 researchers, AOP has revolutionized the transparency of IP-related data. Through crowdsourcing and other techniques, AOP provides clients with access to insightful information to help them make the best possible IP related business decisions whether they are innovating, defending or monetizing their IP portfolios. The company has paid their research community more than $6M for their skilled work at identifying patents, non-patent literature and non-textual content to inform IP decisions. AOP helps 15 Fortune 100 companies and eight of the top ten US patent filers to improve their patent quality and strategic management of their IP across the IP lifecycle. www.articleonepartners.com
Forward Looking Statements
Information provided and statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical, such as statements regarding expectations about the merger and the expected business and financial results of the company are forward−looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward−looking statements only speak as of the date of this press release, and ipCreate assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release. Statements made in this press release that are forward−looking in nature may involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that any such forward−looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, including, without limitation, the expected results of the merger do not occur, the risk that business disruption relating to the transaction may be greater than anticipated and other risk factors discussed herein and in other releases and public filings made by ipCreate (including filings by ipCreate with the SEC). Although ipCreate believes that the expectations reflected in such forward−looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward−looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, ipCreate also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward−looking statements made in this press release.
