MapsPeople: Patenting provides both market protection and brand value
The company MapsPeople, which develops an indoor mapping platform has filed a patent application for a solution that uses machine learning to structure data. For the company, it is obvious to protect themselves from competitors, but also to strengthen their brand through patents.
We all know and use Google Maps´ solutions when we are outside. But inside buildings, there is just as much a need for detailed maps. The company MapsPeople has developed the platform MapsIndoors, which provides the opportunity to map the interior of buildings such as universities, art museums, and larger offices and to deliver updated data to the users of the building – e.g., whether an office space is available or not on a particular time and day.
In collaboration with Guardian IP Consulting, MapsPeople has filed a patent application that covers a part of the company’s software solutions.
Our production methods are quite innovative. We take a lot of unstructured data and using customized machine learning we turn it into structured data that efficiently can be analyzed and used for our purpose.
Rasmus Steenberg Andersen
CIO at MapsPeople
The cooperation between Mapspeople and Guardian has been speedy
The beginning of the collaboration between MapsPeople and Guardian IP Consulting has been speedy yet thorough, to ensure that MapsPeople could have its patent application prepared before a recent stock exchange listing for the company.
– It is a strong signal for MapsPeople to have applied for a patent when the company goes public. It is valuable to protect the core parts of their present and future business and provide a barrier so others cannot copy it. Other software companies can copy the idea if MapsPeople do not protect it and that could affect the entire company’s livelihood, as a worst case scenario, says David Hendriksen, Managing Partner at Guardian IP Consulting.
IP protection is important for the recruitment and retention of employees
For MapsPeople, it is essential to protect the company and its investors, through patenting, so that competitors cannot copy the work of the company. But there have also been considerations around the brand value in protecting the company’s IP.
– When we patent our technology, we also think about our brand. It creates value, both for external partners and customers, but also for future and current employees. Being able to say that what we do is so unique that we can patent it – that is a great company to work for, says Rasmus Steenberg Andersen.
The collaboration on the patent application started with introductory meetings, where Guardian IP Consulting together with MapsPeople clarified whether the solution was patentable and had sufficient inventiveness. Since then, the collaboration has been smooth.
– Our collaboration with Guardian is very good, constructive, and positive. Our area of business is new to them, but we had a good dialogue where it was made sure that they understand what we do. Although it is a different area to what Guardian usually works with, they have understood and described what we do in general terms that fits the patent application, says Rasmus Steenberg Andersen.
At Guardian IP Consulting, David Hendriksen agrees on the positive collaboration:
– MapsPeople works with complex areas, and therefore it is important that we adequately understand those areas, both for the sake of the patent application and for the collaboration to go well. When they feel that we understand what they are working on, that we have captured the idea, then the collaboration is a success.
Read more: Do you need a patent strategy?
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