Newsletter

1. Users

We continue to be very excited by the growth in number of our users. In 2011, we reached a major milestone with:

10,000 users!

Currently, the exact number is 10,814.

As you know, these are individual users working for firms that pay to access our services. This is a phenomenal number. And it is only for Europe.

It is hard to find a point of comparison. But we can try... Let's take IP organisation membership. Obviously this varies greatly from organisation to organisation but no organisation has over 10,000 members, not even the international ones. We know we are comparing apples and pears (membership of an association and number of users of a database; global and European figures) but it goes some way in helping to understand the kind of numbers we are talking about.

2. Add a case comment

It is certainly because our database has such a large pan-European audience that many people have asked to write/post case comments directly on our website. We have now developed and introduced this feature as its creates value for everyone

Advantage for the author: with its 10,000+ users, Darts-ip is a very visible place to post case comments. There is no need to produce an exclusive or brand new comment. Any case comment, even if it has already been published, is very welcome.
Advantage for all Darts-ip users: since case comments are linked to the decisions in our database, you can see which decisions have been commented on directly on the result list. If you are faced with a long list of results, you might want to read cases with case comments first as they are likely to be the more important ones.

Example of recent case comments on our home page:

3. Trade marks - Conceptual similarity (beta)

This is one of those projects that we have wanted to do for some time. It has taken a lot of time and a great deal of hard work and so we are very proud to see it finally up and running.

The idea is that you can search the database for trade marks containing similar concepts. For example, you would like to find all trade marks that are conceptually similar to 'Paris 2010' i.e. trade marks composed of a city and a number. If you enter: 'city' and 'number' in the search field you will find cases such as 'Prague 2020', 'Sydney 2000' etc.

Another example, if you enter 'color' and 'animal' in the search field, you will find all decisions in which at least one trade mark is composed of a colored animal e.g. 'red pig', 'purple frog', 'white elephant', etc.

It is still a beta product, but we think it is already a great help for our users when searching for conceptually similar trade marks.

4. Patents - Damages (beta)

How many times have your clients asked things like 'How much will a court award me for this type of case'?

Now you can search for decisions based on the type and amount of damages awarded.

For example, you can search for infringement actions in Europe where over €200,000 (converted Euros) damages were awarded. You can then refine your search and specify the method used to calculate the damages and/or refine your search results to a specific court/country.

5. Corporate customers are sending us their decisions

We are seeing a great increase in the number of corporate customers who are sending us all their IP decisions.

Corporate customers are sharing their decisions with us to ensure that our community of 10,000 users knows which IP assets (whether a patent, trade mark, domain name or design right) are being defended and how they are being defended.

Many of our users are keen to know which IP assets matter most to certain corporates and are interested to assess how aggressive corporates are in defending them.

By sending us your decisions, you can ensure that everyone knows how actively you are defending your IP rights. Isn't that a good thing?

We love receiving decisions. If you would like to send us yours, please send them by email to decisions@darts-ip.com.