Article One Partners Launches Prior Art Study Around MacroSolve Patent

NEW YORK, June 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Article One Partners today announced that it has launched a new request for research for a patent held by MacroSolve, Inc. Article One's latest Patent Study is focused on United States Patent No. 7,822,816, defined as a "System and Method for Data Management," which covers the collection and transmission of data for online questionnaires. This Study is a request for prior art, including non-patent literature, that provides a path to invalidity. This Study will leverage the success of Article One's global crowdsourcing community to identify evidence predating patent claims, known as "prior art."

MacroSolve filed an infringement lawsuit related to this patent in April.  The defendants consist of 10 companies that develop applications for the iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile phone platforms, including Blue Shoe Mobile Solutions, Brazos Technology, Canvas Solutions, Formstack, Kony Solutions, Pogo Corporation, SWD Interactive, On The Spot Systems and Widget Press.

The MacroSolve lawsuit has generated widespread media attention and social media conversations focused on the plight of small app development companies who lack the financial resources for appropriate legal defense in cases such as these.  

The app development community is encouraged to participate in the MacroSolve Study. Article One incentivizes researchers with cash prizes of $5,000 to $20,000 U.S. per Study for the highest quality research.  To date, Article One has awarded over $1.3 million to its researchers.

To join the search, researchers can register to participate in the Article One community at: http://www.articleonepartners.com/ulogin/register  and can review the MacroSolve Patent Study at: http://www.articleonepartners.com/study/index/803-data-management-system. Read below for details on the Patent Study and what to look for. Then visit the Article One MacroSolve Patent Study page for additional details and to submit responses.

"We believe the Article One model benefits more than just the clients. This Study is a prime example of how different parties – application developers and the general public – can participate in solving a potentially costly problem that impacts the burgeoning mobile app marketplace," said Cheryl Milone, CEO of Article One Partners.

With its unique crowdsourcing model, Article One Partners' research requests are distributed to more than one million scientists and technologists worldwide to research the validity of specific patents.  Article One has conducted a number of high profile Patent Studies in recent months, including patents held by Interval Licensing and NTP Incorporated.  

Article One recently announced its new Litigation Avoidance program with Microsoft Corporation as the first member. Litigation Avoidance is designed to help companies analyze and act on patents of questionable quality before litigation. Article One's services provide operating companies with powerful tools in their defense against patent suits from non-practicing entities (NPEs).

What to Look For

Researchers are invited to submit relevant prior art they believe relevant to this patent. Prior art is evidence of publicly available information predating a patent's invention, which teaches, or renders obvious, the patent claims. Prior art knowledge and evidence may come from published content anywhere in the world and in any language. This includes previous patents; news or academic publications; non-digitized documents such as textbooks; or any public document provided to others, including conference or academic papers and business materials. Prior art is often found in documents tucked away in a file cabinet years ago, or in the back corner of a library.

Patent Study Details

Article One Partners has launched this Patent Study requesting prior art that provides a path to invalidity for United States Patent No. 7,822,816.  Prior art submitted, preferably non-patent literature, must not already be known based on the history of the patents at the Patent Office. The Reward is guaranteed to be paid to the Researchers who submit the highest quality prior art for the Study.

For more information on active Patent Studies and to learn how to participate in Article One's research, go to http://www.articleonepartners.com/list.php?status=active.

Article One Partners

Article One Partners is a global online community leveraging crowdsourcing to deploy more than 1 million scientists and technologists who can research prior art for patents. Article One presents research requests on www.ArticleOnePartners.com and international affiliate websites for patent research in exchange for premium compensation.  The Article One community has been paid over $1.3 million to date.  Article One has been described as social media for patents.  With researchers from 176 countries and projects translated into 8 languages, the community identifies key foreign language evidence and non-patent literature.   Article One counts as clients 14 of the Fortune 100, 24 of the Global Fortune 500, 5 of the top 10 U.S. patent filers and 12 of the top 30 companies targeted most frequently by NPEs.  In 2010, Article One received institutional funding and investment from Board members including Marshall Phelps, former head of IP and licensing at IBM and Microsoft. CEO Cheryl Milone has been a guest of the White House as one of the top 50 innovative CEOs in the U.S.

For more information about Article One Partners, visit www.ArticleOnePartners.com

Article One Partners and AOP are service marks of Article One Partners, LLC. All other product and company names are the trademarks and property of their respective owners. © 2011. Article One Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

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