Sherwood™ Patent Risk Management Services

Infringement claims and litigation based on dubious patents are costing businesses billions of dollars in direct fees and lost market value. M·CAM® has a cost effective solution…the Sherwood Patent Risk Management Services.

M·CAM, as the world’s leading intangible asset finance firm, has developed an underwriting platform, based on a proprietary, unstructured data mining algorithm, that allows us to identify artifacts of innovation in more than 120 countries which would effectively challenge a patents’ claims of “novelty” and "non-obviousness" both for statutory and commercial purposes. For over a decade, our systems – first used to audit the U.S. and European Patent Offices – have been the backbone for statutory re-examination decisions (provided under contract through the patent office of the government of Denmark) as well as the growing use of the same for opposition in markets like Europe and Asia. Our analyses have been used as the basis for successful ex parte and inter partes re-examination proceedings with a success rate reported to be greater than 70% by our clients. In fact, starting in 2003 and for the next seven years, all of Lloyds of London patent litigation insurance has been underwritten on our systems with the reportedly lowest loss ratio on any Lloyds’ insurance product.

Our approach enables you to manage patent litigation risks and costs through superior intelligence about precedent innovation and uncited prior art in addition to our expert testimony and other special advisory services. M·CAM’s patent assessment is based on an examination of precedent and concurrent art that always fulfills the criteria set forth in either 35 USC §102 or §103. As the references in these outputs are not part of an asserted patent’s cited prior art, these outputs can be used to invalidate all or part of an asserter's patent.

Our offerings include:

  • First Response Letters
    • M·CAM's "First Response Letter" is often all that is needed to neutralize opportunistic
      patent assertions. Upon receipt of our “First Response Letter”, the asserter faces the decision to
      either walk away or spend millions of dollars in man hours differentiating its patent from the
      hundreds, sometimes thousands, of unconsidered 35 USC §102 & §103 conforming precedent innovation
      and/or uncited prior art references. The “First Response Letter” also establishes firm legal support
      for:
      • Placing onus of disclosure on asserter to disclose specific claims.
      • Constructive notice to establish a pathway for potential treble damages in the future.
      • Possible case for willfulness and fraud on the US Patent Office.
  • Re-examination Services (inter partes or ex parte)
    • M·CAM’s Doors® system have reported a roughly 70% success rate on ex parte and inter partes re-
      examination proceedings making re-examination a viable alternative or complement to litigation.
  • Unconsidered Prior Art Identification
    • M·CAM’s algorithm identifies hundreds of unconsidered artifacts, including uncited patents, non-patent
      literature and commercial “on-bar” uses, almost all of which are in the public domain.
  • Focused Patent Analysis
    • Identifies references relevant to the outcome of the Markman Hearing.
  • Expert Witness Testimony
    • Testified in federal court, including United States Tax court.
    • Testified before US Congressional committees overseeing patent quality and the use of intangible assets
      in commerce and finance.
    • Deputized as an officer of the Treasury.