Clarivate Analytics adds AI company to portfolio

US-based Clarivate Analytics has bought TrademarkVision, an Australian company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct visual trademark searches. 

Clarivate announced the deal today, October 31. Although WIPR asked the company to divulge the value of the deal, a spokesperson said that they cannot disclose the details. 

TrademarkVision will join Clarivate-owned CompuMark, a trademark clearance and protection company located in Boston, but the AI company will also retain a base in Brisbane. 

It comes less than a month after Clarivate sold its IP Management division, which oversees payment and renewal processes for patents and trademarks, to rival CPA Global. 

TrademarkVision uses AI-powered image recognition software to visually search artwork, images and 3D design patents, to determine whether a proposed trademark logo infringes an existing mark.

Clarivate said that 40% of trademarks filed contain images, and trademark professionals rely on building complex queries with keywords and image codes to research image-based trademarks on their own. According to Clarivate, TrademarkVision revolutionised the trademark research space when it released the world’s first visual search in 2013. 

CompuMark already applies TrademarkVision’s technology within ‘TM go365TM’, a tool designed to “enable trademark professionals to instantly research trademarks and more effectively manage day-to-day portfolios”, Clarivate said.

TrademarkVision works with a host of IP offices, including IP Australia, the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the UK Intellectual Property Office. 

Jeff Roy, president of CompuMark, said the deal will open opportunities for new products and solutions within and outside the trademark research industry that will underpin the business’s next generation of solutions.

TrademarkVision’s CEO and founder, Sandra Mau, added: “As part of CompuMark, TrademarkVision will be able to leverage CompuMark’s expertise in the trademark industry and vast global distribution channels to ensure our next generation of solutions reach trademark professionals around the world.” 

TrademarkVision joins technology start-ups Kopernio and Publons on Clarivate’s list of acquisitions in the past 18 months. Innovation Advisors, a global investment bank, advised Clarivate on the latest deal.