Patent Office Will Use Technology to Visually Compare New Patent Applications to Existing 200,000 Patented Designs

PARIS, France — February 26, 2001 — LookThatUp, a provider of image analysis technology, has been chosen by the French Patent Office (INPI) to build an image-based tool that they will use to facilitate the search for existing designs.

With LookThatUp's Image-Seeker, which will be in place April 1, 2001, the INPI will be able to compare design images submitted by new applicants to the 200,000 designs that already exist in its database. The INPI, which has been registering designs since 1910, currently has one million images in its collection, all of which will ultimately be included in the searchable database.

"The INPI possesses an incredibly expansive and growing database of design images", said Chahab Nastar, CEO and co-founder of LookThatUp. "Image-Seeker has created a way to organize and utilize these images to protect designs and promote future innovation. We feel very strongly that this first full scale deployment of Image-Seeker will be a tremendous success".

"The French Patent Office has been a pioneer in the adoption of innovative technologies since it was founded", said Serge Chambaud, INPI's Chief of Documentation and Information. "With innovation on the rise, new technologies like LookThatUp are absolutely vital in helping our organization protect and preserve industrial property".

The INPI was an early adopter of LookThatUp's technology and has been a client since 1999. The office will first implement the Image-Seeker product internally and will eventually make it available for clients usage. Future plans also include public access.

 

About the INPI:

The INPI, ("Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle"), is the French Patent and Trademark Office and the French Register of Commerce. INPI registers patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and companies.
One of its missions is to make information concerning patents, trademarks industrial designs and companies available. To achieve this mission, the INPI relies on its public libraries, internet access, Competitive Intelligence Search Service and information products (15 databases and 4 CD-ROM titles on international industrial property). The INPI provides world-wide access to over 35 million records of technical and business information.
The Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle (INPI) is based in Paris, France.

About LookThatUp:

LookThatUp has developed innovative, server-side technology that can automatically analyze the content of images. LookThatUp's software builds image data profiles and compares them to others to give businesses the power to protect their users from objectionable content, as well as e-commerce and media sites the ability to simplify search and retrieval processes .
LookThatUp was founded in 1999 by veteran scientists from the MIT Media Lab, Oxford University and INRIA and has secured $6 million in financing from Galileo Partners and Mars Capital.
LookThatUp is headquartered in Paris, France with US offices in San Francisco, CA.