NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2012) - Article One Partners (AOP), the world's largest patent research community, has passed more than $3 million in financial rewards paid to its global research community. This announcement comes just six months after reaching the $2 million milestone in February. The need for high-quality patent research continues to drive the growth of AOP as well as rewards paid out to its community. Many of AOP winning researchers earn financial rewards upwards of $60,000 annually -- more than the average American salary.
Specifically, in 2011, 8% of Study Winners earned more than the average annual income in the U.S. This trend holds true in Japan and Canada at 6% each. While this is impressive, the rewards also are highly compelling in emerging markets, such as India and the Philippines where 24% and 44% of winners earned more through AOP than the average annual income in those countries. While the job market and economy may still be struggling, these earnings figures continued to rise through the first half of 2012.
Financial Benefits for the AOP Research Community
AOP uses a global network of more than 24,000 registered researchers worldwide to quickly and efficiently uncover hard-to-find intellectual property (IP) intelligence. Each research study varies; however, the typical award per study is in the range of $3,500 to $10,000.
A payment to AOP community member Jesse Frumkin, a Ph.D candidate in Computational and Systems Biology, marked the $3 million milestone. To date, he has been awarded more than $15,000 in financial incentives by participating in 21 research competitions.
"AOP provides me with flexibility, room for creativity and strong financial rewards," stated Frumkin. "I am able to research on my own terms and learn about new industries. While there are other crowdsourcing opportunities out there, AOP is different because it challenges me and financially rewards me more than other crowdsourcing platforms."
To date, Article One Partners has issued more than 600 research studies, utilizing its worldwide community that is represented across 161 countries. AOP researchers come from all different backgrounds to form a strong patent research community. Researchers range from scientists, technologists and academic personnel to stay-at-home moms, students and athletes.
Benefit from International Crowdsourced Research Community
From behemoths such as Apple and Samsung to major brands like Honeywell and Silicon Valley startup Nest, patent litigation dominates the media airwaves. Additionally, non-practicing entities (NPEs), also known as "Patent Trolls," continue to drive intellectual property patent litigation to an all-time high.
According to RPX Corporation, "from 2010 to 2011, the number of new NPE suits filed increased 82%... It is also important to note that NPE activity is affecting a broader cross-section of operating companies. In 2010, more than 2,800 unique companies were defendants in NPE litigation; in 2011 that number had risen to almost 3,100. And many of these defendants are facing repeated assertions -- some operating companies were named in more than 30 NPE suits in 2011 alone."
With an international crowdsourced research community, AOP is able to work with companies to quickly and efficiently uncover data that either substantiates or discredits patent lawsuits. By leveraging the AOP research community, businesses can focus on product innovation as well as patent portfolio building.
"It is important for us to provide the best possible prior art we can find for our clients," said Cheryl Milone, CEO and founder of Article One Partners. "Since the AOP research community is educated, international and multilingual, we are in a unique position to find prior art in non-traditional literature that exists all over the world. We are proud that global brands and even cutting-edge startups turn to AOP for their patent research needs."
For more information on active patent studies and to learn how to participate in AOP's research, go to http://www.articleonepartners.com/list.php?status=active.
About Article One Partners
Article One Partners (AOP) has revolutionized the transparency of patent data by using a global human search engine to establish patent quality for patents involved in litigation, patent applications and all stages of the patent lifecycle. Today, AOP is the world's largest patent research community. The company distributes requests for prior art research globally to countless scientists and technologists. AOP is active in 161 countries, presents search requests in 10 languages and identifies key foreign language evidence, textual, graphical and non- patent literature. The company is a partner to 16 Fortune 100 companies, 52 Global Fortune 2000 and 7 of the top 10 US patent filers. AOP's client satisfaction rate exceeds 90%.
AOP has a distinguished Board, led by Marshall Phelps, the former head of patents and licensing at IBM and Microsoft. Founded in 2008 by patent community leader, inventor and entrepreneur, CEO Cheryl Milone, the company's product offerings have been called "revolutionary" and "game changing" by leading authorities. In short, many consider AOP to be the new industry standard.
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