The Custom Set Theory tool, allows you to apply formulas over your existing reports to combine, intersect or review differences within the data. Whilst you would typically use the standard reporting tools in Cipher to extend report parameters i.e. to add in additional portfolios or additional classifiers, or combine data using the patent upload functionality, the custom set theory tool gives you specific functionality that is not be possible using the standard reporting tools.

Here is a short video to explain in more detail:

Here's a recap on the set theory options:

Please contact a member of the Cipher team to provide a demo and enable this feature, on your account today via support@cipher.ai.

Here are some examples:

Cipher has been optimised for due diligence and makes for fast and effective identification of any patent owning organisation anywhere in the world. Using custom set theory, you're able to review the difference between a list of patents supplied by Company A (what they say they own), versus the organisation report in Cipher (what they really own). Generate an organisation report of Company A in Cipher. Run a second patent upload from the list of patents supplied by your client. Subtract patent upload from organisation report using the difference function in the Custom Set Theory tool.

At the start of the year you run a report with X number of patents, and in three months you may wish to run a new report and subtract those from the report at the start of the year. This helps in reviewing absolute numbers as patent data can be released by the patent offices at different points.

You may have run a classifier report covering your areas of interest, and you could use set theory to review everything new in those areas each quarter. (Whilst in a Cipher report you can of course filter by time but as data can be released at different points by each patent office, this approach using custom set theory allows you to review absolute numbers.)

You may have a selected list of organisations that you report on regularly or are deemed to be your 'competitors'. If you struggle to identify new companies within your landscape reporting (due to the size of it) or perhaps you just want to review the unknown outside of your known competitor list, you can run the landscape and subtract your known competitor report from the results - subtract the known to leave the unknown

By combining a current report with a previous Cipher report (i.e. 6 months ago) you're able to track how much the patents in your portfolio are growing. Again, this is useful when looking at absolute numbers as data can be released at different points by each patent office.

You can run this report from two existing reports, to see where there is cross over. If you suspect that a patent family has left a portfolio and is now part of another portfolio, this report will be able to generate where there is crossover. An example could be to use our NPE organisation set, and an older report of a selected portfolio to see which are now owned by NPEs.

You can use this feature to focus only on the difference between two reports. You may have two lists of patents, and rather than concentrating on where there is cross over between the two, you may want to flesh out where there isn't cross over. This could be useful as part of a tagging project, combined with classifiers.