Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
GoodIP: Hello, we are Dr. Bastian July, Sebastian Hugl and Linus Kohl, the founders of GoodIP. We make patents understandable and objectively assessable with the help of artificial intelligence. This enables companies to find out whether they are properly positioned for the future.
We all three come from completely different backgrounds: Bastian is a patent attorney in Germany and New York, who previously worked for Lantiq (now Intel), McDermont Will & Emery and Osram, Sebastian founded his first own company alongside his industrial engineering studies and worked for Proglove helped build the logistics market. Linus comes from a software and machine learning background with a focus on natural language processing. He has also founded companies, most recently in research and development with clients from the public and private sectors. He has also led software development at various startups.
When the three of us met, we were working at different startups in Munich. Bastian and Linus met through the LMU Accelerator Program, and Sebastian came into play through Proglove. The idea of making a complex topic like patents accessible to everyone with the help of AI excited us from the start. That's why we completely redesigned GoodIP. We've now built an interdisciplinary team to break down the topic of patents even further.
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
GoodIP: Until now, patents could only be evaluated in a human-based, purely subjective manner, based on a multitude of soft factors. When a patent pile suddenly contains 562 patents, each with 15 pages, it becomes virtually impossible for humans to conduct an objective, rational, and efficient evaluation.
We enable our clients to analyze their patent portfolio, that of their competitors or a potential investment target promptly and objectively – with the help of artificial intelligence. analyzeTo do this, we break down each individual patent into fragments to obtain all the necessary information. Ultimately, our client receives information about whether the analyzed company is truly future-proof and how good its previous patent investments have actually been. Furthermore, we recategorize the entire patent portfolio so that everyone understands exactly what it's about and how good it actually is.
GoodIP: Companies do not understand the benefits of their patents
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Bastian July: IP evaluation has been around for decades, no question. The basic idea remains the same. Every company asks itself: "Are we secure for the future?" This question cannot be answered with current human evaluation for two reasons: A patent attorney is still human and therefore not objective. Furthermore, it takes a human a very long time to evaluate thousands of patents. This is where artificial intelligence comes in. It evaluates patents objectively and enables companies to understand their patents in detail, thus enabling them to make patent-based business decisions more effectively and quickly.
Sebastian Hugl: I also think that if the concept already existed in the form we've developed it, the current demand wouldn't be so high, and every executive would know exactly what their company's patents say and would have fired their expensive patent attorneys. It's both truly fascinating, but above all frightening, to see how many companies simply have their patents "lying around" as an asset on their annual balance sheets without understanding their actual benefit.
Munich Startup: Has there ever been a point where you almost failed?
Linus Kohl: Well, what does "failed" mean? I think every startup has reached that point where everything seems impossible or too much, and you consider throwing everything away and starting over from scratch. Experience shows that many startups fail due to conflicts within the teamCollaboration is a key aspect for us, and we agree on the big questions and the goal. We overcome any problems that arise together. For example, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we unfortunately lost a major contract. However, this very situation opened our eyes and led to the development of our new product based on artificial intelligence. Ultimately, this was the decisive factor that helped us acquire new customers and increase sales.
“The startup community in Munich is very large, and the city is very international.”
Munich Startup: How are things going?
GoodIP: Our business is doing very well, despite these challenging times for the economy. We can reveal that we've had an above-average start to the first quarter. We're very grateful for this, as it shows us that our hard work is paying off. We're currently working with American and German mid-sized companies that are looking to navigate their way into digitalization. But the year has just begun, and we still have a lot planned.
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
GoodIP: Munich is home to many large international companies that are open to new ideas, and the city attracts young people from all over the world. The startup community in Munich is very large, and the city is very international, which we think is great.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or long breath?
GoodIP: Definitely staying power! Building a company from scratch is always a marathon, not a sprint. Perseverance is the key factor. It's taken a long time to get to where we are now. But seeing that we're not just surviving but growing even during these difficult times confirms our resolve and makes us proud of what we've already achieved.
