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The ABC of IPR Seminar19th November 2004DTI Conference Centre
IPR Case Study Senselect Limited
Website:Tel:Fax:
www.senselect.com0121 698 85980121 698 8600
Contact:Email:
John [email protected]
Description of Company
Senselect Ltd was founded in the United Kingdom by John Topping in 2000. The company was formed todevelop innovative and secure biometric access control systems - Senselect technology. Rather than use asingle biometric characteristic (like a single fingerprint), Senselect technology uses biometric sequences (likea finger sequence) to provide secure, easy to use systems which replace conventional passwords and PINs.
Senselect technology can be applied to a wide range of equipment from terminals like ATMs, retail Point ofSale terminals, computer systems, mobile phones, building access mechanisms and electronic equipment.Senselect technology simplifies system access whilst both increasing the speed of access and improvingsystem security. Privacy issues are also addressed as a user can change their biometric sequence andthereby control the use of their stored biometric templates.
Senselect supports large scale government, financial and commercial biometric projects and is currently theonly technology available to incorporate sequential biometrics. In addition, Senselect technology ensures
accurate and high speed matching of an individual's identity in large scale biometric installations like the UKID Card project or cross-border access control.
Intellectual PropertySenselect owns UK and USA biometric patents. A core technology patent, GB2342749 was published by theUK Patent Office in November 2000 and a complementary USA Patent was granted to the company inNovember 2003. The original patent is also in an advanced stage of completion within the European Union.Additional patents have now been lodged with the UK and European Patent Office to create a patent portfolioaround the original UK core technology patent. The intention is to take these additional patents forward intoUSA and into individual European Country patents.
The company also registered and were granted three trademarks Senselect (also the company name),
BioSentric and Sign-Gate. All are registered Trademarks of Senselect Ltd.
Issues - Patents as AssetsThe direct cost to the company of obtaining the patents was in the region of 25,000. Additional costs suchas travel would have to be added to this. Costs were kept low because the company staff did as much of thework on the patents themselves. Now that biometrics is emerging as a very hot topic, the asset value ofthese patents to the business runs into millions (most recent valuation is 2.7 million). This in itself is a veryhealthy return on investment (ROI) over the four years of the company. As a guide, and if you believe ourFive Year Business Plan Financial Projections, the value of the patents to Senselect is worth approximately100 times the money we have spent on acquiring them.
Should the company need to raise funds for investment, then these patents are key assets because they
underpin the companys business potential and future development.
Finally, in addition to demonstrating the importance of protecting IPR in a situation of high business potential,the whole exercise has helped us to understand our business better and that of our competitors.
http://www.senselect.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.senselect.com/mailto:[email protected]
