The ABC of IPR Seminar 19th November 2004 DTI Conference Centre

IPR Case Study Senselect Limited

Website: Tel: Fax: Contact: Email:

www.senselect.com 0121 698 8598 0121 698 8600 John Topping jtopping@senselect.com

Description of Company Senselect Ltd was founded in the United Kingdom by John Topping in 2000. The company was formed to develop innovative and secure biometric access control systems - Senselect technology. Rather than use a single biometric characteristic (like a single fingerprint), Senselect technology uses biometric sequences (like a 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 of Sale terminals, computer systems, mobile phones, building access mechanisms and electronic equipment. Senselect technology simplifies system access whilst both increasing the speed of access and improving system security. Privacy issues are also addressed as a user can change their biometric sequence and thereby control the use of their stored biometric templates. Senselect supports large scale government, financial and commercial biometric projects and is currently the only 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 UK ID Card project or cross-border access control. Intellectual Property Senselect owns UK and USA biometric patents. A core technology patent, GB2342749 was published by the UK Patent Office in November 2000 and a complementary USA Patent was granted to the company in November 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 portfolio around the original UK core technology patent. The intention is to take these additional patents forward into USA 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 Assets The direct cost to the company of obtaining the patents was in the region of 25,000. Additional costs such as travel would have to be added to this. Costs were kept low because the company staff did as much of the work on the patents themselves. Now that biometrics is emerging as a very hot topic, the asset value of these patents to the business runs into millions (most recent valuation is 2.7 million). This in itself is a very healthy return on investment (ROI) over the four years of the company. As a guide, and if you believe our Five Year Business Plan Financial Projections, the value of the patents to Senselect is worth approximately 100 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.