The definite Article?

The IPKat's eye was attracted to a US media release, "Article One Announces Completion of Funding from Alleghany Corporation". The release brings news that Article One Partners, said to be "the world’s largest patent research community", has just completed a $5 million round of institutional funding with Alleghany Corporation's subsidiary, Alleghany Capital Corporation. The cash

"... will be used to further consolidate the firm’s leading position in the global online patent validation sector by enhancing existing products and services, developing new ones and accelerating sales".

What exactly is it that Article One does? According to the media release, its community of millions of researchers

" ... gathers patent validity evidence, discovered from around the world, with a speed and depth that traditional patent research can’t match. The community’s ability to access research in many languages, as well as its access to non-digitized publications, produces a quality of research that only human knowledge experts can achieve".

Says the IPKat, Article One's major asset appears to be the ability to wave the name of legendary patent policy guru Marshall Phelps around. Apart from being a Board Member, he is also said to be making his own substantial investment in this round.

Adds Merpel, I think, if I've understood this right, that what these researchers do is gather evidence of patent invalidity, since you can't really gather evidence of validity: it's like proving a negative ("not anticipated by the prior art", "not obvious" ...) and they get rewards of $5,000 to $50,000 per research project, plus a slice of corporate profit-share. Or have I missed something?