Protecting Our Innovation: Why Contentsquare is Defending its Intellectual Property
At Contentsquare, we are entirely dedicated to empowering brands to create better experiences, uncovering new insights on online behavior on their behalf. In the eight years since our founding, we’ve grown a lot. Innovative talent, and the solutions those teams pioneered, is what got us where we are today. Throughout our journey, we’ve made a multi-million dollar investment in innovation because it means everything to us. This is why we are choosing to protect it.
Today, Contentsquare filed two patent infringement complaints against Quantum Metric and Decibel Insight in defense of our intellectual property. We seek to end the unauthorized use of our innovation, including Session Replay and Heatmaps.
When I founded Contentsquare in 2012, it was clear to me that my top priority needed to be recruiting R&D talent. Entering a rapidly evolving industry with increasing competition, it was critical that we invested heavily in innovation. We haven’t slowed down since, and our R&D team has grown from 1 to 200 people today.
When we started out we didn’t prioritize the protection of our innovation. Over the last two years we have spent a lot of time thinking about this issue and making it an integral part of our innovation strategy.
Many other sectors, from fashion and luxury to pharmaceuticals, vigorously defend their patents because in their view, their IP defines them. It is part of their DNA, and they know if they don’t defend the things that make them unique as a company, then others will try to capitalize on them. That’s why they regularly challenge the unauthorized use of their creations through the court systems to protect the work of their talent. When a fashion company fights against counterfeits, they are taking a stand on behalf of the creative talent that enabled the popularity of that design.
In the software startup market, patent prosecution doesn’t always make the top agenda. Under pressure to grow and grow quickly, investment priorities are often geared towards sales, marketing and customer support to enable first-mover advantages. Patent prosecution costs can outweigh the potential rewards in the early days. Unfortunately, too many companies don’t revisit this issue or adopt a clear enough strategy as they grow and hundreds of clients — including public companies — rely on them.
It’s time to change this default setting. Patents were created to protect and defend innovation and intellectual property, and the patent infringement process to maintain it. Our innovations have played a defining role in launching the digital experience analytics market and ensuring the long term success of our platform is critical. Two plus years ago, when we started to develop the patent strategy we have now, we discovered that Clicktale, a company which was founded in 2006 by innovative and visionary people, had a valuable portfolio that fit our view. When we acquired Clicktale, an early pioneer in the digital experience industry, we acquired intellectual property that was made possible thanks to years of ingenuity. Two of their innovations in particular, Session Replay and Heat Maps, have become industry standards. The effort that went into both of these products deserves to be recognized and protected.
And so do future innovations. As we enter our next phase of growth following our recent fundraising round and the full integration of Clicktale, we are doubling down on our investment in R&D. If our customers and partners are going to rely on the inventiveness of our platform, then we need to protect it. And if we want to retain and attract top talent, they need to know we fully value the creation of cutting-edge technology. That’s why we are standing up for ourselves and our IP today.
