allnex is the leading company globally for industrial coating resins, crosslinkers and additives.

Industry: Speciality Chemicals
Headquarters: Frankfurt, Germany
Employees: 4 000+

The problem

allnex was relying exclusively on a speciality tool for searching chemical patents. At that time, this tool ended up being very expensive as it charged the user for every record they viewed. It meant that if a search query wasn’t tailored enough, they could be charged to view an irrelevant document. These unnecessary costs were adding up fast!

The solution

Once the team started using PatBase, they could research new topic areas in PatBase first to build a strong search strategy. They use this in combination with the speciality chemical search tool, but only where needed to avoid any extra costs.

Avoiding additional costs when searching chemical patents

Globally recognised as a specialty chemicals pioneer, allnex offers an extensive range of products including innovative liquid resins

and additives, radiation-cured, powder coating resins and crosslinkers for use on wood, metal, plastic, and many other surfaces. allnex research teams work in close cooperation with their clients to develop coating solutions that can be implemented faster, are more competitive in both cost and quality, and more environmentally friendly.

At allnex, innovation is key. They rely on PatBase daily to ensure their product developments are novel and give them the freedom to create. Most frequently they use PatBase to run Patentability/Freedom To Operate and Patent Opposition Searches. As a result, the allnex team has built an outstanding track record of innovation to ensure growth and client satisfaction in virtually every market.

The primary user is a Senior Information Scientist who has used PatBase for almost 15 years and considers it to be both easy-to-use and powerful. They have found that PatBase gives more reliable results and is one of the faster commercial databases they have tried. One PatBase feature that they use regularly is the ability to save your search query and come back to it. They use this to build a strategy over time, recording exactly what has been done at each stage.

In addition to PatBase, the allnex team has used PatentOrder since 2001 to order PDF copies of patent documents. They have also been using Minesoft’s chemical structure searching tool, Chemical Explorer. This has been a good addition to their package as they often get more results with Chemical Explorer than with their other chemical search tool. Therefore, the team often starts with PatBase & Chemical Explorer before using a speciality chemical search tool where needed, eliminating unnecessary costs in the process.