Article One Partners

AOP was founded in November 2008 by attorneys Cheryl Milone and Steven Powell. It was backed by venture capital firms Alleghany Capital Corporation, General Catalyst Partners, and the former head of intellectual property policy and strategy at Microsoft Marshall Phelps, with investments totaling $15 million by January 2013.

In October 2013, Phelps was announced as the new Chief Executive Officer of AOP.

In April 2016, the company announced that it had surpassed the $7-million mark in researcher rewards. In late-October 2016, the company stated that it had completed 178 Public Studies and 383 Private Studies for the year so far.

AOP was acquired by RWS in October 2017 and is now a part of the IP Research division of RWS. The company was rebranded to RWS Information US LLC in October 2018.

Studies

To conduct its intellectual-property research projects, referred to as "Studies," AOP posts the project requirements and descriptions online as a request for the "crowd" of researchers to submit relevant research submissions. Researchers are required to "make at least one submission that matches the requirements of the Study," and rewards are dispensed to the selected "top responses" when the Study is closed. The patent-research Studies of AOP include patent infringement cases, and the company performs both "Private" and "Public" Studies.

Rewards of up to $6,500 are posted for each Study and are paid to researchers based on the quality of their submissions.

AOP Connect

AOP Connect is a technology platform that supports the worldwide crowdsourcing process and delivers value added results to clients.

Other litigation

Although the company stresses the importance of client confidentiality, the company launch in 2008 included the announcement of multiple high-profile cases. These cases included:

Pfizer assertion against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries over a cholesterol medication.

Research In Motion assertion against Motorola around wireless device technology.

Konami Corporation assertion against Harmonix Music Systems, MTV Networks, and Viacom in the video game industry.