Harnessing AI for Human Insight: How I’mbesideyou is Using the PCT to Revolutionize Global Healthcare

Interview with Mr. Kotaro Ando, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of I'mbesideyou Inc., about the company’s use of the PCT System. This interview was conducted in November 2024 at the company’s headquarters in Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo.

Key Points

1. The company collects various types of information related to human behavior—such as hand and eye movements, facial expressions, and voice—and analyzes it using AI [Artificial Intelligence], applying the results to services including mental healthcare.
2. To secure a competitive advantage globally, the company’s strategy is to collect unique data that other big tech companies do not have, develop AI that utilizes it, and protect that AI through patents. Because the choice of patent strategies is critical, the company engages experts familiar with both patents and AI.
3. I'mbesideyou Inc also uses the results of PCT international search reports when determining business strategies, analyzing technologies from other countries, participating companies, and their business activities to inform program development. The PCT is valuable in providing more time before national-phase entry and in identifying potential competitors at an early stage through international search reports.

– Please tell us about your business.

We founded the company in 2020 with three members who had previously worked at NTT DATA. Our core technology is multimodal AI (AI that handles different types of information in an integrated manner). Specifically, our multimodal AI analyzes human behavior from multiple perspectives. For example, from a video of a person, our AI extracts physical data such as hand movements, eye movements, posture, voice, and facial expressions, and then provides AI applications that utilize this information for various purposes.

For instance, by analyzing students’ behavior in a classroom, our AI can assess whether a student is concentrating or understanding the material. Teachers can use this information for evaluation, such as determining whether their students are making progress and whether the teaching is effective.

This technology is highly versatile. In the HR [human resources] field, it can analyze the relationship between managers and subordinates; in the pharmaceutical industry, it is applied to manage and monitor the effectiveness of sales activities online. Our main focus, however, is mental health care, where, in collaboration with hospitals, our AI on patient video data is used to assess the severity of depression with greater accuracy than existing technologies.

We leverage this AI to provide a variety of services. For example, in the U.S. we have launched an online mental health therapy clinic, where AI works behind the scenes to deliver services that integrate technology with human care.

– What is your intellectual property strategy?

All three founders have patent knowledge. We pooled our expertise to consider which aspects of AI would become important in the future and to shape our [patent] filing policy.

At the time of our founding, LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT did not yet exist. However, Google had already introduced AI based on the transformer model, and we anticipated that the landscape for language processing would change drastically. We believed that startups could not compete with large companies in the field of language, as it is relatively easy to handle and dominated by major players.

Similarly, startups cannot compete with the vast data assets that large corporations like NTT possess. Therefore, our strategy has been to collect information that others do not have, develop AI that uses it, and protect it with patents.

That is why we focused on medical examinations at hospitals. Since there had been no cases of analyzing videos from online consultations, we determined this to be patentable. In addition to having a novel idea, we also possessed the technology to realize it. However, we assumed others would eventually have similar concepts, so we recognized the need to secure patent rights in multiple countries, particularly those where AI development is highly active.

Recognizing the importance of an IP strategy, we invited a fourth member with expertise in both IP and AI to join us as someone who could incorporate IP strategy into management. We maintain close communication with this expert, who provides input from a management perspective, such as identifying gaps in our portfolio or warning us about new companies offering similar technologies in specific countries.

– How do you use the PCT?

Since our founding, we have filed more than 100 PCT applications. From the beginning, we envisioned overseas expansion and considered China, France, the UK, Singapore, India, and the U.S. as target countries. However, we were still exploring which technologies would be best received in which markets.

If we operated only in Japan, we would inevitably be overwhelmed by overseas companies that invest far more heavily in AI. Therefore, during our second and third years, we filed PCT applications for nearly all the technologies we implemented, focusing on the above-mentioned countries.

We also use the results of PCT international search reports (ISR) when deciding business strategies, as they provide insight into what technologies other companies are developing and in which countries. Taking this analysis into account, we align our program development from the outset with our patent strategy.

For startups, it is not always clear in which fields newly developed technologies can be applied. The PCT offers the advantage of buying time before national-phase entry, as well as allowing us to identify competitors at an early stage through international search reports. We consider these to be major benefits.

Our expansion into the U.S. market, in particular, has recently gained momentum, and we are proceeding with national-phase entry in the U.S., focusing on those PCT applications that receive high ISR evaluations. In doing so, we are also utilizing the PCT-PPH [patent prosecution highway] to accelerate and secure registrations more efficiently