I have created iConceptStore™ during last two decades – from inception through multiple modifications and refinements to ultimate reference implementation. Based on our innovative cognitive methodology, it comprises a set of knowledge based systems engineering language and software tools and is integrated with a number of Microsoft products as generally described on my website www.Cognitive-Technology.com. Intended for English speaking audiences, it is reasonably well documented. Recently the next phase of iConceptStore™ system development started (dubbed iConceptStore+ as indicated on my website).
Naturally, I am proud of my achievement so far (using no one else’s mind, labour or money) and will continue to improve and extend iConceptStore™. However, deployment of innovative technologies on economically viable scale takes time to materialise to any significant extent and requires marketing support from an established technology vender with market influence that individual developers like myself do not possess. This realisation, along with the narrowing horizon of my professional life, is behind my motivation to consider partnering with a suitable successful company (or a team of bright young researchers and software developers) in order to see my product in safe hands and eventually reaching its full potential. Therefore, my current intention is to negotiate some form of iConceptStore™ intellectual property rights (IPR) and software implementation transfer (assignment) in return for a legally binding long-term commitment by the assignee to invest time and effort in further iConceptStore™ related research, development and deployment that would guarantee its future beyond my life (further conditions apply).
Note that the actual legаl person (assignor) that any IPR assignment candidate (potential assignee) would have to deal with may not be me as a natural person but the non-profit applied research and development foundation „Технология на познанието” (Cognitive Technology Foundation) that I intend to register in Sofia, Bulgaria (my country of origin, part of the EU) with potential subsidiary in London (or vice versa). This organisation would continue beyond my personal life to further advance my current achievements and implement my related ideas with particular emphasis on their adaptation (through specific modifications and extensions) to the specific requirements of different application domains.
At some point the foundation will become the official and only holder of the iConceptStore™ IPR. Subsequently, access to iConceptStore™ IP would be reserved for the permanent members of that legal entity. In addition to rights of participation in the foundation management, such membership would provide controlled access to the existing as well as any future IP that would come into existence as a result of the applied research and development activities planned as indicated by the foundation’s logo at the bottom of this page. This would be a kind of joining the present going into the future.
It must be emphasised that iConceptStore™ is a knowledge based systems engineering toolset for application back-end development, not an end-user application. The crucial features of any such general-purpose development tool are: (1) its underlying methodology (its essence), where the real IP value – relevance and competitive advantage – lies; (2) its design (overall and detail) as functional, structural and language form of existence of its methodology content; (3) its software implementation (the body that accommodates its multi-faceted IP soul), which is more or less a technical matter – it can be improved, extended, altered, ported to different platforms, re-implemented by other means using the original implementation as a working prototype, etc.
Regardless of the above understatement, the iConceptStore™ successful implementation in the form of several compatible editions is important in itself: (1) it also contains an IP component (internal/external information representations, overall software structure and extensibility mechanisms, functional organisation and control flow, source code details, APIs, etc.); (2) it proves the feasibility of the iConceptStore™ original cognitive methodology and general architecture; (3) it has a clear practical value, turning a set of diverse innovative ideas into a coherent universally applicable useful working system.
As a result of a long sustained R&D effort, iConceptStore™ is not some copycat software. Its underlying cognitive methodology and related overall design and implementation evolved gradually during last two decades as a reflection of previous thirty years of my relevant experience in different application domains. Naturally, this R&D endeavour was not straightforward. All components of its flexible knowledge-representation framework underwent many simultaneous iterative alterations before emerging in its current refined and consistent form with its crown jewel – its unique (multiple complementary expressive roles serving) Conceptual Modelling/Mental/Methodology Language (CML) – being an elegant embodiment of the iConceptStore™ underlying multi-level mental model and related categorical arsenal of the 21st century experts’ systems thinking. Due to this all perfecting evolution, now its knowledge representation technology has no competitor in the market place, where imitators rule.
The IP approach corresponds best to my product’s multi-faceted nature – an original knowledge based systems development methodology, supported by language and software tools. So far, I have intentionally avoided commercialisation of iConceptStore™ in order to prevent its unique knowledge representation language (as a form of using its underlying original methodology) from being shamelessly copied or modified in multiple derivative works, as usual. Thus, I keep my IP far better protected as “trade secrets”. However, while I could not afford patent protection worldwide for iConceptStore™, a large resourceful company could not only gain unrestricted use of my IP but also file and maintain worldwide new granted patents, implicitly based on my “trade secrets”, which represents another dimension of any such IP transfer opportunity. In order to overcome the “trade secrets” information void in any prospective IP transfer negotiations I have provided on my website description of iConceptStore™ general architecture and main features in detail far beyond what is usually made available in system specifications by other vendors. I hope that for a start those explanations and diagrams would fill any information gap to a sufficient degree.
Traditionally, there is a kind of prejudice towards products, created by a single individual (however exceptional his/her abilities) as opposed to a team-work. This seems unjustified: (1) physiologically/psychologically every original idea is born in the brain/mind of a single human being (coincidences aside), possibly later augmented and enhanced by collaboration with others; (2) achieving the necessary consistency, uniformity and completeness across all system levels, components and iterative stages of development (methodology, design and implementation) is much more straightforward if the thought evolution occurs in the same mind as opposed to different people (with different abilities and preferences) working on separate system components with predefined functional and interface requirements; (3) in my case (and probably most others) I have worked alone on this project but during all more than 50 years of my professional life so far I have being actually consulting the brightest researchers and developers of different organisations worldwide by analysing their published works and in some cases through personal contacts; (4) in the software industry history there exist many good examples of finished prototypes and products, used throughout the world, which were originally created by a single enthusiast rather than a company (e.g., Linux kernel). Even within corporate environments the inception and original implementation of most operating systems and programming languages, as distinct milestones in computing technology evolution, while inheriting useful features from one another, are largely attributable to individual programmers (e.g., PDP-11/RSX-11M, VAX-11/VMS, MS-DOS, Linux derivatives, C, C++, Java, etc.).
As a general-purpose development tool, iConceptStore™ is application product-/service- and business model-agnostic, which makes it widely applicable, possibly in combination with other tools, under any business paradigm. Moreover, as its technology evolves through continuous use and enhancement, just like wine aging, the more it matures the more pronounced its market advantages would become. iConceptStore™ is an innovative quality product for the future and it can wait until it is truly appreciated (getting better and more powerful in the process).
Any suggestion regarding this IP transfer opportunity is welcome as long as it holds realistic prospects to ensure for iConceptStore™ the future it deserves (contact: IPAsset@Cognitive-Technology.com, no attachments/links please).
Disclaimer: (1) NO WARRANTY AS TO CONDITION OR SUITABILITY FOR ANY PURPOSE IS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED; (2) while technically overall correct, all diagrams on this website are generalised and given for pure illustrative purposes and may not necessarily correspond to the exact sophisticated low-level structure of the current software implementation, which is being dynamically altered during its continuous development; (3) this section and the rest of this website should serve the purpose of main information source regarding the iConceptStore™ IP; (4) every bit of further information is treated as “trade secret” and may only be disclosed at my sole discretion under specific strict NDA as part of any official membership negotiation with the foundation I intend to register.
Dr Vesselin I. Kirov: MSc and PhD engineering degrees; 50 years software systems analysis, research and development experience – last twenty years in Next Generation Information Technology, previous ten years in Investment Information and Decision Support Systems and earlier in Engineering Design / Process Planning Automation (including application of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering with original contributions to design knowledge representation and reasoning) and Industrial Robotics with works published in Europe, Canada, the UK and the USA. With dual British/Bulgarian nationality he currently shares his time between London and Sofia as required.
In Bulgarian (and some other Slavonic languages) ‘познание’ means ‘cognition’.
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