SPIE acquisition of The Lens broadens organization’s scholarly portfolio

With its acquisition of lens.org, SPIE will expand its offerings to the global research community through improved access to patent data.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced the acquisition of The Lens, the global open-knowledge platform. With this acquisition, SPIE will expand its offerings to the global research community through improved access to patent data.

“I am thrilled that SPIE is part of The Lens and its legacy of support of the global innovation community,” said Kent Rochford, SPIE CEO and Executive Director.  “Our missions are highly aligned and complementary.  We look forward to working with The Lens team to accelerate their impact and deliver a valuable and impactful global resource.”

The open web format of The Lens curates a free flow of information, including scholarly works and patents, to foster deeper research, analysis, and collaboration among the optics and photonics and broader scientific communities.

The Lens is known to innovation practitioners and the research community as an open platform with linked citations and tools for discovery and analytics of scholarly works, patents, and biological sequences disclosed in patents.

SPIE first introduced The Lens to the optics and photonics community in November 2020, integrating scholarly citation and patent citation data for SPIE publications curated by The Lens into the SPIE Digital Library and available to readers.

About SPIE

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $26 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development.