Sleepnea has a strong patent strategy that poses potential threats to competitors such as Sleep Number. Sleepnea's website says that their primary focus is treating sleep apnea, but their patent filings show they are interested in consumer sleep technology. Sleepnea was granted a patent in January for predicting and cooling hot flashes. A related application recently published for automatically modifying the firmness of a mattress. The company's massive patent application size and relatively early priority date for this sector (2014) put Sleepnea in an advantageous market position. Will this be enough to challenge Sleep Number and other competitors? We envision a path towards future licensing and acquisition opportunities for them.
