An Intellectual Property Whitepaper by Katy Wood of Minesoft in association with Kogan Page www.minesoft.com
Competitive intelligence 3.3 Katy Wood at Minesoft reviews the techniques and tools for transforming volumes of complex patent data into insights for those setting directions in strategy, research and IP. I t is no secret nowadays that patent data yields a rich and essential source of competitive intelligence. A significant volume (estimates range from 70 to 80 per cent) of technical and scientific information is only ever made available through patent publications. Translated by patent information experts using specialist software into technical, business and legal knowledge, it can help shape corporate strategy and steer R &D efforts in the right direction. The systematic retrieval and assessment of patent data can provide insights into competitor activity, potential collaborators, technology trends and opportunities in a given market. As awareness and appreciation of the value of patent data as a source of commercial insight grows, a wide range of patent analysis and landscaping tools is becoming available to help companies better understand the patent landscape in which they operate. We look at why patent information is so valuable, what insights patent analytics can reveal, and who can benefit from it. Why look at patents? Patinformatics, a term coined by Anthony Trippe (recognized as one of the Top 300 IP Strategists by IAM Magazine ), describes the science of analysing large amounts of patent information to reveal relationships and trends that would be hard to discern when working on a patent-by-patent basis, but also recognizes the importance of micro-level analysis as part of a comprehensive strategy. To understand the big picture that can be painted from an analysis of a set of patent data, it is worth first taking a step back to look at the individual patent. A glance at the anatomy of a patent reveals three key components that can be extracted. Technical information is available from the description, providing details of the invention that can be understood by a person skilled in the art, and from the accompanying drawings. Classification codes assigned by patent office examiners under the various national and international systems such as the Cooperative Patent Classification describe
Competitive Intelligence 75 in detail the technologies covered by the patent and can indicate a competitor s research and development focus or the fields of expertise of their inventors for example. Secondly, business-specific information can be found in bibliographic or reference fields included on the patent document, such as the applicant name and filing data. Looking at geographical status designated states for example can provide insight into foreign markets of interest that sit outside restricted geographies and are therefore in the public domain and open for IP development. The third component is legal information. The legal status indicates what stage that patent has reached in its lifetime and whether it is being maintained, whilst the claims define the scope of protection provided or sought by the patent and will determine any prosecution or litigation strategies. Start with a search Moving from the review of individual patents to the macro-level analysis of large amounts of patent information requires thorough searches to be conducted in one or more patent databases until a clean, relevant data set has been created to use in the analysis. The huge volume of patent data now available electronically and searchable via public patent office websites or in an aggregated commercial database such as PatBase (co-produced by Minesoft and RWS Group) means searches can be exhaustive but challenging. In its report on IP Facts and Figures 2013 (published June 2014), WIPO estimated that 2.35 million patent applications were filed worldwide in 2012, representing the highest rate of growth recorded in 18 years. Espacenet, the searchable patent database from the European Patent Office (EPO) offers access to more than 90 million documents worldwide from the 1800s to today. PatBase currently contains in excess of 35tb of patent data, drawn from over 100 global patent-issuing authorities. Sifting through these mountains of complex data is a laborious, multistep process but one that is necessary to produce a set of patent data from which meaningful results can be drawn when a landscaping and analysis project is carried out. Professional patent databases enable searchers to hone a set of search results using keywords, patent classifications, patent citations and assignees. Integrated machine translation features and cross-lingual information retrieval tools assist searchers in broadening or narrowing the search scope using multilingual synonyms and help them to understand patent applications that may not be published in their native language. Tools for competitive insights Today, in response to growing interest and demand for commercial analysis from clients ranging from university technology transfer offices to multinational corporations,
76 IP Capture patent analysis and landscaping is increasingly presented as a key service offering by IP consulting companies, specialist search firms and IP law practices or patent attorneys. These firms will rely sometimes on proprietary analysis software but more frequently on a combination of free and commercial patent databases that incorporate analysis modules, such as WIPO s PatentScope or Minesoft and RWS Groups in-built PatBase Analytics, or which provide integration with offline third party patent analysis and landscaping products such as BizInt or Intellixir. Using such tools, businesses can be provided with a comprehensive, strategic overview of their own and their competitor s patent portfolios to understand current and future opportunities and threats. Effective use of analytics software can produce an accurate description of key players in the marketplace, provide early warning on competitor strategies and general commercial activities, and identify white space opportunities in a crowded technology field, ie is there a gap between patent clusters that could be effectively exploited? Who benefits from patent analysis? Patent landscape analyses can be used to provide insight to different stakeholder groups across an organization, including patent specialists and non-patent professionals, such as management, research and development and IP legal departments. A bird s-eye view of market trends and key competitors, as well as identification of potential business partners, may be appropriate for management teams. Many patent analysis tools provide users with the ability to create visually appealing reports (think bubble charts and 3D graphs) that communicate the results clearly for decision-makers in a boardroom environment. Research and development departments benefit from an in-depth analysis of technological developments in their field of expertise and identification of opportunities for new product development in low-risk areas, which should avoid wasted R&D time and costs. Often, innovation-driven companies will provide their own researchers and engineers with access to patent search and analysis tools to allow them to explore the landscape themselves. Tools such as PatBase Express co-developed by Minesoft and RWS Group and incorporating the PatBase Analytics module have been designed to encourage end-users to engage with patent information and identify opportunities for invention. The third group for whom patent analysis is of particular value is the IP or legal department who will use the results to identify potential areas of weakness to help form a patent litigation strategy. The inclusion of up-to-date legal status data as part of the analysis a feature just added to PatBase Analytics makes it extremely valuable.
Competitive Intelligence 77 Competitive intelligence from patent monitoring As part of a competitive intelligence and IP management strategy, in addition and as a complement to undertaking macro-level patent analysis projects to understand the current landscape, organizations should be systematically monitoring published patent information. Current awareness alerts based on patent search queries can be run on most patent databases to notify recipients of any new patent activity, eg new patents filed in a certain area based on classification codes, or new applications from an assignee or inventor of interest. Over the last decade or so, larger corporations have begun to invest in tailored patent knowledge management solutions such as Minesoft PatentArchive that allow them to create a workflow combining current awareness alerts with an internal classification system to create a permanent repository of relevant patent information that can be searched and analysed. Separate services are available often offered by patent attorneys and IP consulting firms to automatically track individual patents or specific elements of patent information such as legal status events or citation information. Automating the process saves time and costs, eliminating the need to navigate around different websites to carry out weekly manual checks. Competitor patent portfolios can be monitored on a micro level Minesoft s Legal Status Tracker for example tracks changes published weekly on the EPO s INPADOC legal status file allowing users to keep a close eye on changes to competitor patent applications down to the smallest detail by carefully monitoring country-specific EPO legal status codes (PRS codes). Actionable intelligence, across the board Patent information is a vast, valuable source of competitive intelligence but the volume and complexity of data available can be overwhelming. Patent analysis and landscaping is a means of interpreting patent data revealing trends and patterns and making it communicable to a wider audience of stakeholders who can draw actionable intelligence from it. Using the increasingly sophisticated tools available to retrieve, analyse and monitor patent information, knowledge and insights can be extracted that help shape commercial strategies. Katy Wood is global marketing manager at Minesoft with over seven years experience in the IP industry specializing in patent information. Her roles at Minesoft have included product development, sales and marketing. Further details: www.minesoft.com
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