It is seen that about 80% of published technology and science information contained in patents is not published anywhere else. They are millions of published patents and application references available for review by the public. This humongous trove of information can be made useful by identifying critical and relevant references in a given technology and then by analyzing those references in a manner that provides information that can amount to actionable decision making.
What is the patent landscape analysis?
Patent landscape analysis which is often referred to as “patent mapping” is a multi-process, using computer software and human intelligence, to sort through, organize and extract vast amounts of actionable information. A completed patent landscape analysis project derives insights on filing/publication trends(Time-wise & Technology-wise), top assignees/key players within the technology and their technology-wise trends, top inventors working in a particular area, different inventions evolving over the years in a particular field, technology spread across different countries, and different categories into which the technology can be divided into (taxonomy) and their number and kind of patents filed in those categories. It would also cover the geographical distribution of patents filed specific to a domain or specific to a player, key/unique patents filed in a particular domain or by a particular player, R&D areas a company can focus-on for future production.
What would be the result of the patent landscape analysis?
The study would conclude results in the following categories:
- Patenting activities
- Major Companies or Universities
- Key Patents
- New Players
- IP Collaboration Networks
- Exploited Fields
- Uncrowded Areas
- In-License Opportunities
- Out-Licensing Opportunities
Types of patent landscape analysis
Essentially patent landscape studies are of two types, domain focused and player-focused or a combination of thereof.
Domain Focused
If the initial findings were conducted based on a patent search focus on a technical domain. The landscape analysis search helps to better understand a particular domain by using patent literature and derive insights based on a patent taxonomy extracted. This type of report can be used by R&D and product development teams.
A comprehensive study would be carried out on a domain focused landscape where the recent technologies are studied in-depth over the years and analyzed for further research.
Furthermore, this type of study also helps in identifying whitespaces. This is done by further analyzing the domain focused landscape for technical areas with low or no patent filing that are then identified as white spaces in the technology for further research.
Player Focused
If the initial set of patents was searched based on one or more players, this type of study is called player focused where the criteria in filtering the search would be focused on patent filers such as colleges, research units, companies, and government-funded organizations.
The studies focus on the type of patent filings done by particular players. It also closely monitors their research and business interests by analyzing their patent portfolio.
The combination of the two, player and domain focused studies results in a Competitive Intelligence Report (CTR), where a company is continuously monitoring the patent activities of one or more of its competitors. This would help a business to keep their teams well informed of the competitor’s activities and well-directed towards understanding the current market and its future trend.
This type of study also helps in carrying out M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), where a company’s patent portfolio used to calculate its value in terms of intangible assets and its worth.
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