Experience in using the patent landscape when making business decisions. Patent research: some features of the study of patent purity and patent landscape Phipps patent landscapes
Patent landscapes are very difficult to prepare, unrealistically difficult. Dozens of hours spent searching for information, vast experience in the field of IP, expensive access to numerous data sources and tools, plus good technical and legal training. And the question arises: why is this necessary at all? And then despondency...
After reading these difficulties, you are probably actually depressed. However, these complexities are largely misunderstood and should not primarily influence the decision to create and then analyze the patent landscape.
A patent landscape is a report of the state of patent activity for a particular technology in a given country, region, or world. Typically, a submarine begins with a study of the level of technology, i.e. from searching for information published in available databases around the world about tools for the same purpose as the solution or technology under consideration. The search results are then analyzed to provide answers to a number of questions specific to LPs, for example, who is doing what, who is patenting where, or in identifying trends in innovation, various solutions to a technical problem, searching for joint developments, etc. Main distinctive feature PL is the visualization of results for the purpose of their better understanding, as well as the visualization of conclusions and recommendations based on the conclusions of the search and analysis.
The investor must understand the essence of your technical solution; they need information about it “in the palm of their hand.” What to invest in. By at least, there should be enough information to understand what questions to ask you as experts in order to find ways of development, suggest or help improve the business model. An investor does not always have a higher technical education, and even if he does, it is sometimes quite difficult to understand in detail the essence of a technical solution and evaluate its potential when working with technical documentation. It's long and difficult. A person needs analytics and graphics.
What's interesting is that the reality in IP today is that there is a lot of hype in the press about patents and lawsuits, about patent wars and trolls. They constantly write about fabulous sums, but so far no one has calculated the real costs due to the “error of inaction”, in which startups simply do not have good enough information to quickly make a decision in the IP and identify opportunities. Possessing necessary information It’s easier to ask the right questions in a timely manner, or to guess where the market is heading.
The purpose of the research may be to discuss company policy, strategic research planning, or technology transfer.
What can you understand and do by analyzing the patent landscape?
1. Identify the leading countries in which research is carried out in the area under analysis.
For example, you are developing an exoskeleton in Russia. As a result of the research, you are collecting a lot of useful data on the effectiveness of using exoskeletons in medical purposes for the rehabilitation of people with diseases of the musculoskeletal system and disorders of locomotor functions, you are constantly improving your device. And you want to understand in which countries are developments concentrated? Maybe you should try to publish in journals in these countries or establish cooperation with experts, or maybe find investors. 
The markets of the found countries are perceived by companies as priorities. Inventive activity in these countries reflects the market strategy of companies seeking to monopolize their IP in these countries. The degree of interest of companies in the market of each individual country is proportional to the number of documents published in a given country.
2. Identify companies with key technologies in the area of interest and their relative IP strengths.
Let's say that you are developing biometric technologies that are actively used in areas related to ensuring the security of various objects, with access to information and material objects, as well as in tasks of unique personal identification. Moreover, the main area of activity is cooperative biometric methods (requiring interaction between the identification system and the person, for example, recognition by iris, fingerprint, etc.). 
It must be borne in mind that these diagrams do not reflect all patent sources in this field and a graphical analysis was carried out on a pre-selected pool of patents, which was prepared using a generated set of terms and regular expressions in the specific field of interest.
The pie chart in the figure is divided into sectors different color depending on the applicant/patentee. The size of the sector is determined by the number of patent applications and patents in which named applicants/patent holders are present. This diagram allows us to draw a conclusion about which companies or organizations are interested in and most intensively develop the analyzed technology.
3. Identify the inventors who are most active in the direction.
Let's imagine that you are developing a product that is a web-based alternative to standard application packages for working with documents without the need for installation on a personal computer. Users are given the opportunity to work using a web client, as well as through mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms. And you would like to know the inventors who are working quite productively in this area. Obviously, you won’t be able to find everyone, but you can get some statistics. This information is taken from both patent and non-patent sources. Who knows, maybe you will be among them. 
The diagram in the figure includes horizontal bars of different colors depending on the inventor. The size of the column is determined by the number of patent applications, patents, and publications in which the listed inventors appear.
4. Discover blind areas that are not sufficiently covered by patents, in which there is an opportunity to develop in terms of IP.
Let's imagine again that you are developing software, which is intended for multi-point design and analysis of aircraft, taking into account design parameters and design constraints over a wide range of flight conditions and geometric complexity of aerodynamic configurations, and the aerodynamic design technology based on it.
The map allows you to see how close the patent documents of various patent holders are located to each other and how they are distributed according to the areas of technology development.
The map shows the patent documents of 2 companies occupying first and second place in the list of leading patent holders. It is worth noting that Airbus is developing greatest number directions of technology development.
In fact, I showed only a small part of the possibilities. You can also find the top leading journals, IPC indexes, licensors, etc.
I hope you are inspired and try to prepare the landscape yourself.
This article was prepared using the Thomson Innovation tool, which is a fantastic tool for landscape preparation. But there are quite a lot of tools that offer the same capabilities. True, with analogues everything works quite crookedly or the analytics are not so beautiful and useful.
It must be remembered that the key to creating a patent landscape is the data selection stage. Good analytics come from good data. In this regard, some Information Systems Patent information visualizations are linked to specific patent and patent application databases, automating the collection of necessary data.
Patent landscape is an information and analytical study of patent documentation, showing general view patent situation in a certain technological direction or in relation to the patent activity of subjects innovation sphere taking into account time dynamics and territorial feature: country, region or worldwide.
In order to better understand why a patent landscape is needed, let’s consider a real-life example. The entrepreneur, in the midst of developing his business for the production of massagers, filed applications for inventions in the Russian Federation and Europe. But I didn’t think at all that I would sell my products in other countries. His massager became very popular in the USA. Due to the enormous demand from the entrepreneur, competitors with similar offers began to appear on the market with lightning speed. Thus, due to the entrepreneur’s lack of a patent in the United States, he was quickly squeezed out by competitors, taking away a huge part of the market.
What mistake did the entrepreneur make?
First, if an applicant has difficulty deciding in which countries to file a patent for an invention, then it is not worth filing an application in one or two countries. If the applicant is a citizen Russian Federation, then first he needs to file an application for an invention or utility model in the Russian Federation, and then submit an international application under the PCT procedure, which will provide the opportunity to transfer it to any selected countries from the 152 countries that have concluded the Patent Cooperation Treaty, which helps applicants patent their technical solutions not only in many countries, but also assists patent offices in making patent decisions and facilitates public access to technical information concerning inventions. By filing one international patent application under the PCT procedure, the applicant has not 12 months of conventional priority, but 30-31 months (depending on the country) to make a decision on the countries of interest for further patenting.
Secondly, in order to make the right decision, it is necessary to study and describe the patent situation for a specific technology in a certain country, a certain region or at the global level, i.e. perform a “patent landscape”.
The patent landscape begins with searching for prior art patent information regarding the technology of interest to the researcher, based on suitable patent databases. In the next stage, the research results are analyzed to address specific questions, for example, to identify information about “who is doing what?” what is registered and where?” or in the field of development (innovative trends, a range of solutions for some technical problem, co-authorship). An essential component of any patent landscape report is a visualization of the findings to facilitate understanding, as well as specific conclusions or recommendations based on the material obtained from the patent information search and analysis.
Thus, the creation of a patent landscape and patent research will allow entrepreneurs to navigate correctly in their developments and innovative technical solutions. That is, to understand where the market activity is greatest, where it is monopolized, and where there is a general lack of patents, which in the future will help them make the right choice.
Visualization of the patent landscape provides a clear solution to issues such as:
1. Which companies own patents in the company's area of interest?
2. Which of them has the largest number of patents?
3. Are the identified companies active? In what direction is this activity developing?
4. Are there cooperative relationships between the established companies?
5. What technology areas are not covered by competitors?
6. What adjustments need to be made to your own business development strategy?
7. Are there new players entering the market and what is their market potential?
Information obtained through the patent landscape can be used to make strategic decisions:
1. Which new markets is it advisable for a company to enter, and which new markets should it be avoided?
- Where is it advisable to invest limited resources in work aimed at obtaining new knowledge and practical use when creating a new product or technology?
- Which companies can help protect and improve the company's patent portfolio and business as a whole?
- Which companies are not worth acquiring from the point of view of improving the patent portfolio?
- Which researchers or research groups might be interested in collaborating?
Given the above, the patent landscape is an essential tool for minimizing risks and identifying opportunities. further development business. It allows you to avoid legal proceedings, prevent competitors from invading the company’s sales markets and intensify the use of their own intangible assets, prevent research costs in an unpromising competitive environment; seek partners who can strengthen the position of this company in the field of use intellectual property.
Patent landscaping can be done either independently or with the involvement of appropriately qualified patent companies. However, it is quite difficult to do this on your own, since the patent landscape cannot be fully automated, although there are currently many software developments in this area, for example, Thomson Innovation. The patent landscape necessarily requires the participation of an expert, since at the stage of data selection there are always difficulties with the languages of patents and terminology used, in addition, information systems do not allow patent searches in all known databases.
Reporting on patent landscapes for specialized areas in the innovation process is becoming an integral part of everything life cycle innovation. With this approach, intellectual property is no longer considered only as a means of protection against competitive claims, but also as a source of obtaining new knowledge for developing marketing strategies for a developing business.
Patent research is a modern analysis tool that is used to solve a number of technical, legal and market problems related to the development or promotion of products that contain scientific and technical achievements. They make it possible to determine the level of competitiveness of these products.
Types of patent research
Based on the type of factors on which this ability depends, the main types of patent research are distinguished:
1. Conducting source analysis and patent frequency determination followed by submission of the patent form.
This type is carried out in the case of research of all objects in order to prevent violation of the rights of patent holders in the requested countries in cases of subsequent sale of the studied object. According to the approved GOST R15.011-96, the patent form of the patent frequency is not mandatory requirement, except for the cases described above.
2. The second type of research, on analysis of development trends.
This work is related to the study of developments and patents in the requested area, in which developments are being carried out with an analysis of development trends in each country.
3. There is another type of patent research, which is new for our country - this research with the presentation of a map of the patent landscape (Patent landscaping).
This the new kind report, which was created for a clearer visual perception of the results of the found documents. New form in our country, as a rule, it is requested for the purpose of submitting materials to the Skolkovo Innovation Center for subsequent possible promotion and financing of new developments
Stages of patent research
Each product has the main stages of its creation, which are directly related to patent research:
1. Search for new ideas that will serve as the basis for development. Search sources can be both external and internal, which are based on the scientific and technical potential of the organization that is directly involved in the development. These could be suggestions from employees or inventors. External sources may be technical publications, contract research from the organization itself, or people who act as consultants.
2. Selection of the most progressive ideas. According to statistics, the creation of one product that is in demand and brings real profit involves 50-60 ideas proposed at the beginning of development. And the implementation of any idea is associated with great risk, choosing the most effective one is an important and difficult matter, and patent research of the world patent fund can significantly optimize this process.
3. Development of the basic concept of a new product. At this stage, the scientific validity of the concept is determined and evidence of its significance is provided. For this purpose, models are used that provide verification basic principles new product. As a result, the technical level and potential for implementing the concept are assessed; patent research at this stage must be completed.
4. Concept testing. The last test before the start of development, patent data is being adjusted. It differs from previous tests by the presence of technical confirmation in the form of drawings and tables, which must be presented at a seminar or conference where potential consumers of the product will be present.
5. Development. At this stage, the functional elements of the product are improved, including design, materials used, technological process. And a patent examination is also carried out to ensure the purity of all solutions.
6. Determining the possibility of using the product. This refers to market testing through the use of trial samples.
7. Production. It is extremely important here legal protection And additional examinations on purity of design and technology.
8. Product maintenance. Continuous technical improvements to maintain product value for consumers include market and competitor analysis.
Conducting patent research is present at all stages of product development to varying degrees, and ensuring competitiveness is an integral part of the successful implementation of the product on the market.
IN Lately A new offer has appeared on the patent services market - the patent landscape. There are many proposals for researching the patent landscape, analyzing the patent landscape, presenting results using the patent landscape.
Purpose
There are two main possibilities or purposes for using the patent landscape:
1. Visualization of patent search/research data as an application.
2. Conducting full-scale research with data presentation in 2D or 3D graphics formats.
Definition
You can find various definitions of the concept “patent landscape”:
Patent research, in which data is presented in a visual form,
A report that, in a clear visual form, makes it possible to evaluate Current state technology development based on data obtained from patent information;
Information and analytical study of patent documentation, showing in general the patent situation in a certain technological direction or in
regarding the patent activity of subjects of innovation, taking into account
temporal dynamics and territorial characteristics: country, region or on a global scale (FIPS definition).
Feasibility of use
Thus, the difference between patent landscape reports and regular patent research reports lies in the visual and sometimes audio-visual presentation of patent research data. Hence their use is advisable in the following cases:
1. Investment projects
2. Presentation of information to management
3. Marketing reports
Benefits of patent landscape reports:
1. Visual presentation of information.
2. Convenience of qualitative comparison of information.
3. Possibility of obtaining operational information
4. Possibility of presenting a large amount of data in a general form.
5. Possibility of presenting data to a wide range of non-specialists.
Construction order
A patent landscape report is, in any case, a synthesis of a patent research report and a visualization of that data. At the same time, the quality of visual information of the patent landscape will primarily depend on the quality of research data and their analysis and, secondarily, on the form of their visual presentation. Thus, the main stages of construction are as follows:
1. Formulation of the problem and drawing up technical specifications.
2. Search and selection of patent information data.
3. Analysis of the obtained data.
4. Visualization of the obtained statistical and analytical data.
It should be noted here that there are currently many search engines that perform a given visualization directly during the search and analysis process, for example: Thomson Innovation, Questel, LexisNexis PatentStrategies, Patbase, PatStat. Among Russian search engines we can recommend(IPS) “MIMOSA” on DVDs.
Proposals for Patent Landscape Reporting
Among the authors of patent landscape reports, FIPS is the most famous. However, his reports are rather formal in nature, because... often performed by specialists who do not have the appropriate technical qualifications. At the same time, the design quality is quite high. The structure of FIPS landscape reports is based on recommendations on conducting patent research.
Cost of preparing reports
It was mentioned earlier that the patent landscape report includes patent search, analysis and data visualization. All these services are not cheap, even if this is the result of the program. On the market, offers start from 80,000-100,000 rubles. But you need to think carefully about what you will get as a result!
Examples of patent landscapes
An example of data presentation in patent landscapes is the presentation of data on the development of intelligent transportation management systems (
On June 20, 2013, the Patent Practice team of the Skolkovo Intellectual Property Center held a seminar for the company OJSC Rusnano on the topic “Patent research - a modern approach. Getting to know the patent landscape." The seminar covered such issues as the secrets of building a patent landscape, its practical application, as well as its use as a business tool.
Abroad, to describe patent landscape services, the concepts of patent mapping and the concept of patent landscaping are used, which relate to business terminology and are not formally defined legal concepts.
Patentmapping is defined by the European Patent Office as essentially a visualization of the results of statistical and text mining of patent documents. Patent mapping allows you to create extremely easy-to-understand visual representations of information obtained from and about patent documents. It is an excellent tool for processing and evaluating large volumes of patent information. Using bibliographic data, it is possible to identify in which technical areas certain applicants are active, as well as how their intellectual property portfolio and patenting patterns (diagrams, graphical models, etc.) change over time. It is also possible to identify which countries are leading in which subject areas.
Patentlandscaping is understood by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as a way of studying and describing the patent situation for a particular technology in a particular country, a particular region or at the global level. Building a patent landscape usually begins with a search to establish the prior art of the technology of interest to the researcher in suitable patent databases. At the next stage, the search results are analyzed to resolve specific questions, for example, to identify certain patterns of patenting activity (Who is doing what? What is filed and where?) or certain patterns of innovation (innovation trends, range of solutions for some technical problem, co-authorship or co-development). An integral part of any patent landscape report is the visualization of its results to facilitate understanding, as well as certain conclusions or recommendations based on the empirical material obtained through the search and analysis.
In the practice of the Skolkovo Intellectual Property Center, the patent landscape is understood in a similar way. Its final volume, depth and detail are formed taking into account the tasks set for patent information research. However, it is assumed that the patent landscape, at a minimum, complements all the results and clarifies all the conclusions of marketing research, justifies the choice of countries for patenting, licensing, production and distribution of goods and/or services (results of a research project), the choice of potential partners and competitors in identified markets, confirms (does not refute) the relevance of the selected subject area of research, identifies new or additional features to develop the project and use its results.