Competitive Intelligence = Patent Analysis + Patent Mapping
Traditionally, patent information searches are done, as a part of the drafting a patent drafting, before patent filing or during patent litigation. During the recent few years, there have been lots of activity and interest had been evolved in the area of patents. Patents are now being considered as one of the major source of technological and competitive information. Computer and internet technologies made it very easy to access these big informational sources. In our highly competitive business environment Patent awareness is a critical skill for business managers, engineers, researchers, inventors, consultants, or anyone involved in Patent issues. Patents are an important source of technological intelligence that companies can use to gain strategic advantage.
Presently, economists, social science researchers, policymakers, businessmen and professionals have begun to make increasing meso-level and macro-level use of patent information. This is being done to analyze, for example, patenting activities of a country’ technical patterns of internationalization; patenting activities in a sector, technology or company to ascertain or forecast the direction of technical change, or ascertain the relative technological position of a company in a marketplace; etc. Thus, the use of patent information has expanded to many different tactical and strategic business, research, and policy making activities at national, institutional or enterprise levels. Patent analysis can have significant value for a company in understanding and predicting the development of the competitive technology landscape in its industry.
In sum, while competitive patent analysis may allow a corporation to monitor technological advances, evaluate developing trends, and assess competitors, serious legal risks may be created that must be managed.
Patent documents contain important research results. However, they are lengthy and rich in technical terminology such that it takes a lot of human efforts for analyses. Even, the techno-legal nature of the patents made it tough to read and understand the actual invention concepts. There comes the role of expert patent professionals.
Thus there is always a great demand for automatic analysis tools/techniques for assisting patent engineers or decision makers in patent. Today, there are lots of electronic databases, analytical software products and private service providers with their own proprietary value-added patent or technology databases are available for assisting in the analysis of patent information, but they all have some pro and cons. It is true that automated software tools cannot substitutes the human intelligence. But, effective use of these tools with human intelligence will certainly reduce the time consumption and even could reduce the common human errors. There are two primary ways of analyzing patent information: qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative method shows more closely the content of the individual patent documents. The quantitative method results in statistical processing. These two methods have quite different objectives and different ranges of applications. Typical qualitative patent analysis involved reading the patent whole patent document and segment the key technical information into various clusters based on the taxonomy. Most of the companies are using Microsoft excel or word document for representation of the analyzed patents. This is a good tool for primary level of analysis, but they have their own pro and cons. Dolcera Infomaxx Pvt. Ltd., at Hyderabad, a US based KPO and RPO firm has provided Online dashboard and IP Maps for better representation of analyzed patent data.
Reading the lengthy patent document is a pain, especially during preparation of landscape or infringement report, a patent analyst has to read 1000+ records. It’s a very time consuming process. Mine being working with few KPO firms in India for last 3 year have done extensive research to find the ways to accelerate the patent analysis process by using better tools and in-house developed methodologies. I have developed methods for better and error free patent analysis system, through efficient use and co-ordination of various sensory organs with the human anatomy and low cost computerized tools. These methods had increased the efficiency and accuracy of upto 3-4 times.
Once the patent analysis is done, then the most crucial and important part of patent intelligence is patent mapping. Patent analysis can be displayed by visual representation using bar graphs, polygonal line graphs, pie charts, radar charts and other charts/graphs, which are called ‘Patent Maps’. Visualization is an especially effective way of representing the results of this type of analysis. Patent mapping, is a technique that uses patent informations to create a graphical or physical representation of the relevant art pertaining to a particular technology area, which can be used to illustrate a competitor’s relative patent strength therein. Intelligence such as this may allow a corporation to plan research efforts strategically, evaluate the strength of its patent portfolio relative to its competitors, and identify potential licensing opportunities.
Most of the companies prepare these patent maps using Microsoft excel graph and power point. These maps are static and are prepared by the service providers, thus are not clients/user friendly. Dolcera, had developed their own dynamic online dashboards for representation of patent analysis results. These dashboards are user friendly, and user can change the various parameters according to their needs.
Patent contains lots of information and it’s the individual perspective, how they can effectively use this giant information source for various technological and competitive insights. A continuous research is indeed essential to derive methods, techniques and tools to efficient patent analysis and mapping.
Presently, economists, social science researchers, policymakers, businessmen and professionals have begun to make increasing meso-level and macro-level use of patent information. This is being done to analyze, for example, patenting activities of a country’ technical patterns of internationalization; patenting activities in a sector, technology or company to ascertain or forecast the direction of technical change, or ascertain the relative technological position of a company in a marketplace; etc. Thus, the use of patent information has expanded to many different tactical and strategic business, research, and policy making activities at national, institutional or enterprise levels. Patent analysis can have significant value for a company in understanding and predicting the development of the competitive technology landscape in its industry.
In sum, while competitive patent analysis may allow a corporation to monitor technological advances, evaluate developing trends, and assess competitors, serious legal risks may be created that must be managed.
Patent documents contain important research results. However, they are lengthy and rich in technical terminology such that it takes a lot of human efforts for analyses. Even, the techno-legal nature of the patents made it tough to read and understand the actual invention concepts. There comes the role of expert patent professionals.
Thus there is always a great demand for automatic analysis tools/techniques for assisting patent engineers or decision makers in patent. Today, there are lots of electronic databases, analytical software products and private service providers with their own proprietary value-added patent or technology databases are available for assisting in the analysis of patent information, but they all have some pro and cons. It is true that automated software tools cannot substitutes the human intelligence. But, effective use of these tools with human intelligence will certainly reduce the time consumption and even could reduce the common human errors. There are two primary ways of analyzing patent information: qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative method shows more closely the content of the individual patent documents. The quantitative method results in statistical processing. These two methods have quite different objectives and different ranges of applications. Typical qualitative patent analysis involved reading the patent whole patent document and segment the key technical information into various clusters based on the taxonomy. Most of the companies are using Microsoft excel or word document for representation of the analyzed patents. This is a good tool for primary level of analysis, but they have their own pro and cons. Dolcera Infomaxx Pvt. Ltd., at Hyderabad, a US based KPO and RPO firm has provided Online dashboard and IP Maps for better representation of analyzed patent data.
Reading the lengthy patent document is a pain, especially during preparation of landscape or infringement report, a patent analyst has to read 1000+ records. It’s a very time consuming process. Mine being working with few KPO firms in India for last 3 year have done extensive research to find the ways to accelerate the patent analysis process by using better tools and in-house developed methodologies. I have developed methods for better and error free patent analysis system, through efficient use and co-ordination of various sensory organs with the human anatomy and low cost computerized tools. These methods had increased the efficiency and accuracy of upto 3-4 times.
Once the patent analysis is done, then the most crucial and important part of patent intelligence is patent mapping. Patent analysis can be displayed by visual representation using bar graphs, polygonal line graphs, pie charts, radar charts and other charts/graphs, which are called ‘Patent Maps’. Visualization is an especially effective way of representing the results of this type of analysis. Patent mapping, is a technique that uses patent informations to create a graphical or physical representation of the relevant art pertaining to a particular technology area, which can be used to illustrate a competitor’s relative patent strength therein. Intelligence such as this may allow a corporation to plan research efforts strategically, evaluate the strength of its patent portfolio relative to its competitors, and identify potential licensing opportunities.
Most of the companies prepare these patent maps using Microsoft excel graph and power point. These maps are static and are prepared by the service providers, thus are not clients/user friendly. Dolcera, had developed their own dynamic online dashboards for representation of patent analysis results. These dashboards are user friendly, and user can change the various parameters according to their needs.
Patent contains lots of information and it’s the individual perspective, how they can effectively use this giant information source for various technological and competitive insights. A continuous research is indeed essential to derive methods, techniques and tools to efficient patent analysis and mapping.
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