Competitive and Technical Intelligence ToolBox

Patents.com has added new feature in their website dedicated for the patent search and that is “Patent Clusters”. When you search for patents relating to a particular technology area, it automatically creates various clusters of the patents.

A lot of clustering tools are available in the WWW web. Patents are long being realized as an important source of the technical and competitive information. As the number of patent filing is increased in the recent few years, there are a big list of patents if one search for a particular technology of interest, which need to be analyzed further to get the key patents of interest, but it’s really a time consuming and need expertise due to the techno-legal language of the patent document. Patent clustering tools are currently in development by many vendor and software companies to aid the patent analyst in his daily analysis and review of huge set of patent documents. PatentCluster .com provides patent cluster tools, where documents get automatically clustered into various clusters based on the technology elements and patent focus.

IBM researchers, including a team from IBM India Research Labs (IBM IRL), have developed a tool — Patent Quality Index — to address the issue of low-quality patents. Using the company’s advanced statistical and data analytics expertise, IBM has created a tool to assist patent applicants, examiners and the public to objectively assess the quality of patent applications and issued patents. Guruduth Banavar, director of IBM India Research Laboratory, told FC that a quantitative or mathematical way of evaluating patent applications was needed. “This tool can compare the user’s report with all existing applications and give an analysis of its quality,” he said. Currently, the undertaking is at a prototype stage and being tried in multiple studies. In recent years, low-quality patents — those with uncertain scope or dubious claims to scientific progress or technological innovation — has increased substantially, together with historic backlogs, creating uncertainty around intellectual propert...

All pending patent and trademark cases, on which final hearing has been held, are set to be disposed of by the end of March this year, as the patent office has set the month as a deadline for the clearance of such cases. In a move to expedite the patent and trademarks granting process, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDT) has fixed March 31 as the last date to liquidate backlog of pending cases. “From April 1, 2009, there shall not be any cases pending for orders for more than three months on post grant cases and month in cases of pre-grant cases after the final hearing,'' Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks Mr P H Kurian has sa id in a circular to all concerned authorities. Source

Patents are one of the most valuable competitive and technological information sources available today and most important is that, this information source is freely and easy accessible through various patent databases. Patent bibliographic information provides lots of insights pertaining to the competitor's activity, market strategies, R&D focus and business strategies. The full text of the patent documents discloses the technological improvements, innovations and various ways of solving technical problems. Various text and data mining technologies are developed and many more are in the development stage by vendors to generate valuable insights from the patent information in visual format for easy understanding and interpretation. Broadly speaking there are two types of technology being currently in use to map the information derived from patents, such as: - Patent Bibliographic Information Mapping (PBIM) Technology - Patent Technical Information Disclosure Mapping (PTID) Techn...

Scottish mobile technology firm Picsel is suing Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL ) over claims the iPhone and iPod touch use a key element of Picsel's patented "rapid redraw" mobile screen navigation technology. The suit (via the Reg), filed at the US District Court for Delaware, claims that the devices use the rendering technology which prevents long delays while zooming and panning through web pages and documents. The suit alleges Apple is making, selling and distributing phones that infringe on US patent 7,009,626 (also via the Reg) and in the suit Picsel claim to have invested "millions of dollars" in the contested technology. Picsel claims its mobile systems have been implemented?legally?into more than 250 million devices worldwide . Source

“ Super Accelerated Examination System ”, a pilot programme of Japanese Patent Office was launched on 1st October, 2008 to process the patent applications at a faster pace than what is already done under the conventional accelerated examination system. The first ever patent granted under this super accelerated examination system was filed by Keio University. The request for examination for this application was made on 1st October, 2008 and the patent was granted in 17 days from the said request for examination. 　The patent was granted for an application filed by Keio University. (Application number 2007-054284, Publication number 2008-216061, Title of the invention: Electrochemical Analysis Method Using Boron Doped Electroconductive Diamond Electrode). Source * Under the conventional accelerated examination, the average pendency to first office action is 2.2 months.

patentMarvel.com is the place for intellectual property tools designed to make life easier. The patentMarvel is constantly creating new i.p. tools and will make them available to you as soon as they are fully tested. The patentMarvel's PDFinducer tool allows you to easily view and download US patents and published patent applications as PDF's. Simply input the US patent number or US publication number and let patentMarvel do the rest. If you would like to create multiple PDF's at one time just separate the numbers with semicolons.

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Over the last twenty years, the global economy has slowly transformed into a vibrant knowledge economy. With reduced barriers to entry and pervasive globalization, a small company in a developing world can compete for its share on the world stage. The invention of new ideas and products remains an integral part of the global economy and the commercial food chain. Patents are an invaluable tool to protect and commercialize the inventions. They are essential to creating the barriers to entry for rivals. They are needed for building the credibility and the confidence of investors, customers, partners, and employees. They are required for providing clarity as to the property ownership, for demanding leverage from the industry, and for generating sustainable revenue from licensing and sale. In the global marketplace, amongst all the other competitive factors, innovation matters the most and patents can help deliver the competitive edge required to remain viable. Inventors who used to see pa...

In an article by Dr. Kowalski, has described about the essence of FTO. According to him, panning for the development, production and launch of a new product is as much a matter of forecasting future market developments as it is of minimizing risks. A major risk for any company, particularly companies in technology sectors in which there is extensive patenting, is that the commercialization of a new product or technology may be blocked by a competitor holding a patent over a technology that is incorporated in the new product. In extreme scenarios, there may be "essential patents" that are indispensable for developing certain types of products or for meeting certain technical standards. In such cases, without prior authorization of the patent owners, the risks of being accused of infringement are extremely high. This is why many companies, prior to launching a new product, and often even prior to initiating a new line of research that may lead to the development of a new produc...

A patent family tree is a series of charts showing the relationships between the different branches of patents that have been filed in a given field of technology, going back to the roots of the field, and forward to all the branches of possible future development. These charts include information about strategies for planning products and controlling intellectual property; the key research personnel and companies; their competitors; and areas of related research. The advantages of drawing up a patent family tree are many. A company that undertakes to conduct this type of study of technology will find that it provides a clear picture to assist the decision-makers in their product planning, prototype planning, the targetting of the most promising areas of R & D and identifying markets. A patent family tree reduces the problem of "reinventing the wheel" and helps avoid patent infringements. It correlates patent information with the company's strategy, strengths, product...

As of 1 July 2008, patents first filed in Italy will undergo prior art searches and substantive examination . The Italian Ministry of Economic Development recently issued a Decree confirming their agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) regarding the change of process. Previously national patents filed in Italy did not undergo substantive examination and were presume valid. Assessments of patentability was deferred to nullity lawsuits or determined extra-judicially between the parties. A copy of the Decree can be found on the website of Italian Patent and Trademark Office (IPTO) ( in Italian )

IPVision, Inc. enables you to build and extract maximum value from your innovations and patents. Our systems, services and tools solutions: •Analyze patent portfolios, technologies and innovations •Provide new competitive intelligence insights •Enable companies to align intellectual property management with strategic objectives •Achieved strategic control of their patents and R&D investment •Decreased time and energy required to market their portfolios Multiplied the financial return of their intellectual property IPVision patent search and analytical tool at See-the-Forest.com provides excellent visualization.

Here is a link, must for Patent Professionals. http://www.won-nl.org/2008/includes/patinf.html

Innography® , the intellectual property business intelligence company, announced (27th Jan 2009) a co-marketing partnership with Perception Partners , experts in helping clients understand, quantify and maximize value from innovation and intellectual property. The partnership will facilitate sharing of best practices between IP business intelligence providers and users, as well as jointly market the two firms to provide end-to-end solutions that benefit business stakeholders. About Perception Partners Perception Partners systematically analyzes the world`s available science, business and legal facts to provide actionable solutions that maximize the value derived from innovation and intellectual property. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA Perception Partners enables its clients to increase revenues and reduce costs by uniquely integrating cutting-edge IP and business intelligence tools, algorithmic analytics techniques, and extensive technical, business and legal expert teams. To learn mor...

Apple has filed for more then 200 patents to protect the inventions they’ve put into this new gadget. This applies to Multi touch display, the idea to use full screen of the device for User Interface, scrolling, zooming and other finger gestures, soft on screen controls, multi-functionality, proximity, ambient light sensors and many other functions. A detailed analysis of the apple multi-touch patents are provided. Click to read more

Neuralstem has received a patent for its core technology that will allow it to grow nearly unlimited amounts of stem cells from all portions of the brain using a regulated and consistent process. This comes as the company prepares to study this year the safety and effectiveness of administering fetal stem cells into the spinal cords of people with Lou Gehrig's disease. American City Business Journals (01/26)

After mega-merger between Pfizer and Wyeth shareholders will be clamouring for news on AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline's own plans, and this is likely to overshadow both results and pipeline news at their upcoming results conferences. With many of the large pharmaceutical companies facing patent expiries, generic competition, and a dearth of new product launches and falling demand from the advanced economies, they are expected to look to biotech companies for innovation and novel technologies. Goldman Sachs analyst Dani Saurymper said the the value of healthcare related M&A transactions exceeded $100 billion in 2008 . With the so-called “patent cliff” of 2011/12 fast approaching and a lack of new product introductions he expects M&A activity to rise, not least given that EU pharmaceutical groups are sitting on cash balances of $51billion . Full article

Patents are a very useful source of technical information. The public availability of patents over the Internet, with for some databases (eg. Espacenet) the assurance of a constant format, allows the development of high value added products using this information source and provides an easy way to analyze patent information. This simple and powerful tool facilitates the use of patents in academic research, in SMEs and in developing countries providing a way to use patents as a ideas resource thus improving technological innovation.