Patent data can be useful throughout a technology's innovation lifecycle. This article focuses on how parties can use patent data at the development stage.(1)

Product development

Patent data can yield a comprehensive overview of a party's competitors, which enables it to position its activity and development plans strategically. Specifically, parties can use patent data reports to:

  • list their competitors geographically;
  • compare and analyse their competitors' patenting activity; and
  • highlight the technological fields in which their competitors specialise.

Therefore, parties can identify areas that have a relatively low competitive presence, both in terms of geography and technological field, which can indicate product development opportunities.

To achieve practical results, studies should be focused on a specific business area or product line. Importantly, parties must select a well-defined objective – for example:

  • exploring opportunities in a new product area or market;
  • identifying new development opportunities for existing products; or
  • seeking freedom-to-operate information about a particular product.

Patent portfolio management

It is important that parties build a patent portfolio to:

  • protect their technical innovations;
  • enable commercial development; and
  • create value for their company.

It is equally important that parties manage their patent portfolio to ensure that patents are filed, prosecuted and maintained in the most relevant countries and that the associated costs are monitored and controlled. Patent data reports can help parties to select the countries in which to file a patent application and decide whether a granted patent should be regularly maintained in a particular location by revealing:

  • their competitors' overall patent filing activity;
  • the markets in which their competitors file and maintain their patents; and
  • the technologies in which their competitors specialise.

Knowledge of where competitors file and maintain patents enables parties to identify future competitive moves, which facilitates their own filing and maintenance decisions.

To manage a patent portfolio using patent data, parties should:

  • list their competitors by their patent filing volume;
  • map their competitors' filing data geographically to:
    • establish the areas in which most research and development takes place; and
    • select markets for protection;
  • compile filing distribution charts using data from recent years to detect any significant technology or market trends;
  • identify and compare patented technology segments to establish the segments in which most innovation is happening and which technologies are most protected;
  • include their own patent filing data in all of the above studies and compare it with their competitors; and
  • compile a personalised report which includes recommendations that specifically address the objectives set at the start of the exercise.

Endnotes

(1) This article is part of a series on patent data. For the first article in the series, please see "Role of patent data in innovation lifecycle: ideation stage".