Feature


g incorporate a selection of keywords, key assignees and inventors, full text searches, IPC codes, etc. Once your results come back, take a


quick review. Determine the percentage of your answer set that reveals relevant answers and judge whether it’s enough for a reliable patent landscape analysis. Typically, if it’s 80 per cent or more, your search strategy is sound. Ensure that the most important patents in the specified area are included in your results. You can check this by sorting your answer by ‘most cited’ to reveal which are the most cited publications in the area you’re landscaping and therefore the most significant. Assuming your initial set meets your criteria, you can use the results of this set to optimise your search strategy. If not, you’ll need to adjust your search accordingly.


Optimise your search strategy Improving your initial search requires the addition of relevant keywords, classification codes, active assignees and inventors. Discover more keywords by reviewing classification code definitions and checking the title and abstract of key patents. Utilise relevant classification codes from the basic keyword answer set to focus your landscape. Furthermore, you’ll need to exclude any


potential sources of irrelevant results, enabling a more comprehensive and clean final landscape search. Be sure to take advantage of features in


your patent database, such as analytics, advanced keyword highlighting and text- mining to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your evaluation of patents within your landscape search. Utilise any tools within your patent database to clean up your landscape, including grouping assignees together and de-duplicating the answer set to focus on patent families, within which all publications describe the same invention. Now that you’re satisfied with your set of


results, you can visualise your landscape and address the goal/questions that you started with.


Visualise and review Visualise your landscape search by generating statistical graphs. By viewing the data from many angles (jurisdiction, year, assignee, inventor, etc.) and at multiple levels (families, priorities, applications, grants, etc.) you can reveal answers to key questions and easily draw some conclusions; ensuring you stay


focused on your end goal: l Is this a growing area of interest? This can be easily identified by simply


20 Research Information February/March 2017


“Ensure that the most important patents in the specified area are included in your results”


checking the breakdown of the number of patent publications, patent families or granted documents over time;


l What are the current fields of interest? Which are the top IPC and CPC classification codes? This will signify the areas in which most patents are filed. Alternatively, review the most frequently occurring keyword concepts to discover which key fields are being actively pursued;


l Who are the key players? Analysing the landscape for the most often occurring patent assignees can identify the key players and potential collaboration or acquisition opportunities;


l Where are the key players filing their inventions? Find out in which jurisdictions the top players are filing their inventions in order to unearth the key markets where patent protection in being sought;


l Who are the key opinion leaders in this


field? By determining who is the most occurring inventor in your field, you can identify your next employee or partner in developing a technology; and


l What is the legal status of the families in this area? Reviewing the landscape by legal status identifies if this area is being actively pursued, where most of the patents are in force or being actively prosecuted. If the area is of lesser interest, most patents will have expired or been withdrawn.


Conclusion Regular patent landscaping is crucial for survival in any innovation-driven industry to identify white space, monitor competitor activity and identify acquisition, licensing or collaboration opportunities. Having access to a comprehensive database of global patent data, like PatBase, is a key first step but ensuring a focussed and inclusive search strategy is vital. The six simple steps outlined in this article can help any user identify a complete patent landscape and draw the appropriate conclusions. Selecting a high-quality, comprehensive patent database allows you to execute a thorough landscape search more efficiently and accurately.


Rob Poolman is a senior manager, innovation and consulting, at Minesoft


@researchinfo | www.researchinformation.info


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