With so many opportunities for R&D and patenting, how do research teams and IP managers determine viable opportunities today? Now, patent landscaping is the way out. “Landscaping” basically denotes when all the visible features of land can be seen on the surface. And when the term “Patent Landscaping” is considered, it is a process that creates an overview of the patents and determines or keeps data as to which patents are pending or in process in a particular field. Through this, teams can focus their R&D efforts and analyze industry trends that can help steer their internal efforts. We can say that patent landscaping is a process of mapping out which patent already exists, which is pending, which is in process, and which patent is already in place in one particular area. Patent Landscape analysis can be reported in many formats, for example, in the research reports published by WIPO (world intellectual property organization), in 3D maps format, or through integrating various studies altogether to form a proper analysis that is then reported.

How Patent Landscaping Helps?

 

• • A company can use patent landscaping to support its development in the IP Strategy, i.e., it helps in determining the freedom to operate, developing patentability analysis, etc. It is also used to understand the competition in the R&D fields; it helps the company to identify what are emerging technologies and the trends in the technology within a particular industry. Learning about how patents are filed can provide insight into the level of funding your competitors have given to the new technology. If a private inventor already files the innovation with little legal representation, one can infer that it is a low-value patent. And if it is a PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) filing, one can deduce that the innovation has excellent value to those competitors.

• • As patents are the first and foremost conclusive indicator that your competitors are developing something innovative. Patent landscaping helps in learning about when your competitor is developing a new product; by monitoring this, you can stay on top and mitigate the risk of infringement.

• • Patent Landscaping supports a company’s improved targeting of innovation and their industrial policies, which in turn evaluate their impact over the upcoming years and also on the industry’s growth. Due to the report analysis done through patent landscaping, the company can identify networks of inventors in the market and the knowledge flow concerning the new upcoming inventions within industries and between the countries.

 

• • Patent landscaping helps in assessing your competitor’s use of human capital. It also unravels your competitor’s strategic partnerships through their filing registries, enabling you to compare their partnerships to yours to check if they’re competitive enough. By this, it will be easier to decide if you should seek new or additional alliances.

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• • Competitors’ research & development efforts can be analyzed by analyzing the frequency & proximity of the patents around a particular area providing insight into competitors’ efforts and focus in that arena by patent mapping. This insight is pivotal to identifying if their actions infringe on your technology or if there is a new line of business your business may like to explore.

• • Patent landscaping is generally done for a particular reason. It is done to comprehend what new product should a business should develop in a specific area, or what business strategies or plans a company should an evolving company should build or in, identify a company’s competitors, or determine the area in which a company is not able to bring out a lot of patents or to analyze the areas of future growth of the company and how they can minimize the upcoming risk.

• • Patent landscape analysis assists in coming up with informed decisions, which ultimately increases a company’s confidence. As per the data collected for making a patent landscape analysis, the company can come up with decisions according to the evidence and the informed choices it has, and then it can identify the areas where the future growth of the company can take place. The most significant advantage which patent landscape gives to a company is that it provides it with deep insight into the technology, the products they are developing or have already developed and released in the market, and also about its competition in the potential market where the company has chosen to conduct their research.

• • Analyzing the legal history of a patent shows the level of effort your competitors have given to it. If you want to protect your innovation, rigorous prosecution is needed, for which detailed information is necessary to infer how vital the technology is to their lines of business. And knowing the litigation surrounding your innovation has a great deal of importance to the business. Nevertheless, a lack of legal activity shows that the patent has already been abandoned or it has little usefulness.

Conclusion

To summarize, patent landscaping includes computer software and human intellect to survey, analyze the data, and accordingly organize it to report all the essential and valid data necessary for the landscape. Once completed, the company can move forward with the crucial and relevant legal, technical, or business information required from the report or the landscape. Thus, Patent Landscaping is a beneficial tool for building up business policies and coming up with relevant decisions for further future use, helping the company’s growth. Using patent landscaping techniques entitles businesses to redirect their activities as per the data or the evidence they collect and helps in venturing into technological spaces as per the favorable situations based upon the landscape report.

The areas we have focused on are some of the most popularly used IP insights for competitive intelligence. To learn more, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@aumirah.com or our website at www.aumirah.com for valuable insights and assistance.