Patent information can assist in critical business decisions, including mergers and acquisitions, that drive your corporate strategy. To obtain this information, you must perform diligent patent analysis, which can then provide the data you need to make your decisions.
Simply obtaining the information about the patent itself and the patent holder is not enough. For true business intelligence that can help you make sound strategy decisions, you need a great deal more information. This means a simple search just won’t cut it. You need information that helps you draw sound conclusions so that you can take your next steps with minimal risk.
Your next question is (probably): Can I get all that information from just looking at a patent?
The answer (in short): Yes. And so much more.
Extracting Data from Patents
Sometimes you have to dig to get what you need, but trust us; it’s all there. With the right analysis, you can determine everything you need to know before making big decisions. No more guessing!
Identify Competitors
The first thing patent analysis can tell you is which competitors to watch for. You can see all the patents held by competitors, or you can determine who you competitors are according to the patents they hold. Searching both ways gives you all the information.
It’s important to know who to watch for and what they’re working on. Keep in mind, however, that some of your most dangerous competition may be as yet unknown. Do you think Blockbuster knew Netflix was coming? Without thorough analysis of patents that covered all manner of media, they were blindsided.
Competitors’ R&D Efforts
Getting information about the patents your competitors have filed is helpful, but you have to know how to use that information to tell the whole story. How many have they filed for? How often are they filing? Overall, the frequency and sheer number of patents should tell you all you need to know about what your competition is developing.
Discover New Market Trends
The dates of filings can be very helpful in determining significant shifts within your market. If you notice within a patent map that patents have increased within a short time frame surrounding a particular technology, then you may be able to determine the shift your particular market is about to make.
With enough warning, you can begin to build barriers around your own intellectual property to keep competitors from entering the market and disrupting your business. Wouldn’t this have been helpful for Kodak, who actually held the patent for the first digital camera? With their eye on the number of patents growing within the field, they could have developed a new strategy and avoided disaster.
Assess Human Capital
You can even determine who is filing for these patents, whether they’re part of a university research initiative or collaborations with research entities. You can also use that information to seek out specific talent for your own company—perhaps a new employee or simply a licensing opportunity that can help you regain market share with cutting edge technology.
Taking It to the Next Level
This is a lot of information to glean from patents, isn’t it? Would you be surprised to know that IPVision can provide even more information about the patents that interest you?
We offer two specific products that make patent analysis easier and more impactful than ever. The first is our Advantage dashboard, which gives you the ability to search patents within specific companies and technologies. With just a few clicks, you can access all of the information you need without spending hours, weeks, or even months tracking down patents and patent families.
With that information, iScore can then help you determine the quality of those patents. This is especially helpful if you’ve identified intellectual property that you’d like to acquire. Without the need for months-long analysis, you can take quick and decisive action to edge out your competitors.
The iScore system gives you all the previous information and then some. You’ll learn the overall quality of the patent, whether the terms are too narrow or too broad, and if the language of the patent would hold up in litigation cases. Other IP analysis companies can provide this, of course, but not with the same speed and quality that iScore can provide.
If you’re facing critical business decisions due to disruptive innovation or loss of market share, let IPVision help you analyze the IP landscape. We’ll work with you to identify intellectual property information that can guide you to the right path. We are the unfair advantage you’ve been looking for.
