Georgia Tech recently announced a "New Patent Mapping System Helps Find Innovation Pathways". This research created "a new patent mapping system that considers how patents cite one another may help researchers better understand the relationships between technologies – and how they may come together to spur disruptive new areas of innovation."
I was asked to comment on this development by Entrepreneur magazine. Some of my comments were published in the Entrepreneur.com article "Ever Heard of a Patent Map? They Can Help Predict the Future" and a related article of the same name in Reuters. Since 2000 IPVision has been using its patent mapping and patent analytics software to chart the technology commercialization future for its clients which include large and small corporations, M.I.T. startups, entrepreneurs, venture capital firms and the National Science Foundation SBIR program, among others. IPVision developed its patent mapping algorithms in the course of analyzing technology commercialization opportunities, primarily from M.I.T.
It is good to see that researchers at Georgia Tech are recognizing patent mapping and that it has support of the National Science Foundation, which provided research funding.
Patent Map Example - Carbon Nanotubes
By using Patent Mapping to monitor the citation landscape we can visually track innovations arising from a disruptive invention.
For example, this IPVision Patent Map shows U.S. Patent 6683783 “Carbon fibers formed from single-wall carbon nanotubes” (“Carbon Nanotube Patent”) which issued in 2004. The "fan" to the right are the 126 patents that cite the Carbon Nanotube Patent. These patents incorporate carbon nanotubes in inventions as diverse as solar cells, lighting devices, sonar systems, catalysts, fuel cells, memory arrays, touchscreens, anti-terrorism water monitoring systems and artificial retinal implants.
Patent maps like this are used by investors, product innovators, corporate strategists and others to track innovation systematically..
Patent Maps Help Enable Our Patent System's Promise
Understanding where innovation is happening is clearly important. Although our patent system has been subject to criticism in recent years the fundamental social contract it is trying to implement is that we as a society will give you the inventor a limited time monopoly to control use of your invention in exchange for disclosure of the invention. This dissemination of knowledge benefits us all and spurs innovation. The Founding Fathers put this concept in the Constitution. The problem is that the "knowledge" is buried in dense, often difficult to understand patent documents. Patent mapping allows us to see the innovation landscape at a higher level, to see trends and to ask "why". Alan Key is famous for saying "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" That is exactly what Patent Mapping can help us do.
Author: Joseph G. Hadzima, Jr. | Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management | Co-Founder and President of IPVision, Inc.
