Business Alignment of IP
for the Internet of Things
in an early R&D phase
Björn Möller, September 2019
MIPLM Research Project @ University of Strasbourg
2019-09-27Page 2
Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
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Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
B2C
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Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
B2CB2B
Inside the company
Outside the company
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Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
B2CB2B
Corporate
Technology
Inside the company
Outside the company
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Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
B2CB2B
Corporate
TechnologyCT IP
Inside the company
Outside the company
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Close to the Customer
End
Customer
Well said – but…
… it‘s a challenge…
B2CB2B
Corporate
TechnologyCT IP
Inside the company
Outside the company
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Technology S-Curve
After AJ Wurzer, MIPLM course 2019, concept by AD Little in
Servatius: Methodik des strategischen Technologiemanagements
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Technology S-Curve
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Is there an R&D S-Curve?
Would S-Curves apply to R&D activities as well?
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Is there an R&D S-Curve?
Would S-Curves apply to R&D activities as well?
Establishing
phase
Finding
phase
R&D
Activities
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Is there an R&D S-Curve?
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Preliminary Cross Check
Time Resolved
Google Search Results
… but difficult to
Interprete…
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Patent Data – Search for „Internet of Things“ and „IoT“
Granted IPRs (measure: B*- and U*-documents)
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Patent Data – Search for „Internet of Things“ and „IoT“
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Patent Data – Search for „Internet of Things“ and „IoT“
S-Curve behaviour may be there – but:
Maybe any S-Curve characteristics comes from
Buzz word effects?
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
Try a purely class-based approach instead
– use the CPC patent classification system
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
Source: European Patent Office, Espacenet – classification search
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
Similar class analyses with
- „M2M“ or …
- „edge comput*“ or …
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Patent Data – Class-Based Search
Source: European Patent Office, Espacenet – classification search
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Model of Application Data before the EPO
Results due to six CPC families
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Model of Application Data before the EPO
S-curves
Time derivative of
S-curves
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Model of Grant Data before the EPO
S-curves
Time derivative of
S-curves
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Software Patents and Region
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Software Patents and Region
Similar provisions in other countries/regions
- except US
- Increasingly liberal: CN
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S-Curve Parameters for Different Jurisdictions
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Is there an R&D S-Curve?
Would S-Curves apply to R&D activities as well?
Establishing
phase
Finding
phase
R&D
Activities
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Is there an R&D S-Curve?
Establishing
phase
Finding
phase
R&D
Activities
With respect to IPRs they do!
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Cross-check: EPO statistics
Source: EPO facts and figures 2019
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Cross-check: EPO statistics
Source: EPO facts and figures 2019
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Conclusions
- Almost 3 decades of patent application & grant dynamics
may be easily modelled with S-curves
- S-curve trends may support businesses with trend scouting
- Business alignment may be improved
- The S-curve parameters seem to generally agree with
differing treatment of software patents in various jurisdictions
- A specific interpretation of the individual S-curves and further
trend attributions would be relevant, needs further research
- Time dependence might support topical IP searches as a
cross check

Business Alignment of IP - Björn Möller