Greg Harrop-Griffiths (minesoft, UK) Patent data is a critical source of information to stimulate innovation and for competitive intelligence. Patents are often the first and only source of disclosure of a new invention and hence, ignoring them will only delay innovation and give an incomplete competitive intelligence picture. Delivered from the perspective of an experienced patent analyst, we will use case studies to describe the use of patent data to compile a competitive landscape, to stimulate innovation by learning from others and to help identify valuable IP in a portfolio. We will discuss the challenges in using patents for competitive intelligence and the recent innovative features and functionality in PatBase which can help, including: Using thesauri, semantic and non-patent literature searching to compile a comprehensive competitive landscape The use of Analytics for customised, multidimensional analysis and to visually compare multiple datasets. Text-mining to automatically identify and highlight concepts within any full text patent. Citation analysis to identify key competitors, collaborators or potential infringers. This presentation will demonstrate how any user can benefit from the innovative features and functionality in PatBase to interrogate and visualize the competitive landscape for any technical area.

1. The Use of Patent Information for Innovation
and Competitive Intelligence
II-PIC, Bangalore, India
Greg Harrop-Griffiths

2. Agenda
• Minesoft – who we are and what we do?
• What is Innovation and Competitive Intelligence?
• Using patent information to drive Innovation and Competitive
Intelligence
– Key Principles
– Promoting the use of patent information
• Case studies
– Identify white space, technology trends and areas of focus
• Guide investment decisions and filing strategy
• Identify competitors
– Identify the patentability of your own inventions
• Don’t reinvent the wheel
• Learn from others
– Identify licensing and collaboration opportunities

3. • Founded in 1996
• Innovative Global Patent Information Provider
• HQ in London, UK
• Partners with RWS & Tempus IP
• Winner of Queens Award 2009 and 2015
• Designs solutions to help customers harness the power
of patent information throughout the innovation process
Who we are

4. Specialists
in Patent
Information
Building
Intelligent
Patent
Information
Solutions
What we do
Trusted
by IP experts
Worldwide
Corporations,
National Patent
Offices, Patent
Attorneys and
Patent Search
Firms worldwide
International
Customer
Support
Global client base,
including USA,
Germany, Japan,
India and Israel

5. Data overview
• Total data volume exceeds 35Tb
• 59 million families and 106 publishing bodies
• 64 million full-text records including over 29 million non-Latin into English
machine translations
• 43 Full Text collections
• PatBase Express - interface in seven languages (GB, DE, ES, FR, JP, CN,
PT)
• PatBase - full interface in three languages (EN, JP, CN)

6. Patent Families
Analytics
Quality Control
Fast Search
Legal Status
Review
Alerts
• 43 Full Text Collections
• 59 Million Families
• 106 Million Publications
• 105 Issuing Authorities
• IPC, CPC US and JP classes
• Quality Controlled content
• Normalised data

7. Innovation
• Definition:
• Invention – “the creation of something new” (Paul Sloane)
• Innovation – “the implementation of something new” (Paul Sloane)
• Closed versus Open Innovation (Henry Chesbrough)

8. Competitive Intelligence (CI)
• Definition:
• Competitive Intelligence (CI) involves the use of public sources to
develop data on competition, competitors, and the market
environment. (McGonagle and Vella 2002)
• Process:
• Identify the information that a decision-maker needs
• Collect publically available raw data
• Analyse the data and convert it into intelligence
• Communicate the finished intelligence to the decision-maker(s)

9. Why is patent information critical
for Innovation and CI?
• Open innovation relies on internal and external ideas
• Patents are an essential source of external ideas and competitor data
• Patents are often the first and only source of disclosure of a new invention.
• Ignoring patents as an information source will:
• Delay innovation or even prevent it
• Give an incomplete Competitive Intelligence picture

10. Using patent information for
Innovation and CI
• Key Principles:
• Quality IN = Quality OUT
• Make the patent search comprehensive
• Data - Coverage, Comprehensiveness and Timeliness
• Where are you searching? Title, abstract, full-text
• Promoting the use of patent information
• Easy to use platform
• Education on the importance of patent information

11. Case Studies
Patent Landscape
Patentability
Licensing
+
Portfolio Analysis

12. Methodology
• Subject matter investigation
• Compile search strategy
• Keywords
• Classifications
• Assignee
• Semantic
• Non-Patent Literature
• Run initial basic search
• Analyse and optimise strategy
• Visualize and review
• Draw conclusions……..

13. Case Study – Patent Landscape
+

14. Some Key Questions
• Is this a growing area of interest?
• What are the fields of current interest?
• Who are the key players?
• Who are the “key opinion leaders” in this field?
• Is there white space?
• Where should we be investing time and money?

16. • Keyword analysis:
• Initial basic strategy: TAC=(ebola)
• New keywords: “Marburg virus or Filovirus or Hemorrhagic fever”

17. • Keyword analysis:
• Remove irrelevant results from landscape
• Example: “HIV Infection”

18. • Optimise strategy
• Classification Codes – CPC/IPC
• Add codes to strategy and review definitions for keywords

19. • Optimise strategy with key assignees and inventors

20. Features
• PatBase Thesaurus

21. Features
• Classification finder

23. Structure
of hits found Instances of
chemical in
full text Links to external
resources
Details of hits
found

24. Publications
disclosing chemical
of interest tagged
Textmine view
of publication
and chemical of
interest

25. KeywordsKeywords
Specific
Ebola CPC
Codes
Specific
Ebola CPC
Codes
Top
IPC/CPC
Codes
Top
IPC/CPC
Codes
Key
assignees
and
inventors
Key
assignees
and
inventors
Basic
strategy
Basic
strategy
Chemical
Explorer
Chemical
Explorer

26. • Is this a growing area of interest?

27. • What are the fields of current interest?

28. • What are the fields of current interest?

29. • What are the fields of current interest?

30. • Who are the key players in this area?

31. • Who are the “key opinion leaders” in this area?

32. Conclusions
• Growing Ebola patent landscape
• Key players include:
• Gilead, Novartis
• Smaller companies: Superlab Far East, Curevac
• Key opinion leaders include:
• Hassan Jomaa, Yarlagadaa Babu, Sina Bavari
• Top fields of interest: anti-viral compounds, vaccines, antibodies,
detection methods and enhancing immune response to the virus
• Potential White Space: prevention of infection – chemical and
non-chemical, combination therapy

33. Case Study – Patentability
Sonic Hedgehog
+ =

34. Features
• PatBase Thesaurus – Genes & Proteins + Language Explorer

35. Features
• Non-Latin Search and Translation

36. Features
• Semantic Search

37. Features
• Learn from others disclosures

38. Features
• Non-Patent Literature

39. Conclusions
• Patent information can:
• Prevent you reinventing the wheel
• Ensure that your time and money is well invested
• Ensure you are aware of the prior art
• Stimulate innovation by learning from others
• Remember that prior art is any disclosure that is made public
• Search patent and non-patent literature
• Keep your own inventions confidential
• File a patent application before disclosing elsewhere
• Always consult a patent attorney for advice

40. Case Study – Portfolio Analysis
Reverse
Osmosis

41. • Analytics of Forward citations of Desalitech patent portfolio
29
27
15 14
2 0
US2006254981 US2008023410 US2010320772 US2008217222 US2012103906 US2010270237
Desalitech Portfolio
• 8 patent families
• 2005-2017
• Top 5 Jurisdictions:
US, CN, IN, PCT, EP
• Top IPC/CPC:
C02F – Treatment of Water
B01D – Physical/chemical
Processes (Separation)

42. Features
• Citation Explorer

43. Features
• Alerts to keep up to date!!

44. Conclusions
• Citation analysis is useful competitive intelligence:
• Helps identify key competitors
• Helps identify potential collaborators
• Helps identify potential infringers
• Citation analysis can help identify valuable IP in your portfolio
• Precautions:
• Citations are only one indicator of patent value
• Beware of the time effect
• Newer publications will not have been cited yet
• Need to keep up to date by setting up alerts

45. Summary

46. Thank you
Greg Harrop-Griffiths
Business Development Manager
greg@minesoft.com