Using Patent Analysis to Supercharge
Patent Licensing Programs
About AcclaimIP and FPO
• 10 years experience bringing patent data to millions of users. • The AcclaimIP project started in 2010
• Over 200 clients and 1500 users from around the globe including
many of the most prolific IP-producers.
• AcclaimIP offers unique features:
– Custom Fields
– Acquisition Analyses – Query Matrices – Class Fingerprinting
– QueryFlow Keyword Analyzers & Query Builders – Hierarchical Classification Queries
– Meta Values
Discussion Topic One
1. How to use a patent landscape to…
1. Identify key technology buckets in a portfolio
2. Overlay portfolio on global landscape of patents
3. Identify potentially interested parties by…
1. Finding companies whose existing portfolio complements offered portfolio.
2. Identifying companies with whitespace in their portfolio. 3. Past acquisition behavior. Acquisition and divestment
Discussion Topic Two
1. Patent Meta Data (Value Indicators)
1. What are the key value metrics in patent data
2. Why they work
1. Predictive of human judgment or behavior
2. Quantitative assessment of patent characteristics
3. How to use them to…
1. Identify key patents
What is a Patent Landscape
•
No single answer
•
In general, it is a high level view of a set of patents, such as:
– A single assignee– A technology
•
Landscapes are generally multi-faceted, and identify:
– Filing / Publication Trends– Key Patent Owners – Key Inventors
– Acquisition / Divestment Trends – Abandonment and Renewal Rates
Patent Landscapes are Difficult
•
You need a simple, reproducible landscape
techniques to:
–
Identify key players
–
Assess current patenting trends
–
Analyze patent acquisition trends among those
players
–
Determine if patents add to an existing strong
portfolio or fill in white space where the company
is relatively weak.
Steps to Create
•
Analyze existing portfolio for:
– Top Classes (US, IPC or CPC)•
Take those classes and develop a NxM matrix
– Each cell is the intersection of the two queries – Technologies in the X axis– Patent owners in the Y axis
•
Then overlay global queries to identify trends
– Recent patent activity– Allowance Rates – Recent acquisitions
Using Patent Value Indicators
The value drivers in any portfolio will be the top
5% to 20% of the patents in the portfolio.
•
What are patent value indicators
•
Why they work, and what are their limitations
•
Examples of four key value indicators
What are patent value indicators
•
Quantifiable elements in patent data that are predictive of…
– Human behaviors• Related to investment by the applicant – Patent quality attributes
Forward Citations
•
The number of patent documents that have cited
– Most well-known proxy for value– Always newer than the cited document
– A measure of the impact of the patent on future patents
•
Limitations
– Not a good measure for new patents
Length of First Claim
•
Always an independent claim
– Shorter claims tend to be better – Fewer narrowing limitations – In 2013• Median length of claim one of granted patents was 161 words
• Median length of claim one of published applications was 131 words
•
Limitations
– Patent agents/attorneys game the system to make artificially long
Patent Family Size
•
Patents from large families tend to be better
– Represent a large investment by the patentee• Publish in multiple jurisdictions
Pendency (time between file and grant dates)
•
A little different than the others
– You are looking for outliers• Exceptionally short pendency • Exceptionally long pendency
•
Long Pendency is indicative of interferences
– Long and expensive fight that was worth the investment
– Patent US8688181 B1 granted on April 1, 2014 (no joke) had 7144 days
(19.5 years) of pendency!
•
Short Pendency may be indicative of new art
– Easy to examineTake-Aways for Licensing Professionals
•
A well-designed landscape
– Identifies trends in your marketplace
– Identifies companies who can use the technology
– Identifies companies who have acquired similar technology
– They can take some time to create, but they are systematic and don’t
require an analytics genius to develop them.
– They are reusable if built correctly
•
Patent value indicators
– Help identify the value drivers of your portfolio – They are not perfect, but can work very well – They prioritize patents for human reviewers