Capturing the real value of patent analysis for R&D strategies

Abstract

Patent information can be used for strategic planning purposes. Conventional patent analysis has commonly focused on factual information and, in particular, on information extraction, visualisation and interpretation. Less scholarly attention has been devoted to the strategic role of an integrated system of patent intelligence in supporting decision-making in R&D investments. Our paper addresses this gap and explores how patent analysis may benefit those firms that intend capturing the beneficial effects of Open Innovation. We also critically discuss the intrinsic limits of both patent information and patent analysis, which should be taken into account by systems of patent intelligence.

• patent analysis
• patent information
• R&D strategies

Notes

1. The evolution of providers of patent analysis’ services during the 1990s has been described by Lambert (1999). A detailed list of currently existing analysis tools and vendors can be found at http://www.piug.org/vendors.php (last accessed: February 15, 2012).

2. This problem is particularly severe in those industries characterised by cumulative nature of technologies and an extensive fragmentation of property rights. In such circumstances, proper contractual arrangements (such as cross licenses and patent pools) are needed to tackle the resulting patent thicket, which can be defined as ‘a dense web of overlapping intellectual property rights that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialise new technology’ (Shapiro 2001, 120).

3. Citeline's Medtrack (http://www.medtrack.com) is an integrated platform that offers robust insights into pharmaceutical pipeline, sales, epidemiology and patents. It provides a comprehensive view of the biopharmaceutical business and technological landscapes, by connecting patent information with financial and market information drawn from various sources. Questel-Orbit's QPAT http://www.qpat.com) is a user-friendly engine to perform keyword-based searches on patent applications filed from 1974 in over 80 countries.

4. Patent portfolios represented in Figures 5 and 6 include both firms’ unexpired and expired patents belonging to the class C07K 7/02. Provided that the purpose of this analysis is to assess the strength of firms’ technological competences in the field, expired patents convey information about firms’ past technological activity. If a firm's patent portfolio mean age is higher than the maximum length of patent protection (20 years), then it can be inferred that a share of patents have expired and that some of the firm's technological competences are quite dated.