Different types of patent analyses can be performed based on the need and the questions to be answered and each type of analysis leads to different associated reports. A patentability or prior art search report provides information on whether a new invention is eligible for patent protection, along with information on what are the closest prior arts. This analysis helps patent attorneys draft broad and appropriate claims for the new invention. The patentability search may include both patent and non-patent literature. A freedom-to-operate search report helps organizations decide if they have the clearance to launch a new product without infringing on anyone else’s patent rights. This is specific to only one jurisdiction, and multiple searches for each jurisdiction may have to be performed if an organization is interested in obtaining clearance for product launch in different countries.
Patent landscape reports (PLRs) are another example of a report produced by performing patent analysis.
For users in industry, they are used as a decision-making mechanism (patent portfolio management, R&D investment and prioritisation, technology transfer, etc.). Such reports are typically confidential and not publicly available. They are costly and commissioned or developed to support specific decision-making processes and are considered business intelligence.
In the public sector, the providers of patent landscape reports are the national patent offices or research institutes that prepare reports on subjects of general interest, for a specific need, or to provide landscaping services to the public. Patent landscape reports are used by the public sector to raise awareness, with public institutions increasingly finding ways to facilitate and validate their policy decisions in ways that are similar to private sector decisions.10
Some public and private entities make patent landscape reports or patent analytics reports publicly available, including patent offices. An example of a searchable database of such reports is World Intellectual Property Organization's PATENTSCOPE database that facilitates patent landscape reports by other organizations.11 One or several state of the art or prior art patent search reports form the basis of these patent landscape reports. Different fields of patent documents and other structured information are analyzed using statistical, analytical, and comparative methods to identify patterns, understand IP strategies and trends in technology areas in question. The results of the analysis are presented using a combination of narrative and different type of visualizations.
Patent landscape reports are sometimes confused with different products serving different purposes, such as a freedom-to-operate (FTO) analysis which has a different scope and is based on an FTO search; technology bulletins, technology watches/technology alerts, or even specific type of visualizations.12
There are currently[as of?] very few methodological resources describing the steps and tasks involved in patent analytics.13 Typically patent analytics teams work with R&D departments, patent attorneys, with related information feeding into IP, corporate and business strategy decisions.14
In general, patent analytics and patent landscape report creation involves the following stages:15
Patent analytics is an iterative process which often requires rescoping of the project and adaptation based on the findings during the process. There are different tools which can be used for analytics, some embedded in patent databases, others more general data manipulation, visualization and analytics tools, including commercial and open source tools.16
Oldham, Paul. Chapter 1 Introduction | The WIPO Patent Analytics Handbook. https://wipo-analytics.github.io/handbook/introduction.html ↩
Ernst, Holger (2003-09-01). "Patent information for strategic technology management". World Patent Information. 25 (3): 233–242. Bibcode:2003WPatI..25..233E. doi:10.1016/S0172-2190(03)00077-2. ISSN 0172-2190. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0172219003000772 ↩
Analytics, WIPO Patent (2020-07-14), wipo-analytics/presentations, retrieved 2021-12-30 https://github.com/wipo-analytics/presentations/blob/d71e3c002b77da75e0622fc720326647bab1954e/Introduction%20to%20Patent%20Analytics.pptx ↩
University, Carnegie Mellon. "About - Center for AI and Patent Analysis - Carnegie Mellon University". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-30. https://www.cmu.edu/epp/patents/about/index.html ↩
Kitsara, Irene (29 January 2018). "Stages, Tasks, Workflow and Tools in the preparation of Patent Landscape Reports". WIPO Github. Retrieved 30 December 2021. https://github.com/wipo-analytics/presentations/blob/master/Patent%20Analytics%20Tasks%2C%20Stages%20and%20Workflow%20in%20the%20preparation%20of%20Patent%20Landscape%20Report.pptx ↩
"An Overview of Patent Analytics Tools - Paul Oldham's Analytics Blog". www.pauloldham.net. Retrieved 2021-12-30. https://www.pauloldham.net/overview-open-tools/ ↩
de Rassenfosse, Gaétan; Kozak, Jan; Seliger, Florian (6 November 2019). "Geocoding of worldwide patent data". Scientific Data. 6 (1): 260. Bibcode:2019NatSD...6..260D. doi:10.1038/s41597-019-0264-6. PMC 6834584. PMID 31695047. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6834584 ↩
WIPO (2016). "WIPO Manual on Open Source Tools for Patent Analytics". www.wipo.int. Patent Landscape Reports. doi:10.34667/tind.28980. Retrieved 2021-12-30. https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4168&plang=EN ↩
"The Lens - Free & Open Patent and Scholarly Search". The Lens - Free & Open Patent and Scholarly Search. Retrieved 2022-11-30. https://www.lens.org/lens ↩
"Patent Landscape Reports by Other Organizations". www.wipo.int. Retrieved 2022-12-01. https://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/programs/patent_landscapes/plrdb.html ↩
Trippe, Anthony (2015). "Guidelines for Preparing Patent Landscape Reports" (PDF). WIPO. Retrieved 30 December 2021. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_946.pdf ↩
"WIPO Patent Analytics: WIPO Analytics". WIPO Patent Analytics. Retrieved 2021-12-30. https://wipo-analytics.github.io/ ↩