Today, the goal for many companies is to make their innovation more efficient. To achieve this, knowledge of patent databases can be essential and therefore a useful tool

On the basis of increased global competition and tight liquidity, many companies are faced with growing demands of efficiency improvement of their innovation processes. In the effort to meet this demand, increased use of knowledge from patent databases can be a useful tool.

Among other things, the databases can give you an overview of inventions and discoveries of competitors, other companies and scientists, and this information can help you guide your research in the right direction or help you find potential partners. Patent rights, of course, set the boundaries regarding the use of knowledge from patents and patent applications. However, this is not an argument for staying ignorant of the content of the databases - on the contrary.

Prioritization and risk assessment

Efficiency improvement of a company's innovation implies, among other things, that there is no room for investing money in R&D projects which carry significant risk of failure. The challenge often lies in evaluating the risk of failure or potential for success of new ideas at an early stage. The basis for decision is often weak, and the decision to invest significant development and employee resources in these projects is based purely on intuition and a gut feeling.

By means of a qualified search in the databases, it is possible to procure a more precise basis for decision for investment in research projects. By using the knowledge available in the databases early in the process, it is possible to shed a light on the competition within the technological field which the new project idea is part of. By analyzing the patent activity within the technological field and closely related fields of the idea, you can identify the competitors in the subject area and evaluate their strength and interest in the subject area. If you use the proper software tools and competences during the idea phase, you can get prompt answers to a lot of important questions, including:

  • How appealing is the technological field of your idea viewed from the patent perspective?
  • What characterises your main competitors' patent activities within the field, and how aggressive are they?
  • Which geographical focus and economic ties do your competitors have?
  • Which unexpected competitors are you up against?

New opportunities - few resources

By looking into the patent activity, you can get a quality risk assessment simultaneously with the opportunity of identifying potential partners and technologies which can benefit your idea. To achieve this you do not necessarily have to go through an extensive amount of analytical work. With a limited amount of help from patent people who are used to navigating their way around the databases, you can easily find relevant research results and inventions.

Using their technical insight and knowledge of patents and the patent databases, patent experts can translate a new project into useful search terms. Thus, through a conversation with a patent expert (internal or external) a proper search profile can be found. Subsequently, the relevant documents can be found through search, filtering and sorting of the search results.

This way, patent databases can be much more than a stock of patents. The possibility of tracking down useful information in them is comprehensive and the applications are many. From the point of view of a patent attorney, the advice is to look carefully into these applications. Most people will discover that the databases are a mine of information which can contribute to taking the company a quick step in the right direction.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.