A patent landscape is a bird’s-eye view of the publishing activity in a specific technology area. The landscape can be further refined with geographic boundaries as well. An analysis of this patent landscape can help an organization predict and harness market trends. A thorough look at the technologies your company and others like it are patenting facilitates a deeper understanding of the industry you’re innovating and monetizing in.
Why patent landscaping?
A patent landscape analysis is a powerful tool for any organization in an innovative field. The insights uncovered with this type of overview allow for forward-thinking, data-backed decision-making in business strategy, R&D investments, and IP strategy.
A patent landscape search can:
- Indentify white space.
- Provide competitive insights.
- Uncover trends, emerging technologies, and time to market.
- Communicate trends with stakeholders.
- Find M&A targets and partnership opportunities.
- Answer specific questions about an industry or technology.
- Reduce legal risk and enable designing around existing IP.
Keeping Up With a Shifting Landscape
One common criticism of a patent landscape search is that the results are static. Most reports or graphs can only provide a snapshot of the market at a single point in time. With more than 650,000 patent applications filed each year, the patent landscape is both vast and constantly changing. Even the most meticulous and detailed patent study may be obsolete in a few weeks—or even days.
Historically, businesses hesitated to pursue patent landscape searches because—despite the many benefits—the time and costs associated with a complete landscape analysis (not to mention keeping it up-to-date) were simply not worth it. However, if your business is built on technology and intellectual property, patent landscaping is not optional. It is a critical form of intelligence that strengthens the value of your assets while helping you to identify new partners and expand to new markets.
Today, AI-backed patent search tools like InnovationQ Plus® allow organizations to uncover relevant technical literature in minutes with semantic search. Semantic and concept searching ensures both thoroughness and relevance. Powerful filters and visualization features can reveal insights that were once only available to the most sophisticated and successful companies. The ability to save these specific parameters allows for IP teams, engineers, leadership, and investors to automate this process and replicate the analysis regularly, ensuring organizations have the competitive insights they need for an IP strategy that aligns with ever-changing industry trends.
As eloquently stated in WIPO Magazine, “patent information is unavoidably complex, constantly evolving, and difficult to capture in a readily accessible form for a non-specialized audience.” In order to capitalize on the many insights a patent landscape analysis can uncover, the information must be understood by key decision-makers—even if they’re not IP experts. IP.com’s patent landscape search services include customized analytics, visualizations, summaries, and conclusions in an executive presentation format.