If you are an innovation professional or an investor in new technology, you certainly appreciate that it is important to investigate and analyze the so-called "patent landscape" prior to moving forward with your business plans. As shown by examples such as the $600 plus million settlement of the BlackBerry(tm) lawsuit in 2006 and the $431 million liability court finding that Boston Scientific infringed the patent of a New Jersey doctor, the execution of innovation and technology-based business strategies can be significantly derailed by the pre-existing patent rights of others. In view of these examples (as well as many others), you should not embark on any innovation or technology investment prior to developing a valid point of view on how patents will affect your investment payback. However, in talking to clients of my IP business strategy consulting company, I know that there is no uniform understanding of exactly what a
Beware of Those Who Would Sell You Worthless Patent Landscapes
Patent analytics devoid of the competitive and business insights embedded in the claims are worthless
First generation patent analytics methodologies viewed patent documents as containing information that needed to be collected, culled, reviewed and graphed. This approach considered patents as data sources. This permitted large volumes of patent data to be collected and nicely packaged, irrespective of the reason that the patent filer undertook the effort and expense to make the filing.Significantly, companies do not typically disclose valuable trade secret scientific and technical information to their competitors—as required in a patent filing—without having a defined business-related purpose for such effort and expense. As discussed above, the claims of a patent document reveal what the patent filer seeks to own in a patent application or does own in an issued patent. The business purpose of a patent filing is only truly decipherable from an understanding of the subject matter of the claims. Omission of claims analysis from patent analytics thus ignores the critical business information present