Business planning using Patent Searches

A state of the art search is performed to generate a thorough review of any fresh technology or product. Preferably, such kind of a search is performed prior to budgeting any research. In most ventures, these search results influence the choice and the capital assessment for such fresh technology. The state of the art search reviews patent documents as well as non-patent literature that is generally available online. The amount of information gathered and the number of documents extracted during such search process is usually high in number. As per this search process, it is performed based on assignee names, inventor names and codes pertaining to different patent classifications. Finally, when the list is generated, a user can easily retrieve information regarding close competitors in the relevant field and the technology expertise that’s available in the market. This generated list of patent results can be studied graphically using charts and diagrams to understand the extend of the technology, and such graphical representation is known as patent landscape analysis.

The patent landscape analysis graphically depicts the co-relation between patent publications. However, apart from state of the art searches, if a user specifically wants to perform a patent landscape analysis on a certain product or technology, then a patent landscape search is done to meet this need. A decision for a patent landscape search differs as per the requirement of the user, and are usually aimed at the type of business and the region of business execution. The patent landscape search evaluates the loop holes of patent security in the relevant technology field, and enables a user to compare patent portfolios amongst multiple competitors. Therefore, the patent portfolio analysis helps to understand the patents owned by individual competitors, and is normally performed depending on the purpose and degree of search.