Landscape/State-Of-The-Art search

Patent and technology landscapes are the basis for understanding overall trends as well as risks and opportunities in a given area of technology.

The Patent Landscape Search can identify potential patent portfolios for acquisition, existing or potential infringers to be pursued, and potential technology to be exploited.

Typically, the results of a Patent Landscape Search includes a graphical representation of how large numbers of patents relate to each other, based on various search fields, such as keywords, citations, applicants, patent classifications, and so on. A patent landscape reveals past and present activities of various entities in a given area of technology.

Patents are often categorized into seminal patents vs. incremental patents (through citation analysis), history of a technology's development, a visual display of patenting over the years, segregation by assignee and inventors, and so on.

A Patent Landscape Search helps to:

(1) Monitor markets of interest;

(2) determine which patents are now in the public domain;

(3) learn who the current competitors are;

(4) learn who the future competitors will be;

(5) see how rapidly new innovation is taking place in your space;

(6) determine what other technologies your competitors are working on;

(7) identify gaps in research & development;

(8) determine which of your patents are most valuable;

(9) identify which patents are seminal discoveries and which are incremental improvements;

(10) learn who could benefit from licensing your inventions;

(11) learn whose inventions could be licensed to your benefit;

(12) visualize the most densely patented and most sparsely patented technology area;

(13) determine the most prolific inventors; and

(14) determine if there is a disconnect between the patents held by your organization and those required to implement your business strategy.