Patenting is a key part of business strategy, and patent Intelligence is the process businesses take to get legal market insight from patent research to support their decision-making processes.
Patent intelligence is conducted via many pathways, but the main aspect is analyzing competitor patent profiles to see where there is an opportunity to create business growth with patenting.
This article will explore how patent intelligence works and what it can offer businesses as they decide where to invest their assets.
What Is Patent Intelligence?
Before we can establish how to patent intelligence works, we must define it.
A patent is a type of intellectual property right a business can apply for. It gives them the legal rights to a specific invention, meaning you can take it to the public market and sell it.
Having a patent is important because it protects your product from being claimed by anyone else; if you don’t have one, someone could replicate your idea, claim their patent, and then sue you for selling your invention.
The tricky thing about patents is that they take a long time and a lot of money to process, so if you get to the end of the patenting process and find out someone has already patented a similar invention, you can be rejected. Within the period it takes to re-apply, someone may have patented a similar invention, meaning you won’t be able to do so for yours without opening a legal case.
Patent intelligence is a business strategy that ensures that this doesn’t happen. It enables you to monitor patent trends over competitive landscapes to make a confident investment in patents and know when it’s worth monetizing assets.
How Is Patent Intelligence Conducted?
Usually, companies will decide to employ patent intelligence experts to help them with their intelligence. Often, they won’t have access to the wide reach of data you need to conduct a comprehensive patent analysis in-house, so it is best to go with a specialized external company that can use a mix of expert practitioners and A. I.
Patent intelligence agencies will use a range of A. I and software to examine patent databases across the world, this will have benefits such as:
- It allows you to Identify the most relevant patent records with ease.
- It can analyze things such as ‘prior art’, which can affect your journey to getting a patent.
- It can determine if someone already has the patent you want or if there is an open market.
- It can analyze global litigation activity, case details, legal status, and predicted remaining life if there is a patent you’re interested in that someone else has or is trying to get via legal methods.
How Does Patent Intelligence Help Your Business?
When your business starts to grow, the odds are that you’ll need to patent more than one invention. If you think about big-name companies that sell products, they usually have multiple models and versions of the products, and each of these will require a patent. Here, patent intelligence can help by:
- Speeding up your process of getting a patent. It can analyze patent profiles worldwide, so you know the parent you want to apply for. It can also analyze prior art, making the process faster.
- Patent intelligence will help you to gain a concept of your main competitors’ patent profiles. You can see what types of inventions they have the rights to and what they may be pursuing. This can help with market and profit predictions.
- It can monitor specific technology trends by seeing what areas patents are being obtained in the global landscape. This can further ideas for products and pinpoint locations for investment opportunities.
- It can identify litigation risks. Patent migration can be subject to risks posed by third-party owners, and intelligence can help identify these issues.
All in all, Patent Intelligence helps you put your best foot forward in business and helps you analyze your competitors and determine where the best patenting opportunities can be found. For modern businesses, technology such as patent intelligence is an essential asset that can help them grow their brand faster.
When To Use Patent Intelligence
Simply put, you should use patent intelligence as soon as you have an idea worth patenting. It will help ensure that your idea is the only one of its kind and give you the essential information you need to get your patent as quickly as possible.
We hope this article has given you a good understanding of how to patent intelligence works and what it can do for you and your business. Good luck with your business journey!
