How a software giant leverages LexisNexis Cipher custom classifiers to understand their competitive landscape.

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Unlocking the Competitive Intelligence Hidden Within Patent Portfolios

How a software giant leverages LexisNexis Cipher custom classifiers to understand their competitive landscape

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Jared Engstrom, Head of Patent Development, talks about the growth in Red Hat’s portfolio, how he has used Cipher custom classifiers and how the Cipher Portfolio Optimisation model has improved their understanding of the competitive landscape. Jared manages Red Hat’s portfolio, the harvesting of new invention disclosures as well as moving them through the patent process. He is also responsible for the strategy around what patents Red Hat files, how they are maintained and how they are used to protect the company and support the open-source community.

What types of strategic business questions do you need to consider?

You need to understand where your risk is as a company – for many companies, it’s tied to your products and offerings and the revenue you generate. Understanding that risk naturally helps you understand where to build fortifications and defenses.

In our case, we have a patent portfolio used for defensive purposes only and understand where we have risk exposure due to the markets we operate in and what other companies do in those spaces. We need to answer these questions at a fine level of granularity.

How have you answered that kind of strategic business question in the past?

We recently hit an inflection point. As a smaller company over the previous 10-15 years or so, we were largely concerned with building up the size of our portfolio. We also knew we had a handful of key threats out there, so much of our time and energy was focused on ensuring we were well-prepared to defend against those particular threats.

As we’ve hit this inflection point, where we’re a bigger company with a sizeable patent portfolio and in many more markets and tech spaces, we’ve got to have a broader view of patent risk in general. We need to answer questions about our risk and ensure that we align our defensive measures in each of our relevant spaces proportional to the relative risk.

Cipher has helped us answer strategic business questions specifically by presenting the data to us in a way aligns with our own view of the world.

Jared Engstrom, Head of Patent Development, Red Hat

Cipher’s way of approaching classification is particularly useful because it’s customised to the way Red Hat views the world in terms of technological taxonomy.

Jared Engstrom, Head of Patent Development, Red Hat

What was your approach, and how did that change when Cipher was introduced?

We did do an analysis in the past, where we looked at other companies. We assembled a spreadsheet of 100+ companies that we thought either had products that were similar to ours or they competed in some of our spaces. We did a bunch of manual analysis that took us months and months to build, and it gave us some insights about where some of our risks were, but it was static data and hard to update and maintain.

Once we learned about Cipher, it was sort of an ‘aha’ moment where we realized that we could dynamically monitor, measure, see trends, and better understand what the world looks like, but do it through our lens, through our taxonomies. Seeing the world through that lens gives us a better ability to act on that information because we are already familiar with it and know it aligns with our business strategy.

How did you find that process of taking your view of the technologies of interest into a Cipher taxonomy?

The process was straightforward. We defined the technologies and provided examples of patents that met the definitions for the different technology areas. We were under some time pressure to finish the project before the end of our last fiscal year, and we managed to work through the whole thing in what I think was less than a month. And it wasn’t a full-time effort on the part of the Red Hat team. The Red Hat team certainly put in a lot of time and effort, but the Cipher team did all the heavy lifting. It would have taken us several months of nearly full-time effort to do that on our own.

How did you get over the trust and confidence issues required to share that data more broadly inside your business?

Red Hat, as a technology company, understands the value of technology, understands the value of good data and understands the power of artificial intelligence.

We also had quite a bit of our own historical data and manual analysis that we could compare against the Cipher results.  So it was fairly easy to get comfortable with the results as the Cipher results lined up pretty well with our own.  Cipher also provided insights into things that we weren’t aware of.

You referenced there that you got some insights from Cipher and the optimization model that maybe you hadn’t been able to access before. Can you talk about that?

In our own manual analysis, we did some exhaustive research on 100+ companies to see what patents they had, their revenue, and their litigation history – all those sorts of data points you need to understand the landscape. But it’s impossible to research every company on the planet, and it’s hard to know whether you’re missing anybody that you should be aware of.

Sure enough, in our Cipher analysis, there were two or three or four companies that weren’t on our radar, and we are now conducting more in-depth research and analysis to understand how those companies might or might not be a risk.  We wouldn’t have known about them if it wasn’t for Cipher.




How the IP team at BAE Systems uses LexisNexis Cipher to help communicate the importance of IP internally and identify disruptive technologies.

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The Importance of
Competitive Intelligence in
Disruptive Technology Environments

How the IP team at BAE Systems uses LexisNexis Cipher to help communicate the importance of IP internally and identify disruptive technologies

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Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, Dr. Bobby Mukherjee, at BAE, explains how his IP team uses Cipher to help communicate the importance of IP internally and identify disruptive technologies to provide competitive intelligence.

What impact do you think disruptive technologies such as robotics, autonomous, cybersecurity, and drones will have on BAE’s business strategy?

It’s important to recognize that there is an intensely competitive landscape in our sector, and when I talk about competitive pressure, I look at it from two angles. The first is in terms of the new products that are coming into our landscape. Secondly, we have new players coming onto the scene.

Robotics, autonomy, cybersecurity and drones are key areas for us and for our competitors. It’s important for us to stay ahead of the game, not to be complacent. It’s important for us to understand which areas are key to our business strategy. What are the business priorities?  What are the product strategies and the capability gaps? From that, what are the technology areas and intellectual property drivers?  I think it goes in that order.

IP strategy in isolation doesn’t mean anything. It has to be anchored in the wider business product strategies, and that means working very closely with your key stakeholders across the company, your technologists, your business development people and so forth.

Cipher has been world class for us. It’s easy to use, it provides very powerful visual representations of what we own and importantly what our competitors have.

Dr. Bobby Mukherjee, Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, BAE Systems PLC.

Which other technologies do you see as being disruptive?

Developments in human-machine interfaces. When we talk about autonomy, the reality is that there will be more combinations of human-machine interfaces. The barriers to entry are very relevant in that regard. We know that companies like Amazon are working in this field, so with respect to the movement from traditional to non-traditional players, it’s really important that we understand what the landscape is and what IP rights are out there, not just for the traditional players, but also for the non-traditional players.

Additive layer manufacturing (ALM) is also a key area. We are active in that area, and there are a lot of other people who have done significant work in ALM. There are other areas, such as energy storage and management.

Again, if you look at our operations across the enterprise, one of the challenges we have is leveraging that capability across the enterprise in the most effective way and ensuring that we don’t have duplication of effort and investment. It’s remarkable what we do in terms of the world-leading capabilities for governments and our commercial customers.

How have these changes in disruptive technologies fed into a change in your patenting strategy?

We have always been able to articulate our patenting strategy over the years in terms of understanding the key technology areas that we should focus on and biasing our patenting towards those areas. The patenting strategy has, of course, a geographical dimension as well as a technological dimension.

We are building our portfolio within the constraints of our budget, but we also prune where we decide there is no longer any value. Active portfolio management is a critical element of this.

To have a coherent patenting strategy, you have to be clear about the business technology strategies. One of the ongoing debates is how many patents should we be filing. What is the right portfolio size for our organization? We have to create the right portfolio for our business and use it to drive business value. That is the underlying requirement. There is no point if we do not drive business value using our intellectual property portfolio.

So, the notion that we must have 50 patents filed yearly or 150 or 200 is a red herring. I would argue it is all about business value, and it’s about articulating that business value. How we measure that value is a separate question. It may be licensing or leveraging the patents in campaigns to help with the business. It might be enabling a freedom-to-operate strategy. We can use our intellectual property for business advantage in all sorts of ways.

There are a large number of disruptive technologies: robotics, autonomy, cybersecurity and drones are key areas for us and for our competitors. The list also includes in human machine interfaces and areas such as energy storage and management. Now more than ever, it is important to monitor patent trends.  It’s important for us to stay ahead of the game, not to be complacent.

Dr. Bobby Mukherjee, Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, BAE Systems PLC.

How does BAE Systems measure and report the value of IP to the business?

We are on a journey. We have a remarkable diversity of businesses, from electronic systems and applied intelligence at one end, which is pretty fast-moving, to the maritime, submarines and air business at the other end. The strategies involved in each area will differ according to the different technology lifecycles. As a profession, we can miss the value point because capturing that value in tangible terms is difficult, but that is not a reason for us not to try and address that question.

Looking at it simplistically, sometimes the value comes from figuring out what happens if you don’t do what you’re going to do. There was one example where we knew that if we did not clear the way, we might have been prevented from delivering a key piece of kit on a major platform. The value was providing the platform. Unless you think about what would happen if we did not do what we’re proposing to do, the value does not emerge.

We need to get into that mindset regarding every activity we do because that will help us focus on the priorities and the essential things. If we can’t figure out the value, maybe there isn’t any value, and maybe we shouldn’t be doing it. I think that is the right approach, and it makes the message much clearer when you present it at different levels of the organization. Otherwise, we could be viewed as a peripheral part of the organization with no value, which could not be further from the truth.

What’s your view of the importance of communicating IP issues to the Board?

It’s extremely important to communicate with all levels of the organization. It’s impossible to achieve optimal IP management or maximize returns for the business from IP without engaging at the top and grassroots levels. To do that, you need an endorsement from the top, which we have.

It’s important not to obfuscate or make things sound more complicated than they really are. Cut to the chase, bring it to life with real examples, and tailor it according to the business needs, and that’s what we do. We have the dialogue, learn from our business colleagues, and hopefully, they learn from us. But it’s important to have a culture of continuous improvement because unless we do that, we can’t move forwards. Communication is key. Visuals are powerful. We have dashboards presented to the Board every month. This draws people in, and they question and probe. It’s all about engagement and having a discussion.

If you don’t have the dialogue, you can’t achieve your objectives. You need to be part of the strategic dialogue. In the past, IP people have often been isolated. They are often viewed as being part of an esoteric function that doesn’t have much to offer to the broader construct. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We also have a strong team with a commercial focus, and all these things come together. Developing those soft skills is important, and communication is a key part of that.

In summary, whether you are communicating with the board or whether you communicate with an inventor or a business development manager, use plain language and develop a common language. Let’s ensure we all speak the same language and get the basics right.

How do you communicate the importance of patents to R&D and engineering?

Let me give you an example. Sometimes we get questions from the business like “What are you doing with this patent? Why are you not monetizing it? Why don’t you sell it?” My answer is that the patent is the IP right protecting the technology. You need the technologist involved in the dialogue to decide whether or not it’s something that should be sold and for what value. It makes no sense to say that the patent is the preserve of the patent attorney.

Many patent attorneys may think they are the High Priests, but they are not. This is all about protecting the technology, and patenting is one way. It’s a strategic decision that must be made in conjunction with the business. We should have a seat at the table, but let’s not forget why we’re here – to create value for the business.

You’ve been a strong supporter of Cipher. How does better information help, and how has Cipher supported you on that journey?

Cipher has been world-class for us. It’s easy to use and provides compelling visual representations of what we own and, more importantly, what our competitors have. This is feedback on Cipher that we’ve had from my team and the business. We’ve talked to our key stakeholders in the business and asked them to try it out and see how useful it is: are there things you don’t know that you could find out by using this tool? The feedback from virtually everyone has been that Cipher provides valuable insight. Understanding the landscape and what is going on is important because that is a vital element of the wider strategy.

It’s about having the right strategy, the right organizational layer, the right resources, and knowing what landscape you are operating in and where you’re going. That feeds into all the other things we’ve touched on earlier. It’s important to engage with people in the business and get that feedback, to work closely on these things and not to operate in isolation. We’ve enjoyed being a partner with you.

There are a large number of disruptive technologies: robotics, autonomy, cybersecurity and drones are key areas for us and for our competitors. The list also includes in human machine interfaces and areas such as energy storage and management. Now more than ever, it is important to monitor patent trends.  It’s important for us to stay ahead of the game, not to be complacent.

Dr. Bobby Mukherjee, Chief Counsel, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, BAE Systems PLC.




Seagate’s Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, shares the secret to his team’s success.

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How a Leading Data Storage Company is Keeping Up With Patent Technology Changes

Seagate’s Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, shares the secret to his team’s success

As Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Seagate, Bob Pechman has seen the sector transform from hard drives to a proliferation of technologies and near-infinite demand for data storage solutions. He explains the pressures of supporting the business during this period of rapid technological change and how LexisNexis Cipher classifiers help see patent technology changes through Seagate’s own technology lens. Bob runs the Patent Group at Seagate and has all IP attorneys, including patent agents, report through him. He took over that role at Seagate in the summer of 2013.

What kind of pressures are you currently facing in the patent team?

It’s the typical stuff, budget primarily, and aligning what we’re doing with the IP portfolio with what the business goals are and what’s happening strategically with the business. And getting the right kind of attention from the right executives.

With those kinds of strategic alignment questions, how have you gone about answering those questions?

It’s hard. Depending on what the business vision is at the time. When I took over, the business was very data storage, hard-drive centric, and we understood that industry well our place in it.  It was all a matter of building piles of patents and, in the right areas, maintaining our technology leadership.

But as data storage keeps evolving beyond data centers and into new types of storage where you need to capture lots of data close to where it’s being created.  It’s creating a lot of different opportunities and a different type of customer base.

Where before you could refresh what we were looking at every few years, now we’re in a situation where what was important a month ago might not be important today.  We have to make decisions about our portfolio based on the realities of the moment.  We’re in a totally different situation.

Our issue was how to fit other companies’ portfolios into that same framework that we use and there’s just no other tool other than Cipher that can do that.

Bob Pechman, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Seagate Technology

The process was pretty straightforward and even simpler the more useful data you can provide. We’ve also scoped other classifiers where we started completely from scratch, where the Cipher team had to do more work up-front, but even that process went smoothly.

Bob Pechman, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel, Seagate Technology

Has the speed of technology change meant that you’ve had to change your approach to how you review your patent portfolio?

Yes, how we look at it and how we communicate it, because if we’re not moving at the speed that the business is, then we start to become irrelevant. It’s been a definite challenge.

The hard part, too, is that not everything that we’re trying to do, or every path you follow from a business perspective, ends up panning out, especially when you’re looking for emerging opportunities. It’s difficult to be able to get actionable information from our IP portfolio or about competitor IP quickly and easily.

We have needed to change our approach and not pour over every single project. We can start with a high-level view – good enough information – because many of these questions that are being asked from the business folks aren’t relevant in a few months because their project has gone away or we’ve decided to move in a different direction.

You get these demands to produce answers to questions, but what questions are being asked might be super important today, and then tomorrow it ends up not being. The challenge is needing to move quickly and nimbly but not wanting to put inordinate amounts of effort into the analysis.

How has Cipher helped you meet some of these challenges of patent technology changes?

Primarily we’ve been playing around with how we break down our portfolio. Our issue was how can we fit other companies’ portfolios into that same framework that we use, and there’s just no other tool other than Cipher that we have that can do that.

How did you find the process of communicating to the LexisNexis team what your lens was and then being satisfied that we’ve captured that?

The process was pretty straightforward. It’s a lot more straightforward the more data you can provide, and where we have useful data, it’s quite a simple process. We’ve also scoped some other classifiers where we started completely from scratch, where your team had to do more work up front, but even that process went pretty smoothly – they did a nice job.

On the first pass-through, you’d get a couple dozen or so cases on the edge to give you a gut feeling of whether they’re in or out, and you spend a few minutes giving that feedback and then you’re pretty much good to go.

I do appreciate that the LexisNexis team is obviously very into this stuff, very interested in what clients have to say and, how we’re using it and what our questions are. Your team is really open to it and not just from a customer service point of view. You can tell that the people really enjoy the conversations that we’re having, and they make it pretty easy.

Did you have any concerns about Cipher’s supervised machine learning?

I’m not sure we had concerns that it wouldn’t be any good, but we did look at some technology areas where we were very comfortable with what our knowledge was about the IP landscape and scoped those out with some classifier sets with Cipher, partly to see what Cipher could deliver compared to things that we already do, but also to validate that Cipher was generating similar kinds of data.




How the Director of IP at Centrica leverages LexisNexis Cipher Classification.

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A Global Energy Services Company Finds Value in AI Speed for Patent Analysis

How the Director of IP at Centrica leverages LexisNexis Cipher Classification

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Director of Intellectual Property at Centrica, Charles Clark, discusses the efficiency gains from using Cipher and the tasty bits of data gleaned from using Cipher’s AI speed for patent analysis over conventional search.  While British Gas remains a core part of its business, Centrica is expanding rapidly into home energy management and faces unique pressures as it transforms into a technology company.

Charles splits his time equally between the Ventures team, scouting for new technologies and the business-to-business side of the Centrica team. He helps them with partnerships and new technologies such as battery storage or solar panels. His role is centered around helping the business to understand the value of innovation and the value of partnerships with technology companies and helping them to capture that value and enable them to bring it to the bottom line.

What are the kinds of pressures that you face in the patent team?

The technology challenges that we face at Centrica are concerned with the use of new technology coming into the energy sector.  Energy is being disrupted hugely at the moment and will continue to be in the future by new technologies that make it easier to manage our energy use and reduce our carbon consumption.  Having that ability with Cipher classifications to look across all the technology spaces that could potentially impact energy is of huge importance to us.

The pressures from the patent side are also focused on building a patent portfolio. We have the usual monetary pressures, and the pressure of helping the business to understand the value of intellectual property is a continuing educational piece. I also work with the teams that report to the executives and help them understand and appreciate IP. That’s been a success. I am now speaking to Senior Managers and executives within the businesses who are coming to me and saying, “What is the IP in this particular project? How can we protect it?  How can we make the best use of it?”  It’s been a challenging process, but I feel that we’re starting to get really good traction right now.

What Cipher gives us is speed to enable us to look at the vast amounts of the patent data through a different lens, in a much quicker time than would be possible, without the use of artificial intelligence, with just using normal searching techniques.

Charles Clark, Director of Intellectual Property, Centrica

How has Cipher’s AI speed for patent analysis helped meet these challenges?

Cipher classification looks at the IP data through a different lens than the more traditional search engines. For example, we can build classifiers that are looking at a scope of technology rather than doing your more classic Boolean keyword searching that may miss or pick up some stuff completely unrelated to the areas we want to look at. Looking at the landscape through a business opportunity lens gives us a different aspect than more conventional search engines can do.

What’s your experience of working with classifiers compared to, say, Boolean?

We can build a classifier (using Cipher’s AI speed) that sits across all the other codes already embedded in the patent system. Maybe you see those as verticals. We can build a horizontal filter that sits across all of those, giving us another dimension to assemble data from the vast amounts of patent data out there.

How have you found engaging with the LexisNexis team?

The LexisNexis team has been an excellent support to us at Centrica in building our classifiers and understanding our business to get the results that we are looking for, which would not be available from a more classical approach. They take the time to understand our technology. They probe what it is we’re trying to achieve as a business and apply that to a classifier. It’s an intricate process building the classifier, and they will refine a classifier until it works for us as a business and enables us to get the results that are going to be the most useful – that, obviously, requires our input from the business side and their expertise with the technology classification.

The value of the system is being able to cut across the silos that traditional patent classification codes have used. It enables us to take a new look at the data through a business lens, a commercial lens, as opposed to simply a patent lens.

How would you explain the value of Cipher to other members of the IP community?

This has been a very interesting learning curve for me to understand how AI works and how it accelerates the process. It helps us to get to an answer quicker. It is not looking for specific keywords but looking for themes and concepts. And because questions are sort of blurry at the edge, I find the approach very interesting. Because where data might have been cut out in a more traditional search, that blurry edge can be quite informative. It’s that slightly blurry edge that is the tasty bit. It’s almost like going from Newtonian mechanics to the new world of quantum mechanics back at the turn of the last century. And it’s bringing that new dimension around the understanding of the universe.

Cipher gives us AI speed for patent analysis, enabling us to look at huge and vast amounts of patent data through a different lens in a much quicker time than possible, without the use of artificial intelligence, with just using normal searching techniques. The AI adds that extra dimension of speed – for us, that’s critical.




过去几十年来,中国一直以世界工厂而闻名,制造和出口商品以满足日益增长的全球需求。据美国政府统计,由于从中国进口的贸易量增长,美国国内的制造业失去了 280 万个工作岗位。在 2020 年,由于新冠疫情的影响,中国的工厂暂时关闭,所造成的影响波及全球,全球市场对中国的依赖程度由此可见一斑。

鉴于对制成品单一来源的依赖程度及其对世界的重大影响,了解制造业的方方面面,包括所使用技术背后的知识产权,将对决策者大有裨益。

在本篇博客中,我们将深入探讨全球制造工程创新组合在过去几十年中的发展,并在此背景下分析中国的发展。我们将利用专利分析的见解来了解中国公司的增长对国际参与者的影响,并研究他们的应对措施。

专利数据对中国制造工程发展的启示

专利数据是了解创新和技术领域复杂竞争格局的实用工具,因为它提供了有关发明、专利权人、发明人的前瞻性信息,甚至还能找出从事类似技术研究的其他公司。

为了更清楚地了解制造工程公司的知识产权所有权,我们识别出了拥有 1000 多项专利家族的全球公司。图 1 显示了自 2000 年代初以来,中国发明在制造工程领域所占份额的持续增长情况。 有趣的是,中国在制造设备领域的增加只对日本和美国公司的发明产生了影响,从图中可以看出,这两个国家的专利申请量明显减少。与此同时,所有其他管辖权的发明份额在此期间保持相对稳定。

From Workbench to Innovator What IP Insights Reveal About China's Role in the Manufacturing Equipment Industry Figure 1

图 1:日本、美国、中国和其他国家(世界其他地区)在制造设备相关技术方面的专利申请趋势

中国正在成为知识中心,甚至可能成为全球制造工程领域的强国。中国发明在这一工程领域的影响力越大,全球传统企业对中国技术的依赖程度就越高。

非中国发明者在制造工程方面是否会考虑中国市场?

中国本身就是一个不断增长的市场。为了了解其他全球参与者是否将中国视为一个活跃的商机,我们研究了在中国活跃的制造工程专利组合的同比增长情况,发现其增长非常显著。

图 2 清楚地表明,在过去二十年里,中国的有效专利比例大幅上升,从仅占 6% 上升到 40% 以上。这一增长与中国在同一时期对全球制造业的影响是一致的,同时也表明全球其他大型企业有可能在中国市场保护其知识产权资产。

From Workbench to Innovator What IP Insights Reveal About China's Role in the Manufacturing Equipment Industry Figure 2

图 2:过去 20 年中国制造装备技术领域的专利申请量的增长趋势

国际制造工程公司的知识产权战略

对各个公司的专利组合进行分析,可以发现国际制造工程界的潜在战略。国际企业们已经认识到中国不断变化的工程领域所带来的风险和机遇,其中一部分的企业似乎已经采取了积极的措施来保护自己的知识产权。

从图 3 可以看出,并非所有公司都对中国日益增长的制造业市场采取了积极的态度。有些公司,如日本制造设备制造商 Fanuc,在中国保护其大部分的专利组合,这反映了他们对中国市场的承诺。截至撰写本博客时,Fanuc 公司约有 80% 的专利组合在中国受到专利保护。相比之下,其美国同行 Rockwell Automation 只有约 30% 的专利在中国有效。 中国对制造设备需求的增长,加上本地供应方的不断壮大,为本地企业利用 Rockwell Automation 等公司的发明创造了空间。如果不在当地申请专利,他们的技术无法受到保护。在关键业务市场上错过申请专利的时间点是知识产权管理者的噩梦。

From Workbench to Innovator What IP Insights Reveal About China's Role in the Manufacturing Equipment Industry Figure 3

图 3:国际制造设备公司及其在中国受保护的专利组合份额

中国企业和国际企业面临的挑战

中国制造业的快速增长及其在全球供应链中日益重要的地位,为中国企业和国际企业带来了机遇和挑战。

对于中国企业来说,主要的挑战在于培育一个可持续的创新生态系统,而不仅仅是制造能力。培养原创文化、激励研发和建立有效的知识产权保护措施至关重要。此外,中国企业必须努力提高自身在质量和创新方面的声誉,以与国际知名企业竞争。

另一方面,国际公司则面临着如何驾驭中国独特商业环境的挑战,包括知识产权保护、市场准入门槛以及来自本土公司的竞争。国际企业必须了解并适应中国市场不断变化的动态,同时有效保护自己的知识产权。

对于这些公司的决策者来说,所面临的挑战包括从了解下一个颠覆性发明到知道在哪里保护自己的发明,以免被淘汰出局。有了 LexisNexis® PatentSight® 等先进的分析解决方案,专利专业人员就可以利用可靠的数据和易于理解的可视化方法,得出并提出可操作的宝贵见解,为业务战略提供依据。事实证明,这些见解对于一些国际领先企业的首席执行官、首席财务官和其他利益相关者等非专利专家的战略决策者来说非常宝贵。根据与全球一些创新先驱合作的经验,我们了解到,要维持一个成功的创新组合,需要进行广泛的研究,包括将您的技术与其他行业领先者进行比较,发现您的研发战略中可以通过收购解决的差距等。专利分析的洞察力可以大大降低试图在中国大展拳脚的国际公司的风险,并帮助他们更精确地制定战略。

华为、国家电网和京东方等多家中国企业在在 LexisNexis 的新排名(企业对联合国可持续发展目标的贡献)中表现优异

北京时间,2023 年 7 月 12 日星期三,专利情报分析的领先供应商律商联讯(LexisNexis® Legal & Professional)在《探索全球可持续创新格局:全球百强企业及其他企业》中表彰了推动环境和社会进步的企业。这份独创的报告根据企业所持有的专利组合在推动创新实现联合国可持续发展目标(SDGs)方面的潜力对企业进行排名。

由于 80% 的技术信息只在专利中公布,该报告利用 LexisNexis® PatentSight® 分析平台,将全球专利数据与可持续发展目标的目标和进展指标进行客观映射,揭示了哪些公司、地区和行业对可持续发展的贡献最大。三星、强生、丰田汽车、高通和 LG 化学被评为世界上拥有最多与可持续发展目标相关专利的企业,其中美国在上榜的专利持有者数量方面领先于其他国家,其次是日本、中国和德国。

《探索全球可持续创新格局:全球百强企业及其他企业》入选企业

2023 年中国大陆地区入选百强可持续创新企业榜单的企业分别是:华为、国家电网、京东方、腾讯、中国石化、百度、蚂蚁集团、TCL、中国中化、平安保险、南方电网、美的、宁德时代、大疆创新、海尔、OPPO、比亚迪等十七家企业(以上公司顺序均按排名先后进行排序)。

专利和可持续发展目标:了解环境和社会进步的一个客观窗口

联合国在 2015 年建立了可持续发展目标框架,并将其最后期限定在 2030 年。2023 年已经离 2030年不远了,但世界在实现这些目标方面是否已经走了一半?尽管联合国为实现可持续发展目标提供了明确的时间表和措施,但预测前瞻性的进展仍具有十足的挑战性。通过将可持续发展目标指标与数以百万计的专利家族的数据相匹配,LexisNexis® 开发了一个新的、透明的框架,用于评估创新对加速可持续影响的潜力。

考虑到被联合国承认的可持续发展具体目标有 169 个,其中有 231 个进展指标。因此,与其他环境、社会和治理框架(ESG)相比,我们认为这些目标更精确,更被普遍接受。专利制度使公司有能力在新的解决方案上下注,认识到突破性创新可以迅速推动实现目标的进展。

将可持续发展目标的指标和专利数据结合在一起,为一个对环境负责,且具有包容性创新的未来提供了一个独特、基于数据的视角。通过对可持续技术发展状况的澄清,《探索全球可持续创新格局:全球百强企业及其他企业》报告使企业、组织和利益相关者有能力为他们的进展制定基准,并为了在 2030 年实现可持续发展目标而采取大胆的新行动。

可持续创新的发展轨迹和价值

在报告的许多见解中指出,企业正越来越多地将其战略与可持续发展结合起来,百强可持续创新企业中有 75% 表示可持续发展目标与他们的业务目标相关。不仅如此,报告还发现,可持续创新集中在表现出色的企业中,在整个LexisNexis® 数据库超过 1.47 亿份专利文件中,近三分之一的与可持续发展目标相关的专利均为百强可持续创新企业所有。

LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案全球客户成功部主管 Marco Richter 表示:“面对加拿大最近发生的野火和不断演变的大流行病等危机,我们最大的希望在于创新的力量。”他认为,随着越来越多的企业响应号召,开发新的解决方案,我们需要客观的方法来评估这些贡献,并找出那些取得最大进展的企业。而《探索全球可持续创新格局》报告展示了专利分析在监测和促进我们这个时代的一些标志性挑战的进展方面的力量。

皇家飞利浦公司首席 ESG 以及法务官 Marnix van Ginneken 认为:“随着《探索全球可持续创新格局》报告的发布,LexisNexis为负责任和可持续的企业引入了一个新的卓越标准。飞利浦在该报告中的高排名反映了我们对SDG 3:良好的健康与福祉的承诺。作为一个负责任的健康技术领导者,我们已经确定了一个明确的目标,通过该目标指导我们所做的一切,并通过有意义的创新来改善人们的健康和福祉。以人为本和以病人为中心的创新一直是飞利浦的核心。通过客观地将专利与可持续发展目标相联系,并按实力对与可持续发展目标相关的企业专利组合进行排名,《探索全球可持续创新格局》报告确定了像我们这样正在建设一个更健康、更繁荣、更可持续的世界的公司。”

图 1:百强可持续创新公司在主要可持续发展目标中的份额(按专利资产指数计算)

信息来源:《探索全球可持续创新格局:全球百强企业及其他企业》

领先者正朝向数字化和去碳化的全球经济迈进

该报告不仅对表现最出色的企业的创新表现,同时也对影响可持续知识产权战略的区域和市场动态有着新的见解。  

可持续创新方面的领导者:

  • 按照与 SDG 相关的专利组合的绝对实力进行排名,排名前三的可持续发展领导者分别是三星、强生公司和丰田汽车。虽然强生公司和丰田汽车在其专利组合中与 SDG 相关的比例较高,但三星公司与 SDG 相关的专利的优异表现使该公司位居第一。

可持续发展目标的创新目标:

  • SDG 9:产业、创新和基础设施是百强可持续创新企业的主要焦点,由总部位于亚洲的公司领衔,包括三星(1)、丰田汽车(3)和 LG 化学(5)。
  • SDG 3:良好健康与福祉紧随其后,分别由强生(2)、罗氏(9)和三星(1)领先。对于 SDG 7:经济适用的清洁能源,贡献最大的分别是丰田汽车(3)、国家电网(8)和通用电气(7)。这些实力雄厚的百强可持续创新公司的专利涵盖了电动和混合动力汽车、能源效率、区块链和物联网等领域。

区域模式:

  • 虽然美国的排名高于其他任何国家,有 33 家专利所有人被选为百强可持续创新企业,但亚洲是拥有最多(44家)百强可持续创新企业的地区。
  • 区域模式可以反映出国内的经济和政策重点。美国在百强榜单的制药业中占据主导地位,而日本的强劲表现可能是由于日本的 SDG 奖和 SDG 未来城市等举措。

行业重点领域:

  • 在百强可持续创新企业中,有两个行业并列拥有最多的专利权人,分别是制药业与化学品和材料业,其次是汽车、信息技术、电子产品和工程行业。在 LexisNexis®《2023 年创新动能:全球百强》报告中,制药业也在 100 家最具创新力的公司名单中名列前茅。
  • 虽然电子产品业在总体上仅有相对较少的专利权人,但三星(1)、LG电子(13)和苹果(17)等公司的在可持续发展目标相关专利质量方面表现突出,表明半导体对解决气候变化和数字转型的重要性。
  • 化学品和材料业的发展表明,向电动汽车的转型正在推动 LG 化学(5)等表现出色的企业取得进步。
  • 尽管减排迫在眉睫,但近年来汽车行业的许多企业并没有增加其与 SDG 相关的专利持有量。日本的丰田汽车(3)拥有行业内最大的与 SDG 相关的专利组合,而美国的福特汽车(12)和通用汽车(23)在专利质量方面表现良好。
关于排名的方法论

本报告新颖的排名方法论释放出众多企业所持有的数十万项专利和数百万项专利申请中在可持续性方面的见解。LexisNexis 的专家分析了联合国关于可持续发展目标的文件以及相关的目标和指标,然后将 13 个由技术驱动的目标映射到 LexisNexis 的专利数据库。本报告使用专利资产指数(Patent Asset Index,PatentSight 平台中的一种评估方法),根据其引领后续发明的能力(Technology Relevance,技术影响力)和其保护的市场覆盖面(Market Coverage,市场影响力)来衡量与可持续发展目标相关的专利组合。从而得出对前 100 名可持续创新企业的排名(可在线查看前 300 名)、行业深度分析和对特定可持续发展目标的深入分析,以及说明与可持续发展目标相关的专利全景、专利与可持续发展目标的映射专利资产指数的可视化资料。此外,报告还展示了企业和政府机构如何利用专利分析来加速可持续创新。

律商联讯是全球领先的法律、法规和商业信息及分析工具供应商,帮助客户提高生产力,改善决策和结果,并在世界各地推进法治。 作为数字化先锋,律商联讯率先通过Lexis®和Nexis®服务将法律和商业信息带到网上。律商联讯为150多个国家的客户提供服务,在全球拥有10,500名员工,是 RELX 集团(LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX)的一部分,RELX 集团是为专业和商业客户提供基于信息的分析和决策工具的全球供应商。

关于 LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案

LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案致力于让全球的创新清晰可见。我们通过帮助创新者做出明智的决定,提高生产力,合规,为他们的业务取得竞争优势,最终创造辉煌成果。LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案的工作流程和分析解决方案(LexisNexis® PatentSight®、Lex Machina®、LexisNexis TotalPatent One®、LexisNexis® IPlytics™、LexisNexis Cipher™、LexisNexis PatentAdvisor®、LexisNexis PatentOptimizer®、以及LexisNexis® IP Data Direct)使企业能够更高效和有效地向世界带来有意义的创新。我们很荣幸能直接支持和服务这些创新者,从而改善人类的生活。

媒体联系方式

黄伟铭(Edward Huang) 
LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案
[email protected]

大阪裕子(Hiroko Osaka)
LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案
[email protected] 

在这次采访中,我们采访了烟台杰瑞油田服务集团有限公司(”杰瑞集团”)的首席知识产权官周兴先生。杰瑞集团是一家专注于石油和天然气服务的公司,近年来也已涉足新能源领域。杰瑞集团因其出色的知识产权表现入选了我们最近的行业报告《2023年创新动能:全球百强》。

周兴先生讨论了杰瑞集团的专利战略,专利在保护公司市场扩张中的作用,以及使用专利分析来维持顶级的专利组合并识别和评估未来的技术。他还解释了杰瑞集团如何通过不断更新设备和了解市场发展和竞争来保持创新的领先。此外,周兴先生还强调了公司如何确保其专利战略符合其整体业务战略,并通过风险预防和控制支持业务发展。

关于周兴先生的一些背景信息:周兴先生在加盟杰瑞集团之前,有二十余年大型企业和全球五百强跨国企业的工作经验,曾担任中兴通讯股份有限公司欧洲知识产权总监、TCL集团股份有限公司知识产权法务总监、TCL实业控股股份有限公司知识产权总监等职务,在知识产权战略规划制定、体系搭建与运行,专利申请、许可诉讼、商版域事务、商业秘密和专利运营等领域具有丰富的经验。

Q 1: 请您简单介绍一下杰瑞集团与杰瑞集团的使命。

周兴先生:杰瑞集团成立于1999年,经24年的发展,已成为一家全球化运营的上市公司。杰瑞集团在油气领域业务不断深耕的同时,在2021年开始实施“油气产业”和“新能源产业”双主业战略,2022年杰瑞新能源年产10万吨锂电池负极材料项目开工,今年3月初进入生产运营状态。自创立以来,杰瑞集团致力于成为不同肤色的人们所尊敬的公司,我们的使命是聚焦客户关注的挑战和压力,提供有竞争力的解决方案,持续为客户创造最大价值。

Q 2: 对于杰瑞集团来说,专利是一个什么样的角色?发挥什么样的作用呢?

周兴先生:对杰瑞集团来说,专利工作的核心目的,即是从专利的角度出发,为公司的市场拓展起到保驾护航的作用。杰瑞集团在比较早的时候确定了“研发未动,专利先行”战略。这个战略反映的是就杰瑞集团对于专利的重视以及专利在公司的角色和作用。我们目前采取的是防御型的专利战略,一方面是严格管控公司可能面对风险,确保自己的业务发展是安全的,另一个方面是我们会在自己所聚焦的比较优势的技术领域去打造优势的专利组合。对于风险防控,我们会从三个环节去推进,包括研发环节、采购环节和销售环节。对于研发环节,我们会提前进行专利分析,对可能会产生风险的技术提出规避设计的方案,随后落实规避设计的方案,在产品投入市场之前就进行风险管控。对于销售环节和采购环节,实质上就是对合同条款的风险管控,特别是涉及知识产权条款的风险管控;举例来说,对于销售环节,我们会给销售部门进行知识产权风险培训,要求销售同事在签署销售协议时与知识产权部门保持密切沟通,确保销售协议里的知识产权条款都经过严格、完善的审核。通过全链条的风险管控,杰瑞集团才能良好地规避风险。与此同时,通过对自身优势的技术领域进行深入且全面的专利布局,充分打造自己的优势专利组合,为杰瑞集团自身的专利反击武器构建打下坚实的基础。

Q 3: 杰瑞集团如何保持创新的领先?

周兴先生:从杰瑞集团的发展历程来看,我们一直都坚持以市场为牵引。具体来讲,无论是从最开始做配件贸易,到设备的维修,然后再到设备的制造,杰瑞集团的业务发展都是出于对客户需求深刻的理解。所以,我们不仅致力于满足客户的需求,同时也为客户提供最具竞争力的产品和解决方案。对于每一个类型的设备,我们也在积极地根据行业的发展进行更新换代。我们所做的探索是走在全球技术发展的前列,能够感知全球市场发展的主要脉络,并且紧紧跟随这个脉络。这也是得益于杰瑞集团全球市场的布局以及对于全球市场深刻的理解。在进行研发创新时,我们也会对自己提出很多问题,比如:我们认为自己的产品很好,但也会想一想客户是不是也有一样的看法?我们的技术是不是从全球来看处于领先的?我们领先的产品和技术是否具备持续竞争力?我们是不是可以长时间地处于技术创新的领先地位?我们能不能对标世界一流的企业和产品?我们应该用什么样的技术和产品去应对当前复杂的市场环境?等等。所以,我们会从研发的角度不断去了解市场的发展和竞争情况,持续引领公司的发展。

Q 4: 如何确保杰瑞集团的专利战略和公司的发展战略一致?

周兴先生:专利部门是公司的职能部门,其核心职能就是服务于业务的发展,没有其他。所以,专利工作也是根据公司的业务需求来开展的。目前杰瑞集团在全球的业务覆盖70多个国家,包括北美、中东、俄罗斯、非洲、南美以及亚太等区域。不同区域对于专利工作的支持要求也有区别的,其中北美地区作为全球专利诉讼风险最高的区域,也是我们的业务单位对于公司专利部门提出专利支持需求最迫切的区域,自然也成为我们关注的重点区域。我们从专利风险防控和专利组合打造等两个方面来为公司的业务发展提供支持,使得专利的战略和公司的发展战略保持一致。

Q 5: 您认为专业分析在维护和发展公司的顶级专利组合以及识别、评估未来技术方面发挥了什么作用呢?

周兴先生:专利部门是公司的职能部门,其核心职能就是服务于业务的发展,没有其他。所以,专利工作也是根据公司的业务需求来开展的。目前杰瑞集团在全球的业务覆盖70多个国家,包括北美、中东、俄罗斯、非洲、南美以及亚太等区域。不同区域对于专利工作的支持要求也有区别的,其中北美地区作为全球专利诉讼风险最高的区域,也是我们的业务单位对于公司专利部门提出专利支持需求最迫切的区域,自然也成为我们关注的重点区域。我们从专利风险防控和专利组合打造等两个方面来为公司的业务发展提供支持,使得专利的战略和公司的发展战略保持一致。

哪些公司正在引领科学和技术的未来?

下载《2023年创新动能:全球百强》来了解一下!利用我们专有的专利质量指标来审视全球专利全景图。阅读完整的报告,发现哪些公司处于创新的最前沿,推动着未来技术的发展。

哪些公司正在引领科学和技术的未来?

下载《2023年创新动能:全球百强》来了解一下!利用我们专有的专利质量指标来审视全球专利全景图。阅读完整的报告,发现哪些公司处于创新的最前沿,推动着未来技术的发展.

目前,世界正在将重点转向可持续发展。公司、政府和普通民众都认识到需要减少对环境的影响,并找到可持续工作和生活的方式。而随着消费者和投资者寻求既有效又对环境负面影响较小的解决方案,这种转变为创新创造了新的机会。知识产权(IP)部门在发展可持续创新和传达公司对企业可持续发展的承诺方面可以发挥关键的作用。 

为什么单靠消费者行为不能解决问题 

今天的世界正面临着重大的可持续发展挑战。例如,医疗保健部门是碳足迹的重要贡献者,其活动包括医疗设备和装置的生产、医疗保健设施的建设和能源密集型技术的使用。在全球范围内,它占排放量的 4.4%1

为了维护一个可持续发展的环境和一个值得世代居住的星球,联合国的目标是到2030年减少45%的排放,到2050年达到净零排放2。然而,在新冠病毒疫情导致运输活动大大减少的第一年,排放量的减少只有6.4%3。这表明,仅仅依靠消费者行为的改变不足以应对这一挑战。相反,创新的解决方案才是实现排放目标的关键。  

技术如何为可持续发展的未来做出贡献 

由于持续的全球大流行病,日益严重的自然灾害和不断减少的资源库,各组织正面临着越来越大的压力,需要优先考虑可持续性。这已成为负责迅速采取行动的领导人和创新者的一个关键焦点。 

技术可以促进可再生能源的开发和使用,通过自动化和优化促进资源的有效利用,并促进信息和知识的传播以支持可持续的实践和决策,从而为可持续的未来做出贡献。改善可持续性可能涉及各种技术,包括: 

  • 可再生能源技术: 太阳能、风能、水能、地热能和生物质能可以提供清洁和可再生的能源,有助于减少温室气体排放。 
  • 能源效率技术: 诸如智能建筑、LED照明和高效的暖通空调(HVAC, Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning)系统等技术可以减少维持舒适的生活和工作环境所需的能源量。 
  • 交通技术: 电动车、公共交通系统和自行车友好型基础设施可以减少交通对化石燃料的依赖,而化石燃料是温室气体排放的一个重要因素。 
  • 水资源管理技术: 雨水收集、灰水回收和滴灌等技术可以减少各种活动所需的淡水量,保护珍贵的资源。 
  • 废物管理技术: 堆肥、回收和废物转化为能源的设施可以减少送往垃圾场的废物数量,节约资源,减少对环境的负面影响。 
  • 农业技术: 计算机辅助耕作(CAF)和再生农业实践等技术可以提高粮食生产的效率和可持续性,减少对资源的压力,改善地球的健康。 
  • 材料科学和工程: 开发新的、可持续的材料,并使用生命周期评估来最大限度地减少生产和处置货物对环境的影响,可以帮助创造一个更可持续的未来。 
  • 数字技术: 物联网、人工智能和区块链技术可以通过创造更有效的系统来优化能源使用和减少浪费,从而帮助改善可持续性。 

专利:衡量企业可持续发展的一个理想尺度 

专利为了解公司的研发工作和未来产品提供了一个独特的窗口,因为它们要求公开受保护的技术,而且往往在相应的商业产品进入市场之前多年就已经公布。这使得基于专利数据的衡量标准具有客观性和前瞻性。因此,专利数据在这方面发挥着关键作用,因为它可以为全球创新提供宝贵的见解,并客观地评估企业的可持续性实践。专利是一种理想的衡量标准,因为: 

  • 它们提供了一个公司通过其知识和专长带来可持续变化的能力的证据 
  • 每一项被授权的专利都有可能通过其受保护的发明为社会带来积极的变化 
  • 拥有支持可持续创新的政策和专利法的当局将有更多的此类创新受到法律保护 

根据联合国可持续发展目标绘制专利图: 以独一无二的科学方法更好地了解可持续创新 

随着可持续发展已成为投资者、员工和消费者的关键价值,全球的公司正面临着客观衡量和报告其企业可持续发展努力的挑战。根据我们在 2021 年进行的研究,在持有最大专利组合的 100 家公司中,75% 的公司在其年度和/或可持续发展报告中表示,联合国可持续发展目标与他们的商业战略和目标相关。 

可以使用 LexisNexis® PatentSight® 进行分析以研究投资组合的可持续性重点。知识产权分析和情报平台提供的众多分析功能之一是将联合国可持续发展目标和指标映射到关键词和专利分类。将此映射与我们的专利价值指标(专利资产指数及其基础指标)结合使用,可为全球可持续创新提供无与伦比的洞察力。它使企业能够评估涉及特定可持续发展领域的不同技术的创新。这种分析为更好的决策和报告提供了关键和可靠的信息。 

利用 PatentSight® 对联合国可持续发展目标进行客观的专利分析 

基于可持续发展目标映射的 PatentSight 分析使专利和非专利专家能够简单地进入他们感兴趣的领域并获得有洞察力的信息——无论是为研发提供信息、指导投资战略还是支持向利益相关者传达他们的企业可持续性承诺。 

如何进行可持续发展目标与专利的映射?一组LexisNexis 专利数据专家客观地将有活跃专利活动的技术领域与可持续发展目标及其231个独特的指标联系起来。这些指标具有全球性,并由联合国会员国制定的区域和国家层面的指标加以补充。 

尽管专利中的科学是普遍的,但属地法律定义了专利的标准。这与可持续发展目标框架是一致的,在该框架中,全球视角应该在国家层面上实施。 

包括有活跃的专利活动的技术领域,可以明确地与可持续发展目标的目标和指标相联系。每个技术领域都被定义为检索专利,并与披露技术领域特定发明的专利相匹配,并由联合国可持续发展目标元数据加以说明。 

关于 LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案如何将专利与可持续发展目标相结合的更多信息,可在我们的常见问题部分找到。 

使用案例:促进您的可持续发展努力并有效沟通 

PatentSight 联合国可持续发展目标与专利的映射功能在多个方面提供支持: 

  • 评估您所拥有的可持续技术专利组合的价值,并确定您的业务在可持续发展方面可以增长的领域 
  • 客观地衡量实现可持续发展目标的进展: 确定您在可持续技术方面投资的有效性,并确定哪些技术有重大影响,哪些影响较小。 
  • 制定一个投资可持续发展技术的战略:全面了解可持续技术领域的竞争,寻找合作伙伴和许可机会,以帮助和加快您的可持续发展努力。 
  • 了解公司投资于哪些联合国可持续发展目标:分析研发战略之间的相互关系,并确定您的竞争对手是否在类似的可持续技术领域进行研究。 

点击这里了解更多关于PatentSight中的联合国可持续发展目标功能。 

How a Global Science and Tech Company Assists Their Sustainability Strategy With IP

For Merck, KGaA a company that believes in science as a force for good, the ability to accurately assess its social and environmental impact is important. Find out how Merck leverages PatentSight to communicate their commitment to sustainability.

一家全球科技公司如何利用知识产权协助其可持续发展战略 

对于相信科学是一种善的力量的默克公司(Merck, KGaA)来说,准确评估其对于社会和环境影响的能力非常重要。了解默克公司如何利用 PatentSight 来传达他们对可持续发展的承诺。 

在上一篇推送中,我们探讨了中国日益增长的电力需求,以及在这个不断增长的市场中运营的工程公司对发电相关解决方案的专利申请策略。在LexisNexis® PatentSight® 的专利分析的帮助下,我们向您展示了这一领域的专利申请如何在中国申请的数量超过其他国家。我们还注意到,中国公司拥有的专利组合的总体实力在过去10年里一直处于持续上升的轨道上,而且没有放缓的迹象。

在本篇推送中,我们将探讨这些转变的影响及其对国际工程公司的意义,包括我们在中国电能发电专利的引用趋势中发现的事情。在分析中,我们再次依靠策划的专利数据和分析,找出国际公司如何应对这一不断增长的市场,同时了解中国和国际能源公司拥有的技术组合的交叉点。

国际能源公司如何应对中国日益增长的电力需求?

从图 1 可以看出,至少有一些国际公司正在积极保护他们在中国的发明。像施耐德电气(Schneider Electric)、ABB、西门子(Siemens Energy)等公司在中国保护了大约 50% 的专利组合。这可能是对一个蓬勃发展的行业的预期,该行业预计将成为世界最大的能源消费国。

图 1:活跃在中国的国际工程公司的发电专利份额

国际专利为中国科技发展铺平道路

中国公司不仅在这一领域迅速形成优势,而且我们的分析表明,它们是以更成熟的国际公司的发明为基础的。在图2中,这种依赖变得更加清晰,因为我们可以看到每个中国专利组合引用国际专利的程度。

每个气泡代表了中国工程公司拥有的专利中引用相应国际公司的专利组合的份额。 以金风科技为例,他们的专利组合中有 35% 引用了通用电气(GE)的专利,23% 的专利组合引用了 Vestas 的专利。就国家电网公司而言,它恰好正是世界上最大的公共事业公司,这种引用国际公司的倾向性更加明显。毫无疑问,国际公司申请的专利正在为新兴的中国公司科技发展铺平道路。

图2:中国电能发电专利中引用国际工程公司专利的比例

将专利分析作为竞争监控的雷达

中国能源市场的知识产权争夺战日趋白热化,中外工程公司争相抢占主导地位。未来几年将是决定这一重要领域技术领先地位的关键时期。显然,中外工程公司都必须密切关注其知识产权状况,以保护其当前和未来的业务。

我们看到,中国公司正在大量利用国际知识产权来发展其专利组合,这表明他们意识到创新和保持竞争优势的重要性。专利分析可以为工程公司监控这些创新发展并提供有价值的见解。公司还可以利用专利数据将其技术与其他竞争者进行比较,跟踪市场发展,识别新兴趋势,寻找有前途的技术合作伙伴,确定收购目标,并决定是否进入市场运作或通过授权来实现其知识产权的货币化。通过这种方式,公司可以根据可靠的数据做出明智的决定,并利用机会发展壮大并开拓新市场。

维信诺科技股份有限公司(“维信诺”)是一家是全球领先的新型显示整体解决方案创新型供应商。

维信诺因其出色的知识产权表现入选了我们于 2 月发布的行业报告《2023年创新动能:全球百强》。作为连续两年入选《创新动能:全球百强》榜单的企业,LexisNexis® 知识产权解决方案一直十分好奇维信诺对于创新与专利的见解。近日,我们有幸采访到了维信诺的知识产权总监何明明先生。何明明先生分享了“专利在维信诺运营中发挥的作用”以及“公司发展与专利战略的一致性如何保持”。

Q 1: 请您简单介绍一下维信诺科技股份有限公司(“维信诺”)与维信诺的使命。

何明明先生维信诺成立于2001年,前身是 1996 年成立的清华大学 OLED(有机发光显示器,Organic Light Emitting Display)项目组。维信诺以“拓展视界,提升人类视觉享受”为愿景,“以科技创新引领中国OLED产业”为使命,专注 OLED 事业 20 余年,已发展成为集研发、生产、销售于一体的全球 OLED 产业领军企业。截至目前,申请 12000 余件与 OLED 相关的关键专利,荣获了由国务院颁发的“国家技术发明奖一等奖”,及联合国世界知识产权组织(WIPO)和我国国家知识产权局共同颁发的“中国专利金奖”等重要奖项。

Q 2: 对于维信诺来说,专利是一个什么样的角色?发挥什么样的作用呢?

何明明先生:技术创新和知识产权(包含专利),一直是维信诺战略落地的两大支柱。对维信诺来说,知识产权承担着四大职责:维护业务安全、保护技术创新、支持前沿探索、支撑资金规划。此外,专利是公司竞争力的核心要素之一,是维信诺探索前沿、持续创新、市场开拓的重要保障和直接成果。

维信诺的专利工作已经融入公司主营业务,在战略、研发、经营各环节初步实现协同和融合。基于专利信息分析而形成的技术发展规划,为前沿探索提供方向洞察;嵌入研发全过程的发明点挖掘和专利布局,为创新成果提供有侧重的妥善保护;提前规划的专利资产管理与研发立项协同,满足公司融资规划项目的需求;覆盖上市产品和重点研发方向的风控与合规,则是公司业务安全的基本保障。

Q 3:如何确保维信诺的专利战略和公司的发展战略一致?

何明明先生:知识产权战略是公司战略体系的有机构成。在维信诺,商业战略、研发战略、知识产权战略相互支撑,形成价值闭环。在制定知识产权的战略时,需要考虑公司战略、宏观环境、友商行为、自身能力的影响。因此可以看到,公司战略是知识产权领域战略的关键输入。这是保证两者能够对齐的重要方法。此外,知识产权战略是一个动态刷新的过程,每半年会进行刷新,及时评估公司战略、宏观环境等的变化而适时优化。 对维信诺来说,知识产权战略制定的过程是一个讨论和共识的过程,我们会让分管领导、内部客户、核心骨干充分参与,确保所制定战略的正确性、可行性。当然,战略实施过程的管控和调优是非常重要的,需要推行团队具有战略定力和推行能力。

《2023年创新动能:全球百强》报告

在维信诺所属的电子产品领域,今年入选创新百强企业榜单的企业,除维信诺以外,同时还有:瑞声科技、苹果、友达光电、京东方、大疆创新、京瓷、LG电子、Magic Leap、村田制作所、三星、天马微电子等十一家企业。此外,中国大陆地区入选创新百强企业榜单的企业,除了贵公司以外,同时还有:瑞声科技、蚂蚁集团、京东方、宁德时代、中信科(大唐电信)、大疆创新、华为、中国中化、舜宇光学科技、腾讯、天马微电子、烟台杰瑞集团等十二家企业(以上公司顺序均按英文字母顺序进行排序)。

哪些公司正在引领科学和技术的未来?

下载《2023年创新动能:全球百强》来了解一下!利用我们专有的专利质量指标来审视全球专利全景图。阅读完整的报告,发现哪些公司处于创新的最前沿,推动着未来技术的发展.

中国是世界第二大经济体,人口超过14亿,对全球市场力量的影响是举世皆知的。中国快速扩张的动力主要来自其经济增长和中产阶级可支配收入的增加。根据国际航空运输协会(IATA)的数据,在过去十年中,中国的国内客运量平均每年增长10.5%,使其成为世界上增长最快的市场之一。2019年,中国正式超过美国,成为乘客数量最多的航空市场。这就也引出了一个问题,这样的增长对航空业的传统主导者有何影响?

利用专利分析法研究中国蓬勃发展的航空业

关于公司真正在做什么和计划把什么推向市场,几乎没有公正的信息来源。然而,专利为了解这些公司的研发工作和未来产品提供了一个独特的途径,因为专利要求公开披露其保护的技术,而且往往在相应的商业产品进入市场之前多年就已经公布。这使得基于专利数据的衡量标准具有客观性和前瞻性。利用专利分析来阐明中国航空企业的创新现状,我们可以在下图中看到,这些创新者在过去十年中迅速增加了其专利持有量。

这张图表明,中国航空公司在研发方面投入了大量资金,并将自己定位为航空业的主要参与者。中国制造的飞机已经看到了商业利益,中国商飞声称已经收到了1200多架C919飞机的订单。这款机型在中国本地与欧盟的空客A320neo和美国的波音737 Max等大获成功的国际机型竞争。

专利数据表示,外国企业在中国的知识产权战略存在差距

尽管有明显的市场增长和不断增加的创新,但许多传统航空公司尚未充分参与中国市场。缺乏参与的迹象之一,可以简单地从这些公司在中国境内的知识产权申请量看出。因为大多数国际航空企业还没有把中国的同行视为对其业务的真正威胁。但是,随着外国公司参与中国航空市场,他们是不可能防止这件事情的发生:当外国公司在中国境内经营服务和维修中心,雇用和培训本地人才,这些人带着所有的知识离开后再加入本地的航空公司。忽视中国的知识产权保护所能得到的唯一结果,就是中国企业通过学习其他国家(区域)的专利申请所公开的技术,并在中国市场内不受限制地实施这些技术。

我们通过 LexisNexis® PatentSight® 进行的分析,使我们能够根据活跃在特定地区的专利组合进行细分,分析结果显示,通用电气(GE,领先的航空发动机供应商)和波音(Boeing)是唯一在中国有合理份额的专利组合保护的公司。波音公司的传统竞争对手空客(Airbus)也在中国保护了相当比例的专利组合。

最重要的发现是,作为通用电气和赛峰集团(Safran)的传统竞争对手,劳斯莱斯(Rolls-Royce)只有10%的专利组合在中国受到保护。鉴于劳斯莱斯以其预防性维护技术而闻名,其目前的知识产权申请策略可能无法阻止其知识产权在中国的扩散。一项可能耗费了数百万美元研究经费的技术,却在中国航空市场上成了可供争夺的技术劳斯莱斯可能已与这些技术的部分收益失之交臂。

中国和国际创新者之间的合作是什么样子的?

航空业的传统市场领导者需要适应不断变化的中国航空业格局所带来的挑战和机遇,以保持领先地位。这意味着不仅要参与中国市场,还要与中国公司在研发方面进行合作。例如,空客公司已经与中国航空工业集团建立了一个合资企业,在中国制造和组装A320系列飞机。同样,波音公司也与中国航空企业合作开展研发项目。

专利许可也允许国际公司与中国的同行进行接触。但是,要做到这一点,他们需要赶在中国公司之前在中国申请专利。本文中用于专利分析的数据,不仅可以帮助航空创新者确定潜在的被许可人,而且有助于他们确定其可利用的地位。

外国企业和中国公司之间的合作已经取得了积极的成果。2017年,空客签署了一项向中国出售140架飞机的协议,价值约228亿美元。2018年,波音与中国商飞签署了一份谅解备忘录,目的在探索商业航空的合作领域。这些合作不仅为国际公司提供了进入中国市场的机会,也使他们能够利用中国企业的专业知识和资源。

无垠的天空正在发出邀请:国际航空业者是否愿意接受? 中国航空市场正在迅速发展,如果国际航空公司不想落后,就必须参与进来。中国本土的航空企业正在这个技术领域建立一个强大的发明组合。无论是通过研究伙伴关系,还是直接进入市场保护自己的发明,国际参与者都需要采取行动,对中国同行取得的进步做出回应。通过正确的方法,航空创新者可以从这个不断增长的市场带来的机遇中受益。

根据国际能源署的预测,中国的电力消耗将激增,到 2025 年,中国将使用世界上三分之一的电力,比美国、经合组织(OECD)和欧洲的总和还要多。

此外,英国石油公司《2022 年世界能源统计回顾》报告称,中国的电力目前是通过煤炭(63%)、水电(15%)、可再生能源(14%)、核电(5%)、天然气(3%)和其他方式产生。世界银行警告说,中国目前的能源结构严重依赖煤炭,将无法在2060年之前实现碳中和目标。

为了满足这一激增的需求,再加上向清洁能源过渡的需要,意味着中国正越来越多地转向创新技术解决方案,从而解决该国的能源需求。这对开发电能发电技术的国际工程公司有重大影响,并为其业务带来了新的风险或可能的机会。

专利显示中国电能发电技术的投资稳步增长

开发产品和应用基于发明的技术需要有合法的权利。因此,发明需要尽快受到专利保护(通常是在产品准备上市前几个月甚至几年),才能保护公司的技术领先地位和商业利益。因此,专利文件除了是有关发明和发明人的宝贵信息来源外,也是一件具有前瞻性的工具,可以帮助我们及时预测一个行业的趋势。

为了在不断发展的中国能源市场中维护其商业利益,国内外能源领域的工程公司都必须在中国申请专利保护其发明。 因此,随着时间的推移,中国内该领域的有效专利数量一直在增加。下面的图 1 清楚地描述了在 2003 年,只有一小部分工程公司的专利组合在中国是有效的。然而,二十年后的今天,这一比例已经超过了 60%。这表明,国际工程公司意识到了市场的趋势,并在研究和开发方面进行了大量投资,以创造新的和创新的解决方案来满足日益增长的能源需求。

图1:电能发电专利组合(在中国有效)的份额稳步增长

谁在开发更好的专利组合:中国公司还是国际公司?

虽然在中国的工程公司的有效电能发电专利数量让我们看到了专利活动的增加,但这并不能帮助我们充分了解竞争格局。为了更好地了解该行业及其主要参与者,我们使用LexisNexis® PatentSight® 专利分析解决方案分析了其专利组合的实力。PatentSight® 利用了一种独特的、专有的、经过科学验证的专利评估方法,称为专利资产指数(Patent Asset Index)。基于可靠的专利数据的分析可以为商业决策提供一些急需的指导和清晰度,特别是在公共信息匮乏的情况下,例如了解中国公司的研发战略。

将选定的中国和国际工程公司的专利组合与这一定性指标进行比较,下图 2 显示,在过去 20 年中,专利组合的实力发生了显着的变化。在 2009 年至 2013 年期间,活跃在能源行业的国际工程公司在电力能源相关专利的实力稳步提高,但直到 2010 年代初,中国同行的专利组合实力都较弱,直到 2011 年专利组合的整体实力才开始改善。从那时起,中国公司的专利组合实力持续地增加,并在 2019 年超过了国际公司。

图 2:中国工程公司在开发与发电相关技术的高质量发明方面领先于国际同行

专利组合实力的增长主要是由中国公司拥有的专利大幅增加所推动的。与国际工程公司相比,中国公司的份额从 2003 年的 9%,2012 年的 39%,增加到 2022 年的 72%。这表明,中国公司正在迅速发展其专利组合。为了在这个正在寻找化石燃料替代品的市场中生存下去,现在是国际能源公司注意到这个正在崛起的超级大国将成为世界上最大能源消费国的时候了。至少,全球企业需要确保他们的技术目前在这个将成为世界上最大的市场中得到保护。

利用知识产权,充分利用快速增长的中国能源市场

中国工程公司拥有的电能发电专利组合质量的这种上升趋势,提出了关于中国创新和知识产权保护的未来的重要问题。在中国快速变化的能源领域,国际工程公司必须采取什么策略来保护其发明?中国的发明人是在开发自己的技术,还是在依赖国际企业的发明?在未来十年,谁将成为中国能源市场的主导者?

在中国不断增长的能源需求及其向碳中和经济转型的背景下,这些都是需要解决的关键问题。了解国内技术的这些发展,可以帮助国际公司调整战略,更快地适应市场的需求,避免失去扩大业务的重要机会。 不要错过本系列的第二部分,我们将回答上面提出的所有问题,并深入探讨中国日益增长的能源需求对创新和知识产权保护的影响。在下一篇博客,我们还将探讨工程公司在中国不断变化的能源格局中可以采取的保护其知识产权的策略。

Siemens leverages LexisNexis® PatentSight® to integrate its IP activities into the company’s innovation process and measure the quality of its patents.

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How Patents Became A Managing Board Agenda Item At Siemens With PatentSight

Siemens leverages LexisNexis® PatentSight® to integrate its IP activities into the company’s innovation process and measure the quality of its patents.

“In a digital world, patents document a company’s contribution to a digital ecosystem in which businesses work together to create solutions through partnerships and licensing. But companies can only share and license something they own.

To protect their ability to make money from their contributions and their competitive advantage, they must establish their IP rights. Siemens needed a different approach to IP rights and a different understanding of how to create these IP rights.”

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Siemens leverages PatentSight to increase quality of patents…

…and create value for the business

Siemens is a digital pioneer focusing on the areas of electrification and automation. The company partners with its customers to unleash their business potential using energy-efficient, resource-saving technology and digital know how.

For more than 170 years, the name Siemens has been synonymous with internationality and worldwide presence. Siemens is a global powerhouse positioned along the electrification value chain—from power generation, transmission and distribution to smart grid solutions and the efficient application of electrical energy—as well as in the areas of medical imaging and laboratory diagnostics.

Siemens operates in production and manufacturing plants worldwide. In addition, the company has office buildings, warehouses, research and development facilities or sales offices in almost every country/region in the world. Siemens currently holds more than 100,000 patents and in 2013 was filing applications for more than 3,000 new patents annually across its lines of business. Based in Germany, Siemens is a multinational engineering company with annual revenues of €86.85 billion and 385,000 employees around the world in 2019.

Business case

When Beat Weibel joined Siemens in 2013 as the Chief Intellectual Property (IP) Counsel and Group Senior Vice President, Siemens consistently ranked number one or number two in the number of European patent filings. The company still is today.

However, when Weibel joined the company he saw right away that Siemens, like many large technology companies, was focused primarily on the quantity of patents, not their quality. This is a strategy that Weibel viewed as less effective in a digital world.

“Companies previously used patents to establish IP rights and block competitors from benefiting from basic innovations,” says Weibel. “In a digital world, patents are more often used to document a company’s contribution to a digital ecosystem in which businesses work together to create solutions through partnerships and licensing. But companies can only share and license something they own. So, to protect their ability to make money from their contributions and their competitive advantage, they must establish their IP rights.”

Adds Weibel, “I felt that Siemens needed a different approach to IP rights and a different understanding of how to create these IP rights.”

In particular Weibel felt that the focus on quantity over quality reflected a disconnect between the development and IP teams at Siemens. Inventors would invent first and then call on their colleagues to prepare and file patent applications. Siemens was not evaluating the quality of its inventions before filing patent applications. The upshot was that Siemens was spending huge amounts of time and money obtaining and managing patents with limited knowledge of whether they represented business value or created competitive advantage for the company.

For Weibel, the way forward for Siemens was to shift from a quantity-driven IP strategy to a value-driven IP strategy.

Beat Weibel, Chief Intellectual Property (IP) Counsel at Siemens

Beat Weibel, Chief Intellectual Property (IP) Counsel at Siemens

Tackling the challenge of proactively integrating IP activities into innovation processes

“Instead of waiting for inventors with good ideas to bring them to our patent attorneys, we sent our patent attorneys out to talk to researchers and developers to better understand how what they were working on might contribute value to our businesses,” says Weibel.

“This was a bit of a challenge. It required our attorneys to understand our businesses and business models so they could recognize the innovations with the most potential to add value and actively place IP rights on these sweet spots.”

According to Weibel, it took time, but Siemens’ patent attorneys rose to the challenge. The company’s innovation and IP activities are now aligned behind a value-driven IP strategy and the IP group is proactively involved in the company’s innovation process.

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Finding the right patent quality measure

Integrating innovation and IP strategies was just the beginning. Another essential element of the shift to quality over quantity was selecting a metric for determining whether the change in strategy was successful. In other words, the company needed a way to prove whether the quality of its patents was improving over time.

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

“You can only improve what you can measure. The best measure of the quality of a patent is going to court, but just 5 percent of patents ever go. We needed an indirect measure and a tool that would help us measure the quality of each patent and our entire patent portfolio and track quality changes over time compared to our competitors.”

For this, Weibel turned to PatentSight, a LexisNexis company that provides business intelligence software, analytics tools, and insights into the strength, quality, and value of patent portfolios. PatentSight is known for its Patent Asset IndexTM, an objective measure of global technological strength and innovation. The measure takes into account both the number of patent-protected inventions and their quality, or value. The method allows the identification and profiling of patent gems businesses can leverage to create value from innovations. The Patent Asset Index is defined as the aggregated Competitive Impact of all patents in a portfolio. It can be calculated for the overall portfolio of a company, patents related to a certain technology, and any other group of patents based on selected criteria.

PatentSight is quite a good match for Siemens,” says Weibel. “The tool came out of a university and has an academic objective, not just a commercial one. It allows us to track patent quality over time compared to our competition, taking changes such as acquisitions and divestitures into account. And the indices used to measure quality take into consideration differences in markets such as the U.S., Germany, and China.”

Excellent data quality is key

The foundation of the Patent Asset Index is excellent data quality, which the company achieves by maintaining a proprietary global patent database. To populate the database, PatentSight compiles patent data from more than 95 authorities worldwide, including more than 100 million patent documents, about 700 million drawings and illustrations, and nearly 100 million PDFs that are searchable and quickly downloadable.

To ensure the data is accurate and reliable, a highly skilled team of experts continually tracks factors that can affect the ownership of patents—and therefore who holds commercial power over them—including corporate structures, mergers and acquisitions, company name changes, patent transactions, and others. The team also checks for the validity and remaining lifetimes of patents. This ensures that analyses focus only on active patents, pending patent applications, and valid patents.

Siemens’ patent quality improvement in the Internet of Things market

An example of how the shift to a focus on quality is working is Siemens’ patent portfolio strength in the highly lucrative and competitive Internet of Things (IoT) market between 2016 and 2020, as objectively measured by the Patent Asset Index.

Portfolio strength is defined as the aggregate strength of all the patents the portfolio contains. The strength of each individual patent family is measured by its Competitive Impact, which is determined by both Technology Relevance and Market Coverage. (See Figure 1).

Between 2016 and August 2020, Siemens increased its IoT patent portfolio strength by 47.2 percent and was the only player in the market that showed clear average patent quality improvement.

Source: LexisNexis® PatentSight®

Source: LexisNexis® PatentSight®

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Beat Weibel, Chief IP Counsel at Siemens

Patent quality captures the attention of the managing board

“The managing board trusted me and the PatentSight tool when I told them we could harvest more valuable inventions and create broader and more important patents by changing our strategy and measuring quality improvement compared to our competitors.”

The benefits to Siemens of a patent strategy focused on quality over quantity, supported by PatentSight, are many. For starters, Siemens now realizes a better return on investment for its patents. For example, even though the company still files roughly the same number of patents each year, the quality of its patent portfolios is higher and continually improving.

Moreover, and of even greater importance, according to Weibel, patents now play a much larger role in the strategic development of the business. For example, the IP team can now make recommendations on where the company should invest more in research and development to create new opportunities such as acquiring new customers or new joint venture partners or to improve its competitive advantage in key regions or markets.

Not surprisingly, the transformation of patents from a necessary cost with little perceived return on investment to a strategic tool for creating business value and competitive advantage, has caught the attention of the Siemens managing board. After Weibel’s presentation reporting initial results of the shift to a value-based IP strategy, he’s now invited back to present to the managing board once or twice a year.

“It would be easy to go into the boardroom and say we’re number one in the number of patents we have, but I would rather report on how we can better protect our competitive advantage even in places like China because that makes a bigger difference to the business,”

says Weibel. “I was lucky that the managing board trusted me and the PatentSight tool when I told them we could harvest more valuable inventions and create broader and more important patents by changing our strategy and measuring quality improvement compared to our competitors.” Adds Weibel, with a smile, “Of course, now the board expects to see quality improvement every time.”

Watch the entire interview with Beat Weibel:





How an IP law firm leverages LexisNexis® PatentSight® to make complex patent insights consumable by client’s Senior Management.

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McBee, Moore & Vanik IP Leverages PatentSight To Enhance M&A Decision Making With IP Due Diligence Insights

How an IP law firm leverages LexisNexis® PatentSight® to make complex patent insights consumable by client’s Senior Management.

“They can now say, OK, I see that figure and I understand what it’s saying, but I also understand how the data created that, and then you can have a much better discussion.”

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

McBee, Moore & Vanik IP, LLC leverages cutting edge tools to increase efficiency and production for their clients

McBee, Moore & Vanik IP is a boutique law firm based just outside Washington D.C. The firm specializes in Intellectual Property (IP) law, with a focus on biotechnology, chemistry & materials science, medical technology, and pharmaceuticals. The partners provide a full range of patent prosecution and counselling services to corporations and help acquisitive companies understand their relative position in the innovation ecosystem.

McBee, Moore & Vanik IP has long differentiated through its use of advanced technology. The firm went completely paperless back in 2014 and has operated a remote working model since 2016.

C.G. Moore, founding partner, explains the importance of technology to the firm:

“We are very much interested in leveraging technology to let us work from anywhere, increase our efficiency, increase our production, minimize errors. And we’re always trying to improve on those counts.”

Business case

When one client came to C.G. for help with IP due diligence for a potential merger, his passion for leveraging advanced technology to improve client service was to prove invaluable.

The objective was to help the client understand its IP value relative to that of its merger target. In addition to the usual due diligence procedures, the client asked C.G. to use PatentSight to see if the IP analytics platform could help provide insight.

Already aware of PatentSight from its use by other clients, C.G. has been waiting for an opportunity to put the platform to the test. Using PatentSight, he and his team were tasked with providing the client’s in-house IP Council with the insights they needed to help their board make a decision on the merger.

“Another client was interested in understanding the relative value of their intellectual property because they were bringing in a lot of patents, they were looking to get acquired, acquire others or generate a lot more IP. Basically, do a lot of different things in the intellectual property space that require an understanding of the relative value of things.”

Chester G. (“C.G.”) Moore, Ph.D., J.D., Partner at McBee Moore & Vanik IP, LLC

Chester G. (“C.G.”) Moore, Ph.D., J.D., Partner at McBee Moore & Vanik IP, LLC

The challenge of delivering patent insights to management

As any IP expert knows, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a patent portfolio can be a time-consuming and laborious affair.
Manual processes require legal teams to comb through large amounts of patent filings, prosecutions, and citations to find the information they need.

In the past, such analysis has been enabled by nothing more than a spreadsheet, making it slow, error-prone, and difficult to scale.

Even once the patent analysis has been completed, presenting insights and findings in a way that is easily understandable by the board can be a challenge.

Without expertise in analytics and IP law, the analysis can be opaque and hard to understand.

It’s very, very labor intensive, it’s kind of a black box process. Their job then is to take all of this IP voodoo stuff and explain it to their bosses.

So, their bosses are going to say, well, why is this valuable? Why should we keep funding you?

As a result, IP analysis has traditionally played an under-valued role in due diligence. This is a lost opportunity for firms, as the value of an IP portfolio can make the difference between whether a firm should consider a merger.

C.G. Moore and his team were therefore challenged to deliver their insights to the clients’ IP Council in a way that both the Council and the management board could see value in and easily understand.

Translating IP language…

…into actionable insights for mergers & acquisitions

PatentSight helps us think about things differently and expand the conversation.”

C.G. Moore and his team leveraged the PatentSight platform to run a comparative analysis of the client’s IP portfolio and that of its merger target. This analysis assessed and scored the two firms’ patent families against the key performance metrics at the heart of the PatentSight analytics algorithm: Market CoverageTM and Technology RelevanceTM.

The resulting Competitive ImpactTM score enabled the platform to index the patent families of the two firms and uncover hidden insights into the strategic value of a potential merger.

For C.G., one of the benefits of the PatentSight platform is that it adds a further element to the due diligence process, and gives him and his team intelligence against which they can review and test what they found in their analysis of licenses and prosecution history. As such, PatentSight is an important factor in a complete toolbox through which legal firms and in-house IP Councils can assess the potential value, liabilities, and scope of a merger.

What’s really beneficial about the platform is that it generates a set of clear metrics that make it easier for everyone at the client’s firm to get on the same page – whether IP experts, or not.

Making sense of large volumes of data from disparate sources, PatentSight provided a set of intuitive visualizations of analytical results. In combination with the disclosure of how the results are obtained, that facilitated C.G.’s conversations with the client:

“The difference here is that the methodology has been published and the base assumptions are known. They can now say, OK, I see that figure and I understand what it’s saying, but I also understand how the data created that, and so then you can have a much better discussion.”

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

The simple workflow enabled by PatentSight allowed C.G. to look at the firms IP data in different ways, ask different questions, and repeatedly test assumptions.

And thanks to PatentSight’s simple to grasp visualizations, the client was able to quickly feedback to C.G. where the analysis needed to go deeper and where it could be reined in.

He was thereby able to hone the data analysis on-the-fly to tailor it more exactly to the clients’ needs:

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

As a result of the PatentSight analysis, C.G. was able to identify a number of key insights into the client’s firm and its merger target.

These included

  • pertinent information on the relative size of the two company’s portfolios over time,
  • relative value of the portfolios over time,
  • technology overlaps,
  • the pace of patent filings, and
  • the relevance of the technologies (i.e. which patents are for important inventions).

The Patent Asset IndexTM score provided by PatentSight shows the exact value, size and potential of portfolios and highlights which patent families were and weren’t protecting assets that would be useful to C.G.’s client.

McBee Moore & Vanik IP and its client’s IP council used PatentSight to reduce highly complex information into easy-to-understand and digestible charts, adding value to the due diligence process and thus helping the client’s management to make a decision on the merger.

The result

As a result of PatentSight’s analysis it was clear that IP was the major asset for both the client and the target firm. Consequently , the business was able to make the decision not to proceed with what would have been an unsuitable match.

By providing another view into the risks and benefits of a potential merger, PatentSight can save time and effort, while helping firms allocate resources better and answer the most important questions more thoroughly.

And unlike other solutions on the market, PatentSight is completely transparent. The working of the algorithms and how it reaches its conclusions are open for all to see, so when the platform provides an insight, firms understand exactly how that insight was reached.

This means that lawyers like C.G. can present their conclusions with complete confidence that the analysis stacks up.

PatentSight – A unique approach to IP analytics

Evaluation of technological fit
Objectively evaluate upcoming merger or acquisition targets based on the quality of their technologies, potential risks and technological suitability. The Patent Asset Index™ helps in assessing patent quality and reveals the true strength of the players in technology fields, enabling you to identify the key patents that require explicit attention.

Easy-to-grasp visualizations
PatentSight Business Intelligence helps you effectively communicate your findings with powerful insights and visualizations, enabling you to turn your patent department into a strategic consulting unit.

Transparent approach
The PatentSight methodology and KPIs are entirely transparent. How the algorithm works and how it reaches conclusions is open for all to see, so when the platform provides an insight, firms understand exactly how that insight was reached. The methodology has been published and the base assumptions are known, giving users full transparency.

” We hadn’t seen anything that could do what PatentSight can do not nearly as easily. PatentSight is really quite easy to use, it’s very intuitive.”

C.G. Moore is now a complete convert to PatentSight. In part, this is down to the sheer usability of the platform and the breadth of analysis it enables:

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

C. G. Moore, McBee Moore & Vanik IP

Watch the entire interview with C.G. Moore:

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How PatentSight® data analysis helps Han Santos become a true partner and strategic advisor to its clients

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A Boutique Law Firm Delivers High-Value Due Diligence at Speed Using LexisNexis® PatentSight®

How PatentSight® data analysis helps Han Santos become a true partner and strategic advisor to its clients