Post on 27-Mar-2015
EuropeanPatent Office
EuropeanPatent Office
Patent Information& Licensing
Paul SchwanderEPO, The Hague
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The Innovation steps
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Innovation process: a simplified approach
• Creation: inspiration from patent databases
• Checking: What has been done earlier by whom? Valuation of an idea.
• Protection: what protection can I get?
• Exploitation: finding partners, valuation of my invention.
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Case Studies
Search examples and
Basic Principles
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The more, the easiest principle
Example of an "always successful" search: the heated steering wheel
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heated steering wheel
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259 results
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Do not reinvent the wheel!
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Airbag garments: 179 Patents
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Drag reduction of ships by injecting bubbles: 887 patents
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The easiness of a prior art search is proportional to the
number of documents relevant to your subject that are contained
in the searched collection.
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A manually rechargeable
cellular phone
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Example
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Graphic representation of a search
X
XXX
XX
XXX
XXX
XX
Retrieved results
Relevant recordIrrelevant record
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Successful combination
X
XXX
X
XX
XXX
XX
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To get out of a search dead end try to think lateral to find new
concepts defining your subject.
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Think lateral
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cool* and moist*
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New concepts
• Refrigerating systems: F25
• Where can this invention be used?
In developing countries = countr*
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Specific patent searches are sometimes best conducted using both the
information available on the Web and in patent databases.
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Patent m2a
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given imaging
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Bear in mind
• Combining WWW information with esp@cenet yields relevant results
• esp@cenet reduces the distance to the information
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Absence of evidence is no evidence of absence
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Absence of evidence
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Professional search tools: more statistical possibilities
Retrieving the basic patent protecting an active ingredient.
Using citation analysis.
Zantac=Ranitidine
Most cited patents in patents containing the term ranitidine.
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EPODOC under EPOQUE
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Cited 173 times (all family members)
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Cited 80 times
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Cited 80 times
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Velcro: cited 213 times
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Pushing tools to their limits: profiling a research organisation
IMEC: Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center
Staff: 1272
85% in R&D
Know the co-owners of their patent porfolio
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EPODOC under EPOQUE
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IMEC has applied for patents with
1 431 IMEC INTER UNI MICRO ELECTR
2 54 IMEC VZW
3 24 UNIV GENT
4 19 UNIV BRUXELLES
5 14 KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV
6 8 CIT ALCATEL
7 8 UNIV LEUVEN KATH
8 6 UMICORE
9 5 IMEC INTERUNIVERSITY MICROELEC
10 5 IMEC VZW LEUVEN HEVERLEE
11 5 LORANET NV
12 5 UMICORE S A
13 4 APPLIED MATERIALS INC
14 4 DOW CORNING
15 4 EASTMAN KODAK CO
16 4 INTERUNIVERSITAIRE MICROELEKTR
17 4 KATHOLIEKE HOGESCHOOL BRUGGE O
18 4 SIEMENS AG
19 4 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC
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IMEC Inventors worked for?Hidden relations detection
IMEC Patents
IMEC Inventors Patents held by IMEC Inventors
Patent assignees holding
patents held by IMEC inventors
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IMEC Inventors worked also for
1 (110 IMEC INTER UNI MICRO ELECTR)
2 32 SIEMENS AG
3 31 KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV
4 (17 IMEC VZW)
5 16 CIT ALCATEL
6 16 STEAG MICRO TECH GMBH
7 15 INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG
8 13 AGFA GEVAERT
9 12 CFMT INC
10 12 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC
11 10 APPLIED MATERIALS INC
12 10 CITIZEN ELECTRONICS
13 10 FRANCE TELECOM
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A common inventor: IMEC - France Telecom and STM...
AN - US28642702A
IN - JURCZAK MALGORZATA [BE]; ROOYACKERS RITA [BE]; AUGENDRE EMMANUEL [BE]; BADENES GONCAL [ES]
PA - IMEC INTER UNI MICRO ELECTR [BE]
PN - US2003052355 A1 20030320
IN JAOUEN HERVE [FR]; SKOTNICKI THOMAS [FR]; JURCZAK MALGORZATA [FR]
PA - ST MICROELECTRONICS SA [FR]
PN - US6713356 B1 20040330
IN - SKOTNICKI THOMAS [FR]; JURCZAK MALGORZATA [FR]
PA - FRANCE TELECOM [FR]
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Legal Data: assessing the legal validity of a patent
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wo0006248
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WO1999US16793
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Type of searches in the licensing context
• Valuation of a patent: state of the art, freedom to operate
• Statistical analysis: finding partners, profiling a company
• Legal searches: status of a patent
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Further reading
SimplyPatent.com
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Thank you
pschwander@epo.org