How the European patent system and patent information ... · and efficient services delivered under...

Christian Soltmann 4 July 2015 5.4.2 | Patent Information Promotion

How the European patent system and patent information contributes to growth and innovation in Europe

Europäisches Patentamt

Patent system: Balance of interests

2

Benefits for patent holder Benefits for public

Controlling commercialisation of protected technology

Inspiring further innovation

Giving patent holders time to recoup their development costs

Preventing duplication of R&D in industry and universities

Helping to identify new partners Making the latest technological knowledge available to the public

Europäisches Patentamt 3

Patent information helps to

1 – prevent duplications

7 - spot trends

3 - check out existing patents

6 - identify partners

2 - find out what exists

4 - avoid infringement

5 - keep track of others

Patent information supports product development and innovation

State of the art

State of the art

State of the art State of the art

State of the art

State of the art

State of the art

State of the art

State of the art

Risk of infringement




Market analysis Market analysis

Market analysis

Patent analyses


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How to use patent information in daily routine

Patent analysis

Management Research & development IP management, patent and legal divsion

Patent data

Technical information Legal information

Business information Other information


Mission of the European Patent Office As the patent office for Europe, the European Patent Office support innovation, competitiveness and economic growth across Europe through a commitment to high quality and efficient services delivered under the European Patent Convention.


Today, 38 member states and 2 extension states

Belgium • Germany • France • Luxembourg • Netherlands • Switzerland • United Kingdom • Sweden • Italy • Austria • Liechtenstein • Greece • Spain • Denmark • Monaco • Portugal • Ireland • Finland • Cyprus • Turkey • Bulgaria • Czech Republic • Estonia • Slovakia • Slovenia • Hungary • Romania • Poland • Iceland • Lithuania • Latvia • Malta • Croatia • Norway • Former Yugoslav Rep. Macedonia • San Marino • Albania • Serbia

European patent applications and patents can also be extended at the applicant's request to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.


Specialised products for patent information users

Open Patent Services (Free; Fair use policy)

Espacenet (Free)

Raw Data products (Subscription)

Machine Translation (Free)

EP Register (Free)

Publication Server (Free)

ASIAN Patent Information (Subscription + Free)

Patent information products of the European Patent Office

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Searching technical information: Espacenet

§ More than 90 million patent documents (applications, granted patents, search reports, non-patent literature)

§ Data from 90 patent authorities worldwide

§ Data from 1836 to today

§ Source of technical information

§ Available free-of-charge via the internet at www.epo.org/espacenet


Espacenet: User-friendly interfaces


Espacenet: Patent Translate

§ Reducing the language barrier

§ Makes access to prior art in different languages easier (member states of the European Patent Convention and other important languages)


European Patent Register: Legal and procedural information

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•  Free-of-charge access to: –  legal status information –  procedural information for patent

applications with the European Patent Office

–  information about the maintenance of granted European patents

•  Secured access •  Register alert monitoring tool


European Patent Register: Dossier view


European Patent Register: Federated Register and Global Dossier

•  Federated Register: ‒  access to register data of national patent offices for

European patents: •  table view •  links to online register interfaces of the national patent

offices •  Global Dossier: ‒  file inspection for patent applications from leading patent

offices worldwide (China, Europe, Japan, Korea, U.S.A.) ‒  automatic machine translation ‒  accessible in European Patent Register and in Espacenet


Patent intelligence

§  Approach different from 'traditional' types of patent searches

'Traditional' patent searches Patent intelligence

Examples •  novelty/prior art search •  freedom-to-operate search •  technology or legal status monitoring

•  market analysis •  technology scouting

Main target audience

•  patent attorneys •  IP experts

•  IP managers •  R&D managers •  upper management •  PATLIB centres, technology transfer

offices

Purpose •  preparing patent application •  assess risk of patent infringement

•  addressing strategy-related issues, e.g. -  understanding technology trends -  identifying potential partners -  understanding strategy of

competitors

Quantity of documents

•  rather individual patent documents or small groups of documents

•  usually large quantities of documents


Basic search

• patent classes •  search concepts • applicants •  countries of

residence •  [...]

•  further analyses/processing

•  visualisation •  reporting

Statistical analysis Processing results

Group 1 Group 2

Patent intelligence: Procedure

Report

Executive Summary


EPO Worldwide

Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) European

Patent Register for

PATSTAT

EPO worldwide

legal status database for

PATSTAT

PATSTAT product line

•  Unique basis for conducting sophisticated statistical analyses of patent data

•  Bibliographic data on more than 90 million patent documents of leading industrialized and developing countries

•  Can be supplemented by: –  legal event data of patent documents in many

countries worldwide –  European patent register data: Bibliographic,

legal and procedural information on published European patent applications and on published EURO-PCT applications


EPO Worldwide

Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) European

Patent Register for

PATSTAT

EPO worldwide

legal status database for

PATSTAT

PATSTAT product line: Typical fields of application

Question important for ...

Question IP management Management Research & development

Technology transfer offices, PATLIB

centres

Which are the most important competitors? ● ● ●

Which technologies are used in the technical field/sector? ● ● ●

How has technical field changed over time? ● ● ●

How has technical focus of competitors changed over time? ● ● ● ●

Who may be interested in my technology? ● ● ●

Where are the most promising markets for my technology? ● ● ●

How has patent strategy of my competitors changed over time? ● ●

In which technical fields may I also use/sell my technology? ● ● ● ●


Patent Intelligence: Example co-application behaviour

Technical field: Arrangements for programme control


Patent Intelligence: Example renewable energies: Patent activity

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Geothermal energy

Hydro energy

Energy from sea

Solar thermal energy

Photovoltaic energy

Thermal-‐PV hybrids

Wind energy


Case study: EPO-OHIM study


Example: Linking patent data, trademark data and design data: § Joint project of European Patent Office and the Office

for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM): − purpose: to examine economic characteristics of IP-

intensive industries in Europe − methodology: − determine which industries use IP rights more than

others − determine employment and value added generated

in those industries − determine weight of IP-intensive industries in

Europe


Example: Linking patent data, trademark data and design data: § methodological challenge: − matching EPO's Worldwide Patent Statistical

Database (PATSTAT) and OHIM's register database with commercial ORBIS database and EUROSTAT data − novel and sophisticated data-matching technique was

needed, including extensive data preparation/name harmonisation


§  Linking patent data, trademark data and design data to determine IP intensive industries:

Patent applications

published and patents granted by

EPO

EPO's PATSTAT database

Community trademarks and

registered community

designs

OHIM's register database

PATSTAT-ORBIS

concordance

OHIM-ORBIS concordance

Concordance schema

ORBIS database

Industry classification and other information

for more than 20 million European

companies

Example: Linking patent data, trademark data and design data:

EUROSTAT data NACE code


Example: Linking patent data, trademark data and design data: § Results include: − about half of European industries can be considered IP-

intensive − total number of IP-dependent jobs: about 77 million (35

per cent of all jobs) − IP-intensive industries pay significantly higher wages than

other industries − value added per employee is higher in IP-intensive

industries than elsewhere in European economy §  further information available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/intellectual-property/studies/index_en.htm


Thank you for your attention!

Christian Soltmann European Patent Office Directorate 5.4.2 | Patent Information Promotion Rennweg 12 A-1030 Vienna [email protected]

How the European patent system and patent information ... · and efficient services delivered under...

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