MATCH PATENTS TO PRODUCTS: TECHNOLOGY TARGETING

1. Categorization
2. Keyword Extraction
3. Targeting – General
4. Targeting – Specific
5. Reporting

Categorization:

Categorization of each patent in a portfolio is a crucial first step. It allows us to enlist the most knowledgeable subject matter experts in each category before the heavy hauling of reading patents begins.

We developed a software tool called "Keyhole Patent Analyzer" that analyzes every keyword in every patent and makes semantic comparisons to every other patent in the portfolio. Keyhole allows us to quickly identify which patents belong to which active technology sectors in your portfolio. The output from Keyhole can then be further refined by subject matter experts (SMEs) more quickly than reading each patent individually. This process saves time and money, but in the end, it provides more accurate results and leads to a better understanding of your portfolio's market applicability.

Keyword Extraction:

Keyword (and key phrase) extraction should not be underestimated. In the old days, SMEs could spend hours agonizing over a single patent identifying just the right keywords that define the technology area. Fortunately, those days are over. Today, we use three different software algorithms to identify keywords in a patent or any technical document for SMEs to review. It is interesting to note that by reviewing a keyword matrix of a patent, many SMEs can guess the nature of the patent with astonishing accuracy. But keywords can be obfuscated, irrelevant, missing and archaic language can be used, so the SME's assessment in the context of the patent's claims cannot be neglected. The difference is that today, our tools are much better!

Keywords are not simply words, phrases or synonyms found in a patent, but keywords that might be found in product specifications and datasheets that might use the technology. So an SME's judgment is crucial in this step of the process.

A solid set of keywords allows us to apply them to new searches and find company/product matches for your patents.

General Targeting:

The idea behind this step is to tighten the net around the active technology sectors and develop a list of specific companies and product classes that may apply to your portfolio. Feedback from the client is crucial here. We need to understand the risk assessment with each target we identify. There is no reason to spend time finding products that use your technology, just to discover we would be starting cross licensing battle that you can't win. If you are going to start a war, you should always be sure that you can win before the first shot is fired.

By doing high-level strategic targeting, we avoid spending time and money on projects that will not be profitable or are too high risk. At this point we can also analyze each target's portfolio and provide a risk assessment by leveraging the work already done on your own portfolio.

Specific Targeting:

The rubber meets the road when we uncover products that use your patented technology. To maximize SME time, we do this on a company by company basis. We use tools like the XPAT Data Analyzer to crawl each target's website, technical papers, Nerac, IEEE Xplore, product datasheets and any other pertinent libraries to search for targeted products. XPAT is a combination data warehouse, organizer, WebCrawler, index and full text search engine. It sits at the center of each project to explore and warehouse the mountains of data uncovered by SMEs.