When it comes to your business, there are a lot of decisions that you need to make. However, the most crucial one is always related to IP. This is because IP reflects your company’s ability to protect its assets and innovate new products or services. In my experience as a patent attorney working with startups that eventually went public through IPOs, an effective intellectual property strategy will help unicorns in creating sustainable competitive advantage by having a clear roadmap for growth, which includes identifying gaps in innovation potential and uncovering new opportunities where they exist.

What is a patent landscape?

A patent landscape is a snapshot of current patent space for a particular technology within a company, region or worldwide. It is useful for competitive analysis, market research, product development, and marketing strategies. IP landscape analysis provides a glimpse into the future by examining what technologies companies invest in and protect.

Patent landscapes are intended to provide companies with an in-depth understanding of technical fields, and to help them make smart decisions about how they invest their time and money. The development of a reliable patent landscape requires data coming from multiple sources. The vast majority of patent data is derived from filed patents. These documents contain rich metadata that can be analyzed over the course of time to allow for robust comparisons between entities.

The patent landscape analysis provides a snapshot of innovation in a specific technological field at any time. It can also tell the story about where technology is heading, who is involved, and where it is happening. The analysis provides scientifically supported metrics that measure both the impact of patent inventions and the strength in the patent portfolios.

  1. Company can guide its competitive intelligence decisions by identifying which of the largest and most well-positioned competitors
  2. Find potential partners or licensees who could help them monetize their patent rights

Your true competitors are not always what you think they might be.  The investor version of market research covers only a small portion of the territory.  After thoroughly researching your IP competitive landscape, you can identify the risks. Once you have identified the threats, you can create a fence to close the gaps. Your moat is built. Profit from opportunities with informed business decisions. Advanced patent analytics such as those from PowerPatent allows you to stay ahead of the curve and get ahead when you as a founder can:

  • Assess the changing technology landscape will give you a competitive edge.
  • Reduce the time spent cleaning and curating data sets (including your proprietary information).
  • Get new insights by having easy access to highly-sophisticated and unique analyses.
  • Communicate effectively with powerful visualizations and insights.

Why do startups need a patent landscape Analysis?

Typical scenarios where landscape analysis is important is where innovative startups that had just received a Series A investment. It was about to launch its first product under a multi-national marketing campaign.

It would have been catastrophic to launch the GTM plan and then receive ‘Cease & Desist” notices for possible patent infringement. Due to complexity of the markets that the company is about to enter, an extensive IP Landscape analysis should be used. It also helps while investors conduct a PME analysis of your startup.

A patent landscape analysis can be a valuable tool for startups looking to protect their blockchain-related innovations through patents. Here are some ways that startups can use a patent landscape analysis:

  1. Identifying competitors: A patent landscape analysis can help startups identify existing patents and patent holders in their field of interest. This can help startups understand the competitive landscape and identify potential competitors.
  2. Identifying gaps in the market: A patent landscape analysis can also help startups identify gaps in the market where there are few or no patents. This can help startups identify opportunities for innovation and new products or services.
  3. Identifying potential collaborators or partners: A patent landscape analysis can help startups identify companies or individuals with a strong patent portfolio in their field of interest. This can help startups identify potential collaborators or partners that they can work with to further develop and commercialize their technology.
  4. Identifying potential licensing opportunities: A patent landscape analysis can help startups identify potential licensing opportunities for their technology. For example, if the startup’s technology complements an existing patent, they may be able to license their technology to the patent holder.
  5. Identifying potential infringement risks: A patent landscape analysis can help startups identify potential infringement risks. For example, if the startup’s technology is similar to an existing patent, they may be at risk of infringing on that patent.
  6. Benchmarking: A patent landscape analysis can also be used to benchmark the startup’s patent portfolio against the competition and identify opportunities for improvement.
  7. Identifying industry trends: A patent landscape analysis can also be used to identify industry trends and emerging technologies in the field of interest.

It’s important to note that patent landscape analysis is a complex process and it may be beneficial to consult with a patent attorney or agent to help navigate the process and ensure that all necessary steps have been taken.

Each patent has a different qualitative value and the IP landscape information helps companies develop strategies, business plans, and pitch decks for investors. A landscape analysis can help you make informed decisions. Understanding which companies around the globe have sought patent protection is an important benefit. Other questions with valuable GTM implications include:

  • What is the industry’s current growth trajectory?
  • What technology trends are there in this area?
  • Who innovating? Where?
  • Who are the technology industry’s greatest development mavericks?
  • What are the possible strategic partners?
  • Are you in a litigious setting?
  • Do you see any roadblocks?
  • Is there any white space in the market?
  • Is this the next big thing?
  • Industries pivot
  • Complete list of market competitors

Is the IP you have covered adequately?

IP is a critical part of any business. It can be a valuable asset for your company and help you to protect it from competitors, safeguard your reputation and differentiate yourself from others. The need to protect intellectual property has never been higher, as the value of IP in the marketplace continues to increase year on year.

You can identify any gaps in our IP portfolio and how to shore up your IP. It is important to review your IP position regularly once you have started your journey. This will ensure that you do not have any gaps in protection that could be exploited to your advantage by your competitors.

An IP audit can be used to review the case. We recommend that you have this done with your IP Attorney. These are the areas that should be examined in such a review:

  • Make sure you’ve considered all forms of intellectual property available to you
  • Assure that each product is properly protected.
  • Make sure your IP coverage is current to protect your most recent designs and product innovations
  • Make sure your IP’s geographic protection matches your business requirements
  • You should ensure that your IP (products and territories) is future-proofed
  • You should check the life expectancy of your IP. If you have a mature portfolio, you could continue R&D and protect new innovations to ensure IP protection.
  • Regularly review your IP.

Identify and evaluate your stakeholders

You can promote your innovation ecosystem by collaborating with stakeholders to provide a foundational understanding of the patent and IP system through the delivery of services that ease their journey through the patent and IP system.

In order to identify your stakeholders, you first have to know who they are. There are two types of stakeholders: internal and external. Internal stakeholders are people or groups who have an interest in your product or service because of their role or position within the company, e.g., sales managers or investors. External stakeholders can be individuals or organizations outside of the company that may benefit from using your product or service.

  • Customer (internal)
  • Supplier (internal)
  • Employee (internal)
  • Lender (external)

Estimate stakeholder synergies

A stakeholder is anyone who has a stake in the outcome of your business. These can be internal or external to your organization, but they all have something at stake and could benefit from your efforts.

As you consider various stakeholders, think about what they need and how they would benefit from working with you.

Are there areas of white space? If yes, may serve as a good opportunity for you to do something new and explore

Companies are constantly looking for ways to differentiate themselves in today’s market. New products and technology are constantly being introduced. White-space mapping has become an important strategic tool for understanding and capitalizing in today’s market.

White space is a term for an area of a market that is not being served by any of the existing players. White-spaces refer to gaps in the patent landscape that are not covered by patenting activity. They could be used as a way to obtain exclusive patent rights. These gaps are in patents that relate to a specific product or technology area and can be used to drive new inventions.

White-space analysis is a key method for strategic innovation. It usually follows preliminary patent landscape. This involves identifying white space gaps within a sector and evaluating how they could be filed. These analyses are necessary in order to identify potential inventions. These analyses can also be used to identify potential markets that could be exploited. It is possible to study all patents relevant to your area of interest or others, and discover potential lucrative business opportunities.

The first step in identifying white space is to look at the IP landscape and see what kind of patents have been filed by others. If there are gaps in your own portfolio, it could be an opportunity for you to do something new and explore. Although companies such as Google and Facebook were not the first to offer search and social networking services, both companies were pioneers in their respective fields. Market analysis was used to identify an area in need of growth. Many companies use this information to decide whether or not they want to continue research and development of a new invention.

White-space analysis begins with a search for precedents and extrapolations. This allows you to generate ideas and find other opportunities in a market. If you have an idea, you can also search literature, art, and the market to determine if it is already being done. Then you can develop your invention.

Once you believe you have identified a gap, it is time to conduct a targeted search for patents in databases and other relevant knowledge about the patent you are looking to file. This is to determine if the white-space is actually empty or if it’s already populated by similar patents. There are several ways to find a white space, depending on your goals.

Identify blocks and threats, such as patents preventing you from entering your target market, business partners who are infringing on your patents, and previous collaborations that could be Leverage able in certain situations

Before you can build a strategy to gain IP assets, you must first identify the blocks and threats that currently exist. You want to know if there are patents preventing you from entering your target market, business partners who are infringing on your patents, or previous collaborations that could be leverageable in certain situations. These points need to be considered before deciding how to approach the target market with an IP strategy.

Landscape analysis can help to detect weaknesses in your current IP portfolio and help you to develop effective strategies to supplement or replace them through potential partnerships or acquisitions

  • Landscape analysis can help to detect weaknesses in your current IP portfolio and help you to develop effective strategies to supplement or replace them through potential partnerships or acquisitions.
  • A landscape analysis can also be used to identify opportunities for strengthening the company’s position in its industry by understanding its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). This can help a company formulate an appropriate strategy for developing new products and services based on these findings.

Knowing the landscape allows you to take advantage of it

Knowing the landscape allows you to take advantage of it. If you don’t know the landscape, you can’t take advantage of it. You need a comprehensive IP Landscape Analysis to make sure your GTM business strategy is optimized for success.

Conclusion

By analyzing the landscape and identifying your competitors, you can identify where they are weak and determine if they have anything that may be of interest to you. You can also use this information to identify potential acquisition targets or partners who would complement your strength.