Metrics Group: In-House Tools/Methodology

In-House Tools & Methodology

Patent mining is the process of searching for meaningful trends, patterns, and relationships among patent records contained in patent databases. Patent mapping and patent analytics are ways of visualizing patent mining results.

The patent mining cycle (see figure below) starts with a reference question driven by a strategic business need. If the cycle is successful, patent mining will produce an answer to the reference question that a manager can then use to develop a course of action to solve the business need. The goal of patent mining, therefore, is to produce targeted, actionable intelligence that can be used by a company to respond to its own unique challenges and opportunities.

Patent Mining Cycle

The following steps are part of the Metrics Group patent mining cycle:

Step 1: Define the scope of the analysis and identify the patent mining reference questions

In this step, Metrics works with the client to determine the reference questions that will drive the patent mining process. The reference questions are driven by the client's strategic business needs.

Example #1

Strategic business need: Increase revenue from patent licensing operations

Sample reference questions:

Are there patents in my company’s portfolio that have novel uses that are non-core to my company’s business focus?

Are there any new players that are inappropriately using my company’s technology?

Example #2:

Strategic business need: Decrease costs from R&D operations

Sample reference questions:

Are there non-core parts of our R&D program we should drop?

Are scientists in different divisions doing overlapping work?

Step 2: Develop the reference data set - conduct the patent search and the data cleanup

In this step, Metrics conducts a patent search on U.S. and/or international databases. Metrics either performs the search itself or contracts with specialty patent searchers with subject matter expertise in the technology to be searched.

The search process begins when the client fills out a Patent Search Intake Form^TM. The form asks questions that help define the technology to be searched and establish the parameters of the search scope.

After the search is conducted, Metrics cleans up the data to standardize company and inventor names in the set to be analyzed. Raw patent data is notoriously “messy”, and this step helps insure that the patent maps and analytics produced in Step 3 are as accurate as possible.

Step 3: : Apply patent mining software to the reference data set

Once the patent set is established, Metrics uses its three in-house patent tools (see figure below) to analyze the data and produce maps, tables, charts, and graphs.

Metrics Group In-House Patent Mining Tools

Citation Indicator Analytics™ (CIA) Database
Metrics Group's CIA Database is an exclusive web-enabled system that mines and analyzes trends and patterns in U.S. patent citation/reference data. The database, which Metrics Group developed on a Microsoft SQL-Server platform, contains front-page information from almost two million U.S. utility and reissue patents, dating back to 1980.

VantagePoint™
VantagePoint is text-mining software licensed by Metrics Group and originally developed by Search Technology as part of a contract for the U.S. Department of Defense. VantagePoint produces tables, grids, and 2-D maps showing relationships within textual bibliographic records.

VxInsight®
VxInsight is a revolutionary 3-D data visualization tool licensed by Metrics Group from VisWave, LLC, a Metrics Group Strategic Alliance Partner. Originally developed at Sandia National Labs, VxInsight produces 3-D maps of a technology’s patent landscape and shows relationships among companies in a technological field.

Step 4: Analyze the Patent Mining Results

In this step, Metrics analyzes the results of Step 3 and writes explanatory text that explains how the maps, tables, charts, and graphs answer the reference questions established in Step 1.

The following deliverables are produced as a result of Step 4:

Results Overview – a report, provided in both PDF and hard copy color format, that includes the patent maps, analytics, and explanatory text resulting from the patent mining project
Data Compendium – Excel spreadsheets, provided in both electronic and printout format, that show the data upon which the Results Overview is based
License to VxInsight® - Metrics provides a short-term license to VisWave’s 3-D data visualization software, as well as copies of VxInsight data files used in the patent mining process. This enables clients to explore their patent data and develop new views of their patent landscape.

Presentation – Clients may request an on-site presentation that summarizes the Results Overview

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