IP DataDirect-Patents: single source and comprehensive patent data flow

01-02-2011

Michiel de Bruijn

Patent owners and other stakeholders get bulk patent data into any intellectual property solution, as Michiel de Bruijn explains IP DataDirect-Patents

For patent owners and inventors, it’s a perennial problem. It’s all very well making new products, developing inventions and preparing them for market, but none of that will be of any use if you don’t have detailed information on the patent landscapes in your various marketplaces. Similarly, once patents have been granted, it’s crucial that proprietors have effective methods of monitoring new filings in the industry, as spotting potential problems as early as possible is a key to commercial success.

Businesses have traditionally tackled the problem in a few different ways. There’s what might be termed the conventional approach— tasking juniors with trawling public records of patent filings from all the relevant jurisdictions, approaching patent offices where necessary and exposing the company to the combined risks of human error and time-wasting.

More recently, companies and service providers (and even patent offices) have developed more sophisticated methods to ensure their patent searches are accurate. Patent office online archives have helped, cutting search times and ensuring a more comprehensive overview of existing rights. Various software programmes have improved matters too, enabling comprehensive and realtime search and analysis of patent data from several different sources.


IP DataDirect-Patents

WIPR