WIPO China: How Patent Information Can Help Spot Technology Gaps and Catalyze Economic Development
本文原载于2023年第4期《WIPO杂志》。作者为产权组织技术与创新支持司Lakshmi Supriya。
The article was originally published in the issue 4/2023 of WIPO Magazine. The author is Lakshmi Supriya, Technology and Innovation Support Division, WIPO.
对专利数据的分析可以揭示关于创新趋势和时机之窗的有用见解。(图:Urupong / iStock Getty Images)
Analysis of patent data can reveal useful insights on innovation trends as well as windows of opportunity. (Photo: Urupong / iStock Getty Images)
当斯里兰卡国家创新局(下称国家创新局)的一组人员向产权组织专利分析团队提出如何利用该国丰富的自然资源为经济增值从而促进经济发展时,我们决定对专利数据进行挖掘。这本身并不稀奇,因为我们经常以这种方式寻找创新趋势,但这次我们要找的东西却相当不同。
When a group from the National Innovation Agency (NIA), Sri Lanka, asked the WIPO Patent Analytics Team how they could add value to their rich natural resources to boost their economy, we decided to dig into patent data. In itself, this was not unusual as we regularly look for innovation trends in this way, but what we were looking for this time was rather different.
专利申请包含大量信息:谁在何时何地提交了申请,谁是发明人等等。分析这些信息可以获得有用的见解,包括特定技术领域的总体技术水平、申请数量的逐年增减情况以及创新发生在哪里。通过对专利数据进行不同的切分,还可以找到专利活动相对较少的领域——“空白地带”。而这就是国家创新局的团队所提问题的答案,至少是部分答案。
Patent applications contain a lot of information: who filed the application, when, and where, who are the inventors and so on. Analyzing this information can lead to useful insights, including about the general state-of-art in a particular technology area; how the number of applications rises and falls over the years, and where the innovation is happening. By slicing patent data in different ways, it is also possible to find areas where patenting activity is relatively lower —the “white space.” And this is where at least part of the answer to NIA team’s question is found.
挖掘专利数据,支持国家经济增长
Probing patent data to support national economic growth
“斯里兰卡有着非常丰富的矿产资源,”国家创新局高级创新官Vindya Wijesinghe说,“斯里兰卡拥有最纯净的石墨。石墨也被称为黑金。”她指出问题在于“我们一直把绝大部分石墨仅仅当作原材料出口。”单纯出口矿石不如先将其转化为有用的产品,然后再出售更有利可图。但是,做成什么产品呢?答案并不简单。我们决定仔细研究与石墨有关的专利,以便找出专利申请尚未饱和的技术领域。
“Sri Lanka is very rich in minerals,” says Vindya Wijesinghe, Senior Innovation Officer, NIA, “and has the purest graphite. It is being called black gold.” The problem is, she notes, “we have been exporting the majority of it only as the raw materials.” Simply exporting the mineral ore is not as profitable as first converting it into useful products and then selling them. But, what products? There is no simple answer. We decided to take a closer look at patents related to graphite, with the idea of identifying technology areas that were not already saturated with patent filings.
专利数量多的技术领域表明已经进行了许多突破性的创新。在这种情况下,任何进一步的创新都可能是渐进式的,几乎没有获取知识产权的空间。此外,许多基础技术可能已经获得专利。这意味着任何想要使用这些技术的人,都可能需要投入大量精力来获得使用权,以确保这些发明不会被误用或侵权使用。
Many patents in a technology area suggest that a lot of groundbreaking innovation has already been done. In such cases, any further innovation is likely to be incremental, leaving little room to capture intellectual property. Moreover, many of the foundational technologies may have been patented. And that means anyone seeking to use these technologies may need to invest a lot of effort to obtain the rights to use them to ensure there is no inadvertent or infringing use of those inventions.
浏览专利信息
Navigating patent information
规避这些挑战的方法之一是找到未被专利重重保护的技术。
One way to circumvent these challenges is to find technologies that are not well fortified by patents.
为从专利数据中找出答案,我们根据阅读、与专家的交流以及自身的技术专长,列出了一份清单,对石墨产品及其应用进行了分类。然后,我们统计了每个类别的专利申请数量,以衡量创新密集度。我们还记录了申请提交的年份,以衡量所谓的“近期性”。近期性数字越大,表明专利越新。如果我们在图表中绘制出每个类别的创新密集度与近期性的对比图,就能大概了解哪些地方存在空白。
To tease this out from patent data, we drew up a list, categorizing graphite products and their applications based on reading, talking to experts and our own technical expertise. Then we counted the number of patent applications in each of these categories to measure innovation intensity. We also noted the year the applications were filed, to measure what we call “recency.” The higher the recency number, the more recent the patents. If we plot innovation intensity against recency on a chart for each of the categories, we get a sense of where the white spaces are.
一个应用领域如果有许多较老的专利(或创新密集度较高),而近期性数字偏低,则表明这是一个成熟的技术领域。相反,专利数量少且相对较新的领域则表明该领域仍有潜在的创新空间。图1显示的图表分为四个象限,右上象限表示当前的创新热点,右下象限表示新兴领域。
An application area with many older patents - or a high innovation intensity number - and a low recency number, suggests a mature technology area. Conversely, areas with a few, relatively newer patents suggests an area with potential space to innovate. Figure 1 shows a chart divided into four quadrants, with the top right quadrant indicating current hot topics of innovation and the bottom right quadrant the emerging areas.
图1:改编自产权组织(2023年)。《石墨及其应用》。
日内瓦:世界知识产权组织。
Figure 1: Adapted from WIPO (2023). Graphite and its Applications.
Geneva: World Intellectual Property Organization.
专利信息分析揭示创新窗口
Analysis of patent information reveals innovation windows
就石墨而言,我们发现其在航空航天和包装领域的应用可能是潜在的新兴领域。近期专利申请较少的另一个有趣的应用领域是导电油墨。
For graphite, we found that its use in aerospace and packaging could be potential emerging areas. Another interesting application area where fewer patents have been filed relatively recently is conductive inks.
传统的导电油墨——可打印并用于柔性电子产品(如可折叠手机)的油墨——是由分散在液体中的导电金属(如银和金)的极小颗粒制成的。石墨也是一种良好的导电体和导热体。研究表明,将石墨用于导电油墨是专利活动较少的领域。过去10年的石墨基导电油墨约占导电油墨领域专利申请总数的5%,与三星和惠普等主导传统导电油墨市场的大公司相比,小型研究机构的专利申请数量更多。
Traditionally, conductive inks—inks that can be printed and used in flexible electronics, think foldable cell phones—are made of very small particles of conductive metals like silver and gold dispersed in a fluid. Graphite is also a good electrical and thermal conductor. The study shows that the use of graphite in conductive inks is an area where patenting activity is low. Graphite-based conductive inks make up about 5 percent of the total patent filings in the area of conductive inks in the last 10 years, with smaller research institutions filing more patent applications than large corporations like Samsung and HP who dominate the traditional conductive ink market.
我们对专利信息的分析表明,石墨基导电油墨可能存在创新空间。
Our analysis of patent information suggests there is likely a space to innovate in graphite-based conductive inks.
专利分析:良好的起点,但并非全部
Patent analytics: a good starting point, but not the whole story
虽然对专利进行这样的分析可以很好地表示空白地带,但必须牢记,专利只是创新的指标之一。还有许多其他因素可以解释为什么某一技术领域在专利或创新方面存在差距。
Although analyzing patents like this can provide a good indication of white spaces, it is important to keep in mind that patents are only one indicator of innovation. There are also many other forces that could explain why there are gaps in patenting or innovation in a particular technology area.
以导电油墨为例,该领域的专利申请量较低可能存在技术方面的原因。这些油墨的导电性或坚固性可能不如传统油墨,或者需要更多的基础科学研究来了解它们的导电特性。也可能是目前市场对这些产品的需求较低。虽然专利信息可以揭示有用的见解,也是一个有益的起点,但此类分析并不能为投资决策描绘出一幅完整的图景,投资决策应建立在对起作用的全部因素进行更全面分析的基础上。
Taking conductive inks as an example, there may be technical reasons why patent filings are low in this area. These inks may not be as conductive or robust as conventional inks or more fundamental scientific research may be needed to understand their conductive properties. It may also be that market demand is currently low for these products. While patent information can reveal useful insights and is a helpful starting point, such analyses cannot paint a complete picture for investment decisions, which should be based on a more holistic analysis of the full range of factors at play.
这正是Wijesinghe和她在国家创新局的团队正在做的事情。他/她们以专利分析得出的见解为基础,在此之上构建并推进创新之旅。“这些报告是制定斯里兰卡矿产路线图和政策的催化剂,”她说。
This is exactly what Wijesinghe and her team at NIA are doing. They are using the insights from patent analytics as foundations on which to build and advance their innovation journey. “These reports are catalysts for shaping the mineral roadmap and policy in Sri Lanka,” she says.
斯里兰卡拥有世界上最纯净的一些石墨矿藏。对专利数据的分析可以揭示为这一宝贵资源增值的机会。(图:RHJ / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Sri Lanka has some of the world’s purest graphite deposits. An analysis of patent data can reveal opportunities to add value to this valuable resource. (Photo: RHJ / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
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Read the full interview online and learn more about patent analytics.
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