Competitor monitoring

Besides being an important tool for providing legal protection for R&D and commercial rights, Intellectual Property can be a useful information source for SMEs. For example, patent specifications contain important technical information. Patents and designs will also indicate current innovation trends. The patent literature is therefore an effective tool to avoid parallel developments and R&D efforts. Also, patent and trade mark filings can give an insight into competitors' marketing strategies. In other words, IP information is valuable in all aspects of company activity - research, development, manufacturing, commercialisation and overall management.

A patent document provides information about an invention that, in many cases, has not been published before. The applicant is obliged to give a full description of the invention which it might not otherwise publish at all or only with much less detail. A patent document describes the invention in a clear and complete way, gives examples of industrial application and informs about the technological context i.e. other patents in the same area. It also permits identification of the inventor and the patent owner. There is a patent classification system which facilitates retrieval of patents within a specific technology area.

Patent information sources should be used by organisations in their research and development for any of the processes below:

• Investigating the general "state of the art" in a technology,
• Finding emerging and cutting edge technologies,
• Identifying possible fruitful areas for research,
• Identifying areas where research effort would be wasted because of e.g. duplication, established dominance by other companies etc.,
• Investigating existing patents for legal purposes e.g. possibilities of infringement,
• Finding possible competitors or partners,
• Identifying technology transfer/licensing opportunities (in or out).