Business use of patent information

Patent information is interesting not only because of its legal and technical relevance, but increasingly because of its importance in a business context. Patent information provides a wealth of information for many people involved in business, especially corporate decision makers, investors, managers and innovators working in research and development.

It can help you to:

• monitor trends in technology which will influence your products,
• see which markets your competitors are active in,
• identify business opportunities, and
  
• co-ordinate your business decisions.

Decision-makers are becoming increasingly interested in using patents to get an idea of the "big picture" and take informed decisions. Tools on the market can analyse large amounts of patent data and present the results in easily understandable graphics showing, for example:

• increased patent activity in certain technical fields
• areas in which your competitors' patents are clustered
• the geographical distribution of patents over time.

It is also important for a business to understand patent information in order to avoid the duplication of work - at the EPO, we estimate the cost of duplicate research to be 20 billion euro a year in Europe alone. This is a deficit that no company can afford to ignore.