Patenticulars
Solution to the previous challenge
The area of technology is... B62J, otherwise known as saddles or seats.
Now, you could have simply guessed the answer, but to be sure you could also have done the following:
Using PATSTAT Online, input the following code into Expert mode:
SELECT DISTINCT a.appln_filing_year, a.appln_id, a.appln_auth, a.appln_nr, a.appln_kind, a.appln_filing_date FROM tls201_appln a JOIN tls209_appln_ipc i ON a.appln_id = i.appln_id WHERE i.ipc_class_symbol LIKE 'B62K%' -- Change IPC symbol here AND a.appln_filing_year BETWEEN 2000 AND 2020 -- Define year range here ORDER BY a.appln_filing_year, a.appln_id
Then, under Statistics, select the Cross-reference feature. In Parameters, input CPC in both Parameters 1 and 2. Under Comparison, select Time and change to compare the times from 2000-01 to 2009-12 versus from 2010-01 to 2019-12, as shown below:
The following chart will appear:
In this chart, the combinations of CPC co-assignments in bicycles (B62K) are shown over time. More specifically, the chart highlights combinations that increased in the 2010s compared to the 2000s in blue and combinations that decreased in red. The chart clearly shows that the area of technology that has been more often co-assigned with bicycles is that of bicycle saddles or seats. Something to be thankful for, for sure.
But providing reassurance that cycling will eventually become more comfortable is not the only thing that this type of analysis can do. Creating a chart like this can help to identify technological trends that may otherwise be missed and detect future trends at an earlier stage. For more information on combinational inventions and their importance, we invite you to read our previous article.