On this special episode of The Six Five - Insiders Edition, hosts Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman are joined by Will Mansfield, Director of Consulting and Customer Success for PatentSight to discuss the ins and outs of patents, intellectual property and the value of patent data in our current technology climate.

 

In our conversation, Will, Patrick and I explored PatentSight’s Patent Asset Index, which is the scientifically developed tool the company uses to evaluate the value of a patent. Companies today need to be able to explain the value of an asset or a piece of technology or why you’re going after a certain company for an acquisition. Will explained that the Patent Asset Index is an algorithm that looks at number of factors when deciding the value of a patent including the patent portfolio, patent family, geocoverage, and citations among other things. It’s a wealth of data that PatentSight’s clients can leverage for portfolio management and licensing information.

 

A quick look at patent families. Will shared a brief overview of how PatentSight views patent families. There are multiple definitions of this, but PatentSight looks at patents with the exactly the same set of priorities. As the company evaluates a patent it’s important to first group all the patents together covering a single innovation to truly get a full picture on what the patent is covering.

 

The importance of geocoverage in patents. Will explained that geocoverage of patents is all of the locations where a patent exists. Companies that believe their innovation or technology is a gamechanger will likely have patents everywhere. Understanding this gives an indication of the strength of the patent.

 

Patent citations make important links. We also discussed how PatentSight utilizes patent citations which are connections between patents to indicate the relevance of the patent. Just like in the PageRank system in Google — the more links a page has to it, the more valuable it is. PatentSight uses the links from expert examiners and creates metrics to evaluate the strength.

 

Understanding the value of patents that build on each other. Finally, we explored how patents, specifically in 5G, build on each other. Companies like Qualcomm that develop 5G or other similar technologies are building off of 3G and 4G iterations. It’s not a completely new technology. PatentSight’s technology relevance metric in the Patent Asset Index highlights patents that are heavily built upon other patents. This is important in determining the value of the patent.

 

If you’d like to read more about PatentSight and their Patent Asset Index, be sure to check out their website or listen to the full episode below. While you’re at it, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode of The Six Five Podcast.