Patent mapping prowess brings DTI contract

A Sagentia product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 22, 2005

Scientific Generics' pioneering patent mapping process is being used to steer National Measurement System programmes.

Scientific Generics' pioneering patent mapping process is being used to steer National Measurement System programmes.

The three-year Expert Advice contract follows on from a previous three and a half year project worth around GBP 3.5 million.

The National Measurement System Directorate (NMSD) is the technical and organisational infrastructure that ensures a consistent and internationally recognised basis for measurement of science and engineering projects within the UK.

It is part of, and funded by, the UK Department of Trade and Industry and supports institutions such as the National Physical Laboratory and the National Weights and Measures Laboratory.

Scientific Generics will advise the DTI on the content of NMSD supported programmes in industries such as communications, energy, manufacturing, advanced materials and medical, helping with overall strategy and competitive tendering of work.

Mick McLean, Head of Economics and Policy, Scientific Generics said: "Our bid was particularly strong because in the last assignment we pioneered the use of 'patent mapping' to spot technology trends and active inventors - something that Generics are particularly good at".

He continues: "The NMSD project is already quite well defined, most of the work carried out so far has involved our patent mapping system and has been carried out by our Public Sector team".

"However, as the project develops we expect to call on broad expertise from technology and industry specialists across Generics".

Generics' patent mapping system - called IQIP - works by classifying the patents unambiguously, according to IPC code (the patent subject classification).

The maps are 2D grids with defined axes, and show the number of patents as straight, normalised or weighted by significance and in a particular 'bin' on the grid.

McLean continues: "As a result, 'white space' has a consistent meaning - and 'hotspots' (the equivalent of peaks) can be unambiguously labelled when numbers of patents are normalised in both dimensions to show relative numbers".

"The patents can easily be clustered in a variety of ways".

"Recently we have used categories that include: the patent codes themselves, the type of organisation (big company/small company/university), and of course dates".

This patent map helps indicate what the future commercial landscape may look like internationally and can pinpoint active inventors and where they are.

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