In a webinar last week that garnered over 2,000 registrants and social media viewers, renowned startup investor and intellectual property (IP) strategist Jason Loh emphasized the usefulness of patent analytics in developing a business strategy for success.
The webinar, titled “Avoiding IP Pitfalls and Utilizing Patent Analytics for Startup Growth,” was organized jointly by the IP Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), Japan External Trade Organization and the Japan Patent Office.
A key lesson Loh imparted was the need for startups to know the entire landscape of the industry of interest even before developing a technology, and to keep abreast of trends in whatever stage. Here, IP research and analytics, he said, can contribute significantly.
“You’ll be amazed by the amount of information you can find through patent analytics,” said Loh, an innovation investor with over 20 years of experience in driving the growth of startups all over Asia.
Patent analytics is an in-depth study of patent data from which meaningful correlations and patterns between and among inventors, key technologies, industries and geographical distributions may be established to spot trends and identify gaps.
Also a founder of Piece Future, an Asian IP investment bank with strategic investments in more than 30 startups, Loh said he sees the Philippines, with “a lot of potential for international markets,” definitely benefitting from patent intelligence.
“Many startups often don’t know where to start, looking very deeply into new technology areas in the market when in fact they can utilize information generated from patent analysis to position themselves and develop their core competence from what they already have,” Loh added.
Seeking government support
Noel A. Catibog, executive director of the Technology Transfer and Promotion Division of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), emphasized the need for startups to consult experts and seek government support to know how best to market and protect their inventions.
“The development of a technology has to be based on an industry need and that has to be very, very clear at the start,” Catibog said, lamenting, however, that many startups fail in this aspect, thus, requiring PCAARRD’s intervention.
“We provide them assistance in developing business plans, marketing studies, feasibility studies, and we help them in generating their own strategies during pitch days. We have also established our technology network for our incubators and we provide grants now to startups adopting locally generated technologies,” Catibog added.
As of 2020, PCAARRD has 16 agri-aqua technology business incubators who have benefited from patent intelligence. They have generated 1,603 jobs and P68.7 million in aggregate gross income.
At present, PCAARRD is collaborating with IPOPHL to leverage the latter’s expertise in patent analysis in finding new technologies to develop.
IPOPHL’s patent analytics
Providing patent analytics is IPOPHL’s main service in promoting the use of patent information as a tool for technology development. The results of this service is a patent landscape report (PLR) which is a comprehensive study with focus on one entire industry.
To date, IPOPHL’s Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau (DITTB) has developed a total of 40 PLRs, mostly in the areas of agriculture and electronics.
IPOPHL also helps build the capacities of innovation-related agencies and institutions in patent research, encouraging them to integrate this technique in the ideation stage of researchers and innovators.
During the IP Month, for instance, the DITTB conducted an intensive eight-day online seminar-workshop on patent search for the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
“To avoid commercialization pitfalls, innovators and startups must learn the value of having an IP-centric innovation and business model. They can start by exploring IPOPHL’s patent analytics service, which can help them map out their research and technology directions and even anticipate risks, all with a fuller view of the current and future industry landscape,” DITTB Director Mary Grace Cruz-Yap said.