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Why is ‘Innovation Intelligence’ vital for your business?

Innovation Intelligence is currently a trending term that’s popping up at a lot of industry events and in thought-provoking articles. But what is it, why is it so important for your business, and how can you implement it to gain a competitive advantage?

What is Innovation Intelligence?

‘Innovation Intelligence’ describes the use of a systematic approach to optimise the innovation process of a business. This involves utilising a platform to allow businesses to make more informed R&D decisions by identifying threats and opportunities in the market, emerging technologies to focus innovation efforts on and providing access to high-quality patent data.

Ultimately, these features combine to streamline the process of bringing superior products to market and maximise return on investment via an evidence-based innovation intelligence strategy.

Using Patent Data to Build Innovation Intelligence

Patent data is essential to building your competitive innovation intelligence. The information found in patent data is vital to R&D departments when building on existing ideas, which helps to drive innovation intelligence. Overall, utilising patent data helps you innovate more effectively and efficiently.

Overall, the process allows businesses and innovators to identify and validate their ideas. Carry on reading to see some key methods you can use to improve your business’ innovation intelligence and strategy via insights from patent data.

Use Innovation Intelligence to Inform Your Strategy

A starting point for your innovation intelligence strategy is exploring white space opportunities. Below is a topographical map which shows the most popular keywords associated with a search phrase within patent documents. This can help identify technical areas which are the focus of major development and the less-explored “white spaces” where you might choose to focus your R&D strategy and allocate resources.

This enables you to empower your team with the ability to instantly check if their ideas are novel and more efficiently invest their time and resources. Don’t waste time trying to reinvent the wheel.

Track Your Competitors

An essential element of Innovation Intelligence is learning about competitors, assessing their strategies, and having a broader picture of the key players in your market. Analysing patent citations allows organisations to quickly identify players working in a similar technology area or new competitors entering a similar field. You can identify the most influential players in your results using the citation networks shown below. This allows you to instantly assess your competition and formulate your strategy.

 

Hot technology trends

Remaining abreast of technology trends is vital to your innovation intelligence repertoire. By viewing the top classification codes of patents filed within your industry, you can gain a picture of the trajectory of technology trends and align your business strategy accordingly.

Shown below are the top 10 CPC groups over the last 10 years for ‘Autonomous Vehicles’. You can see the top technology groups for granted patents by year. It’s easy to spot straight away that G05D1/0088 (related to traffic control systems for road vehicles) and G05D2201/0213 (which relates to the Control of position, course or altitude of road vehicles and trucks) are the fastest growing areas.

Minesoft is a leading global patent information solutions provider. To find out how Minesoft can help you turn patent data into innovation intelligence, contact us by email at [email protected] for a free consultation with one of our global team members.

Utilise Minesoft’s Powerful Solutions to Improve Your Innovation Intelligence

Minesoft is a leading global patent information solutions provider. With patent search tools like PatBase available, improving your IP strategy and workflow has never been easier. To find out how Minesoft can help you turn patent data into innovation intelligence, contact us today for a free consultation with one of our global team members.