1. Patents as a Source of Competitive Intelligence
Jan Comfort
Reference Librarian
Clemson University

2. What is Competitive Intelligence?
“… the identification of strategically important corporate intelligence (knowledge) needs and the process of resolving those needs through ethical information-gathering, analysis, and the presentation of such analysis to clients (internal or external).”
Jim Underwood. Competitive Intelligence. London: Capstone Publishing
We as librarians generally focus on the information-gathering part, and leave the analysis to the patrons.
Learn everything you can about the industry
Identify companies in the market
Learn about companies in the market
Search the appropriate databases for the company/market
So why patents?

3. It is estimated that 80% of information found in patents is unique.
Office of Technology Assessment and Forecasting. Eighth Report. Washington, DC: GPO
Why do you think this is true?
One of the requirements for patentability is “absolute novelty.” If something has already been written about, it is no longer novel.
Often there are restrictions placed on publication by companies or licensees. But “full disclosure” (by publishing) is a legal requirement for a patent
New advances are published in the patent literature well before journal articles
Individual inventions might not be important enough on their own to publish. It might take years to document incremental research results, and by then it is not “publishable.”
Perhaps the organization has moved on to other areas of research.
The value of some patents is economic, not scientific

4. Patent literature vs. Journal literature
Patents
Usually no theoretical discussion
Different writing style; uses legal terminology
Keywords may even be different
Will usually give one example with full detail
Technology is generally in the early stage
Journals
Written to document original research as opposed to solving a problem
Goes through a review process before being published
Research may use the patented process, but research results are what’s important

5. Sources of Patent Information
PTDLs
Special resources furnished by the PTDLP
Expert Searchers
uspto.gov
Statistical reports
Full-text databases
Other multi-subject databases such as LEXIS-NEXIS
Scientific Databases
Refer to PTDLS whenever you no longer feel comfortable helping a patron.
Use uspto databases to find patents, refine results of keyword searches, or to expand one patent into many
Use commercial databases for literature searching, background searches on industry or technology or reseach, and to supplement a patent search

6. Databases with Patent Information
Various CSA databases
Web of Science
SciFinder Scholar
Biosis
PubMed (nucleotide)
Textile Technology Index
Lexis/Nexis
Pirabase
INSPEC
Food Science and Technology Abstracts
These are only the databases that actually have a separate document type of “Patent”. Patent literature discussed in every scientific database
These are only the databases available at Clemson – many available from online vendors such as STN and Dialog

7. Not all databases will have the same fields, so this might limit too much

8. Case Study for competitive intelligence
Glow in the dark Bracelets

9. Click on the plus to see which databases have records
Tabs for document types

10. Use Web of Science to do a cited reference search when you already know a patent number

14. This patent was cited 3 times
So articles can lead to patents, and patents can lead to articles

15. Here is what a patent looks like in a reference list

16. SciFinder Scholar
Next let’s look at SciFinder Scholar. The electronic version of Chemical Abstracts.

18. Could limit to patents right here

37. So that was a sample search for chemistry. What about engineering?

40. Thank you! Slides available at www.ptdla.org
Pass out blue handouts