What are the research trends our industry is following? Which competitor is building what kind of technical expertise? Are these among some of the questions that you want to get answered?

Patent analytics is one of the ways to understand the current trend and forecast the futuristic ones. Further, it also helps decision-makers as you understand:

• Competitors’ product strategies
• The market they are targeting
• Understanding the ecosystem
• Finding appropriate whitespace
• Tapping new technologies and trends
• M&A opportunities
• and some more factors that matter to you.

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton (a leading US patent law firm) and GreyB Services collaborated to help you understand what kind of research trends 12 fast-growing tech sectors are displaying. To achieve the objective, we analyzed the patent filing trends of these industries at the USPTO.

What type of questions this study can answer:

• How research activity has evolved over the years in various industries?
• Which specific technology areas within those industries gained maximum attention?
• Which companies are filing the maximum number of patents in these industries?
• How and why the patent filing is increasing or decreasing in a specific sub-sector of a technology?

Answers to these questions can help decision-makers envision the technological future of their respective industries and set their companies’ strategies over the coming years. This study can also help in understanding the impact and significance of current patenting trends in various industries. 

Also, it can help you answer more high stake questions like:

• Financial Decisions like how much budget you should allocate to IP Dept?
• R&D Decisions like which technology areas you should research more to expand/enhance your product portfolio?
• IP Related Decisions like how many patents you should file every year?
• In making a go or no go decision to file a patent or not.

As our title says, this particular article provides a 15k feet view of these 12 growing industries. In the coming days, we will be publishing 12+1 articles where we will discuss each of the 12 sectors in detail. We will disclose the topic of the 13th article in the coming days.

So, stay tuned and keep checking this space every alternate day.

In case you want me to notify you whenever an article of the series goes live, I can do that for you. Just let me know your email and I’ll make sure you get the link to the study right there in your inbox:

Below are the list of top emerging technologies along with patent insights:

Artificial Intelligence

Evolution of patent filing activity in Artificial intelligence over the years

The chart below displays patent filing in sub-technology areas of AI:

The trend is similar to many other software-related innovations. The filings have dropped significantly since the Supreme Court’s Alice decision. The decision curtailed the scope of the software-related patentable subject matter.

Read Here: A detailed Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Patents

Automotive

Evolution of patent filing activity in Automotive over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

The steepest innovation trend is around the Vehicle Control Systems. Patent filing increased in the vehicle controlling system because Vehicle control systems are the subject of significant R&D efforts. Innovation in vehicle control systems relates to several areas, including fuel efficiency, cybersecurity, safety, and emissions control.

Read Here: Top 30 Autonomous Vehicle Companies – A Market Research

Blockchain

Evolution of patent filing activity in Automotive over the years in Blockchain:

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas in blockchain

The highest number of patents are filed for cryptocurrencies. However, other sub-tech areas also received considerable patent filing and patent filings seem quite diversified in the blockchain.

In addition to a growing number of patent filings for non-cryptocurrency-related FinTech applications, patent filings for supply chain logistics and healthcare applications are growing at a steep pace as well. Below chart can give you a brief about patent filings in major application areas of blockchain:

Read Here: A detailed analysis of Blockchain Patents.

Building Material

Evolution of patent filing activity in Building Material over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Patenting of protective and decorative materials is on an upswing while it is slumping in green building materials.

Clean Tech

Evolution of patent filing activity in Clean Tech over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Patenting activities in clean energy harvesting innovations have been on a steep downward since 2011. The easier credit terms attracted venture capital (“VC”), causing a boom in cleantech innovation and a corresponding rise in patenting activity. But once the credit spigot was turned off in September 2011, VC money started to dry up as well.

Computational Biology/Bioinformatics

Evolution of patent filing activity in Bioinformatics over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Patent filings related to Patient Data Analysis and Computational Neuroscience are increasing. Personalized medicine, an important priority for the healthcare industry, is dependent on advances in the Patient Data Analysis technology cluster. A number of tech leaders, including IBM, Google, and Microsoft, have active initiatives in this area.

Fintech

Evolution of patent filing activity in Fintech over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

FinTech patent application numbers reflect a turbulent recent history.

Industrial Design

Evolution of patent filing activity in Industrial Design over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Patent filings are increasing across multiple sub-technology sectors in the Industrial Design industry:

Read Here: A Detailed Analysis of Industrial Design Patent Trends

The Internet of Things (IoT)

Evolution of patent filing activity in the Internet of things over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

The majority of patent filings are related to the applications of IoT, with a heavy emphasis on smart cities, automotive, and healthcare.

Distribution of IOT’s application area in the patent data set

Medical Devices

Evolution of patent filing activity in Medical devices over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Innovation and patent filings are high in Measuring Devices and Telehealth Equipment.

Therapeutic and Diagnostic Molecules

Evolution of patent filing activity in Therapeutic and Diagnostic Molecules over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

The majority of patent filings are for small molecules used as a therapeutic agent

Read Here: An analysis of the Top Medical Device Companies.

Wireless Phones

Evolution of patent filing activity in Wireless Phones over the years

Patent filing trends in sub-technology areas

Patent filings in the Hardware Components dominate the patent trends in the Mobile Phones industry.

As you can see in the above chart of computational-biology, FinTech, and CleanTech industries, filings had increased until 2014, after which they fell off because of Alice-based rejection in June 2014.

This was all for today! In the coming days, we will be discussing these 12 domains every alternate day. Let me know if you want me to deliver the notification to your inbox:

Authored By: Rajneesh Rana, Market Research.