Meaning Of White Space Analysis – Patent Landscape analysis

 

Introduction: To White Space Analysis & Patent Landscape Analysis

White Space Analysis: White space in literal terms can be termed as an opportunity. Essentially, “White Space” is an area where there is quite less or no innovation or in other words, no patenting activity has been done in that particular field or industry. “White Space” helps to designate a systematic methodology to identify this absence of patent in a specific area or product or industry as a primary driver of decision making in order to make the company be the “first-to-market”. Tools like Patent Landscape Analysis and Competitive Intelligence analysis further help to research in the White Space. Customer research is also another tool that might help to identify areas with unmet needs or unidentified ones.

White-Space Analysis – Patent Landscape 

There is no doubt that a crucial facet of any innovation assessment is that once a corporation is introducing a brand-new product or technology and it has to know at an early stage whether or not it will own the fruits of its innovation efforts and whether it would be sued for infringement by a third party.

Discovering white space in your trade isn’t enough to make strategic business decisions. Fastidiously analyzing white space known with the assistance of AI permits organizations to know the patent landscape they operate in.

White-Space Analysis Process

The process of white-space analysis starts with the exploration for what has already been done and creating extrapolations and generating concepts to search out what else is to be done in order to deliver something new in market. Alternatively, if you have already got a thought in mind, you would definitely need to scour literature, art, and also the market to check if it’s already been done before continuing with developing your idea into an invention.

Once you’re thinking that you’ve found a gap, you must conduct a targeted search searching for patents in databases or different varieties of relevant information round the patent you’re trying to file. This is done to clarify if it’s truly a white space or is already heavily inhabited with similar patents. There are some totally different processes for locating a white space (depending on what your intentions are).

Need For A White Space Analysis

The need for a White Space Analysis is discussed below:

  • Facilitate teams/research groups with the analytics & development professionals to produce unanimous picks on meeting goals for innovation in technology or for future investments.
  • Facilitate managers in the IP field to establish gaps and intervals to the patent landscape where there is little to no patenting activity. This will help in facilitating in focussing innovation and infrastructure development to that specific area only.
  • Showcases the various trends in the field of IP and where the industry is moving towards which could direct the scope of future development of a product.
  • White Space Analysis creates diverse portfolios by increasing patents for a company or product which provides you with a further edge over competitors.
  • Helps to understand the true value of a company. This helps you to identify at intervals your current innovation production capabilities and the areas where competitors can capitalize and wherever there’ is scope for improvisation.
  • Shows the company to actively engage in those specific areas of interest, where the competitors have not focussed and therefore create less competition and more success. 

IIPRD’s Approach Towards White Space Analysis Of Patents

IIPRD conducts an in-depth analysis of patents belonging to a particular domain of technology. We provide charts showing technology growth and white-gap area where further R&D can be done to gain a competitive edge and to carry out incremental innovation for new product development. We help clients take tough decisions when looking for growth in existing technologies.

Our in-depth analysis and white-space Analysis report of technology enable our clients to identify the future potential research areas. Our research team consists of experienced PhDs, Postgraduates and Engineers in many disciplines who prepare the report through intensive research and analytics.

Things To Understand From A White Space Analysis

  • To find holes in the organization/ industry

White Spaces in a particular industry/field can be known by your organization or across your industry. Finding areas where your business specifically lacks proprietary technology compared to competitors is definitely eye-opening. This approach to white space mapping might establish areas that need to be fulfilled by your company to come up with a solution to competitors’ IP.

One can conjointly explore for white space within your industry as well. Pinpointing areas with virtually no patented technology may be advantageous for your business. Innovating toward industry-wide white space encourages true innovation, instead of merely maintaining pace with competitors. Attention to these areas before competitors may permit you to enter the market first, leading to a long-lasting competitive advantage.

  • Help allocate Resources

Areas lacking innovation are probably business opportunities. Pursuing, patenting, and transforming these opportunities into realities would need resources. With opportunities clearly identified, it’s easier to strategically apportion time, talent, budgets, and different resources to inventions filling a void within the market. These selections require a knowledge base perspective, with R&D, legal, business development, and promoting groups enjoying a role.

  • White-Space Mapping (Patent Landscape analysis)

White-space mapping is the methqod that is used to find white spaces in a completely new industry/market. The longer a market exists the additionally competitive it becomes. New technology and products are being introduced perpetually in today’s market therefore corporations are continually trying to find the simplest way to differentiate themselves. As a result of this, white-space mapping is turning into a crucial strategic exercise for understanding and capitalizing on the market.

The primary step in determining white-space mapping is to see whether or not you’re approaching it from an internal, external or future perspective. These are mentioned henceforth:

  1. Internally centered perspective: It is an inward-looking tool to map your company’s existing talents to find new opportunities that competition may capitalize on. This is often used to see how effectively your company can react to opportunities or threats inside your market in addition as find ways that to expand your company.
  2. External-centered perspective: It starts with mapping out the product or services in a very specific market and seeing if all wants are being met within that selected market. The aim of this is to search out gaps within the existing markets that have a chance that you simply could make the most of.
  3. Future centered Perspective: This is completed with strategic foresight gathered equally to however information is collected victimisation outwardly focused mapping.  Victimisation current market trends, extrapolations are created to form assumptions concerning future trends. Once you have got could an assumption of future trends, you’ll be higher suited to maximize them.

Meeting Customer Needs:

Most businesses’ main focus to pursue innovation is to be able to market it. New products and services should meet clients’ desires so as to succeed. White space, which is known in each technical literature and conversations with customers, represents unmet needs. In new areas of innovation, customers might not even understand these needs. The organizations that initial articulate and address these needs get pleasure from durable customer loyalty.

Identifying Trends:

Opportunities diagnosed via white space mapping tell strategic plans for the future, together with how an enterprise will develop and whether or not or now no longer it’ll diversify. Thorough white space mapping can be the most effective way to pinpoint gaps inside current industries’ generation landscapes. Examining white space skills also can pick out generation traits pointing to completely new industries adjoining to their cutting-edge operations.

Reporting & Deliverables

  • Advanced Tools for analysis and review: Our technology analysis tools will give the clients a detailed graphical and easy and comprehensible set results that will showcase the white spaces of the technology of interest of the client.
  • Detailed Technology Analysis: Over the time new and several methods have been developed to identify gaps in the technological landscape by plotting various variables such as problems identified in the prior arts, solutions from the known patents or literature, publication data, technology timelines, competitor focuses, alternative solutions solving similar bottlenecks, etc.
  • Competitive Intelligence: Our reporting has a graphical representation of results which enlists major players and competitors, their key focus areas and also the date-wise trends in their technology development.
  • Bibliographic Insights: A technological white space analysis gives you bibliographic information such as the date of filing, publication, and expiry of patents. For non-patent literature such as products, articles, and research papers, we provide relevant dates. Various parameters are plotted together to identify various possible white spaces in the landscape. It is possible that not all the white spaces identified in the analysis are technologically feasible to fill the gaps or to improvise on.

Conclusion

As the markets mature and continue developing, and the competition intensifies, organizations will actively need to look for new sources for differentiating themselves. This is where white space mapping will become a very important strategic exercise for organizational learning and strategic planning. For any company to stay with the changing times over the long time, it will have to respond to these shifting conditions strategically and white space mapping will have to be part of its strategic planning efforts. What companies really need is a structure to bring the intuitive aspects of design thinking into action and hence conquering the white space with good strategies and rigour will help the businesses to grow and lead the competition for a long time.