How to overcome the challenges of patent data quality using PatentSight

Patent data is publicly available and can be sourced from patent offices worldwide. However, the quality of the raw data, thus obtained, is insufficient. One common reason why analysts struggle to work with patent data is incomplete ownership information. Patents do not necessarily state the entity ultimately controlling them. They might be filed under various different names such as subsidiaries or inventors, making it almost impossible to create a holistic company profile. Without knowing which company has the commercial power over an invention, analyses become void.

Data in PatentSight is linked to the current ultimate owner, i.e. the entity that is on top of a corporate structure and exerts control over the patent and its underlying invention.

Global patent data assigned to the accurate commercial owner

Another problem with the raw data extracted from publicly available sources is ambiguous legal status information. Patents usually have a lifetime of 20 years. Yet, patents may go inactive well before they reach their maximum lifetime for reasons such as invalidation or lack of fee payments. Also, companies sell individual patents, entire business units, even merge or get acquired. Therefore, to produce reliable insights from patent data analytics, a complete tracking of ownership changes and the remaining lifetime of patents is required.

Patent data that has been checked for Legal Status and remaining lifetime

Tracing data quality, particularly ownership and legal status information, allows to track corporate structures and also mergers and acquisitions by comparing pre- and post-merger technological and competitive landscapes.