36F-1 |
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D. TISI, Tiax LLC, 15 Acorn Park, Cambridge, MA 02140 Patents are issued by governments to encourage investment in research and development, and to protect intellectual property. Research dollars aside, patents pose a substantial cost to the applicant in the form of filing expenses, maintenance fees, and upkeep of active legal defenses against infringement. Thus, patent applications which require substantial investment provide an insight into the business strategy of the applicant. The objectives of this report were twofold: first, to estimate the relative rate in which specific corporations develop patentable IP through a quantitative analysis of their patent applications, and secondly to determine if a company's most recent patent filings indicate a deviation in either corporate strategy or product focus. Rate comparison was accomplished through a search of the major patent databases (U.S., European, and World) to determine the quantity of food patents issued to several large food companies. This data was compared to annual sales to calculate rates of patenting for individual companies. Graphical patent search software was used to compare the recent patent applications of a company to others in its portfolio. The software then generated a contour plot indicating intensity of research among various research areas. A graphical difference in the localized intensities of the latest patent applications indicated a change in research trends. On an average, food companies with over 10 billion dollars in sales are granted one patent per year for every 1.5 billion dollars in sales. Large researchers such as Nestle and General Mills produce about one patent per 300 million dollars in sales, while brewer Anheuser-Busch and poultry firm Tyson Foods generate one patent per 5 billion dollars. Recent patent activity also indicated a change in research trends for some companies. Analyses of recent patent submissions provide an important tool for the understanding of the research strategy of companies. Additionally, the size of the patent portfolio of a company gives an indication of how well they are protected from competing organizations, and the novelty of their research.
Session 36F, Marketing & Management: General
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |