Introduction
In the PatentSight BI, the owners of patent portfolios are defined according to the Ultimate Owner Concept. For some analyses, however, it is necessary to extract the patent portfolio of a subsidiary.
This article uses the example of Omega, a subsidiary of the Swatch Group, to explain how patent families belonging to a specific subsidiary can be extracted, saved, and used in further analyses.
Example: Search filter settings to extract subsidiary portfolio
Example: Analysis of owner and subsidiary using a tag
Extracting a subsidiary portfolio requires adding the holding company to the field search and using the search fields "Applicant" and Assignee".
Note: This approach is suitable if a subsidiary files their patents using their own company name and not that of their parent company. Patents filed by a subsidiary under the name of their parent company or any different name (e.g. inventor) cannot be extracted using the following method.
1. Add the search field "Owner" to the search pane.
2. Select Swatch within the search field “Owner”
This will add the patent portfolio of Swatch to the search panel:
3) Click on "More" and add the search field "Applicant" to the search panel. You can find "Applicant" under “Ownership.”
Alternatively, you can search for this search field using the search panel in the top left corner of the "Add search field" window.
4. Search for and select all applicant names that contain the term "Omega" (name of subsidiary). You can use "✔ Select all" to add all applicant names that meet this criteria at once.
Note: Applicant names are not harmonized! Alternative spellings, transcriptions from different languages, and misspellings are displayed as stated in the original patent documents.
In addition, please be aware that potential subsidiaries of a subsidiary must be selected manually as well.
Your search is now limited to patent families currently owned by the Ultimate Owner Swatch and originally filed by the applicant Omega.
5. Click on "More" and add the search field " Assignee" to the search panel. You can find "Assignee" under "Ownership". We add this search field to make sure that patents originally filed by an inventor and later transferred to a company are considered as well (e.g. US patent applications).
Alternatively, you can search for this search field using the search panel in the top left corner of the "Add search field..." window.
6. Search for and select all assignee names that contain the term "Omega" (name of subsidiary). Use "✔ Select all" to add all assignees that meet this criteria at once.
Note: Assignee names are not harmonized! Alternative spellings, transcriptions from different languages, and misspellings are displayed as stated in the original patent documents.
In addition, please be aware that potential subsidiaries of a subsidiary must be selected manually as well.
Now, your search panel should have the following settings:
7. Click into the search panel to place the cursor at the respective location and use your keyboard to replace the default Boolean operators as outlined below:
- replace the Boolean operator "AND" between “Applicant [...]” AND Assignee [...]" with the Boolean operator "OR".
- enclose the part "Applicant [...] OR Assignee [...]" in parentheses “()".
Having done so, you have limited your search results to patent families that are currently owned by the Ultimate Owner Swatch AND have been either originally filed by the applicant Omega OR reassigned to Omega.
How to save the subsidiary portfolio extracted
Saving your search in "My Saved Searches"
To update your search results at a later point in time, we recommend saving your search in "My Saved Searches". Click here for more information on how to work with saved searches.
1. Click on "save" icon in the tool bar of the search panel.
2. Name your search (e.g., "Omega") and click on the check icon ("✔") to save your search.
Saving your search results as tag
To conveniently use the patent portfolio extracted in your analyses, we recommend tagging these patent families. Tags can be used as search fields, but also as groupings in tables and as attributes in charts.
1. Click on "Tag icon" at the bottom of the search panel.
2. Click on "Create New Tag".
We recommend including inactive patents that match the search criteria. This option is already selected by default and allows you to view the development of a portfolio tagged over time.
3) Select a folder where you would like to save your tag, name your tag (e.g., "Omega"), and click “Confirm” to save your tag.
Note: To a certain degree, tags are static: While the information (legal status, ownership etc.) on the patent families tagged will be updated with each update of the PatentSight BI, the tag itself will not be updated automatically. Note that even if new patents that meet the search criteria are published and made available in the PatentSight BI, these patents will not be added to your tag automatically. In the same way, if the patents tagged do no longer meet the initial search criteria, they will not be removed from your tag automatically. Therefore, if you prefer the list of selected families to automatically update we recommend saving your search and if you want to reuse the exact list of families in the future, then create tag.
How to analyze the portfolio of an extracted subsidiary
Set search panel.
You can now use the tag created to analyze the patent portfolio extracted as one group of patents. First, you need to include your tag as a search field.
1. Clear your search panel settings by clicking on the trash bin icon.
2. Click on "Tag" in the tool bar and select the tag created
Now, your search panel should have the following settings:
Select analysis template.
By default, many charts, and tables in the PatentSight BI are grouped by owner. However, we also provide templates that are already grouped by tag. These can be found in the template panel under:
Analysis templates → Enterprises Templates → Groupings → Tag
1. Select a template of your choice (e.g., Patent Asset Index trend)
2. If you are using a template that is grouped by a different attribute or if you are creating a chart or table from scratch, set "Tag" as grouping or attribute in the chart or table settings:
Displaying owners and tags in one chart
The bubble chart supports the visualization of two different attributes at once. This allows you to display owners and tags at the same time.
1. Add a new sheet.
The search panel settings of your previous sheet will be automatically applied to the new sheet:
2. Add an owner of your choice (e.g., Swatch) to the search panel.
3. Replace the Boolean operator "AND" with "OR" to make sure that your search results are not limited to the overlap between tag and owner.
4. Select e.g., the bubble chart "Quality and Quantity" from the Analysis template panel.
5. Click into the chart to select it.
6. Access the chart settings by clicking on the gear wheel icon in the top right corner of the chart.
7. Select "Tag" under "Additional bubbles". In addition, you can also tick "Show bubble trials".
Now you can see how the portfolio of the entire Swatch Group has developed over time in comparison to that of its subsidiary Omega.
How to exclude patents of a subsidiary from an owner portfolio
You can also use the tag ("Omega") created as described above to exclude these patents from the portfolio of the ultimate owner ("Swatch").
1. Open a new sheet and set your search panel as shown below:
To exclude Omega patents from the Swatch portfolio, use the Boolean operator "AND NOT".
2. Click on "Tag" at the bottom of the search panel.
3. Click on "Create New Tag".
We recommend including inactive patents that match the search criteria. This option is already selected by default and allows you to view the development of a portfolio tagged over time.
4. Select a folder where you would like to save your tag, name your tag (e.g., "Swatch (w/o Omega)"), and click on Confirm to save your tag.
5. Add the new tag to the Search Area:
Of course, you can always add other owners and/or tags to the search panel.
Now you can additionally see where the portfolio of Swatch would be positioned in their competitive landscape if it did not contain patents of its subsidiary Omega.