What is the UTT and how should I use it?
The Universal Technology Taxonomy (UTT) is a set of classifiers that comprehensively organises the world of patent data through a common lens. It is comprised of ten broad Technology Superclasses (such as electrical or mechanical) and 121 Subclasses (such as Displays or Robotics). The taxonomy was designed to ensure you can categorise every patent in the world by technology area, with each patent and application equally represented.
What’s the difference between the Universal Technology Taxonomy and Custom Taxonomies?
The UTT as the name suggests is Universal. It analyses the entire patented world through a common lens. Custom classifier taxonomies are created by companies to see the world through their technology taxonomy. They are much more specific as to scope – and typically only cover part of the technology landscape. UTT allows you to classify every patent in the world into manageable, sensible groupings. UTT is very different to CPC Codes. By comparison there are over 300,000 CPC codes, which are not consistently applied and don't provide that meaningful comparison. Only by having that level of access and transparency that UTT provides, can you compare companies and technologies objectively and consistently and provide answers to many strategic questions.
What’s the difference between the Universal Technology Taxonomy and clustering within the LexisNexis® Classification platform?
The universal technology taxonomy is a fixed taxonomy that classifies patents into one of the defined classes. Clustering (unsupervised ML) within the Classification platform, analyses patents and groups them into the ‘buckets’ most relevant to the selected company. The UTT is the only approach that provides a consistent view of all patents globally.
UTT for Law firms and non-patent owning organisations
The Universal Technology taxonomy can be used in many scenarios such as performing Due Diligence, M&A activities and calculating risk associated with sector litigation. The UTT taxonomy not only allows you to categorise one portfolio or set of assets into technology areas:
You can then also compare to a range of competitor portfolios using consistent and objective classification, answering questions such as, are we looking at the right target portfolio for acquisition?:
Analyse the data any way you want:
Litigation and Risk Analytics:
UTT for patent owning organisations
Custom AI classifier taxonomies are created and are bespoke for you, to see the world through your technology taxonomy. They are much more specific as to scope – and typically only cover part of the technology landscape.
You may wish to delve into a specific technology, or compare a selection of technologies that you're interested in:
The Universal Technology Taxonomy however, allows for a 360 degree view enabling you to classify every patent in the world into manageable, sensible groupings. So if you want to analyse your entire portfolio against your top competitors, UTT allows you to compare technologies objectively and consistently with answers to many strategic questions.
Here is an example of a Competitor Analysis output using UTT:
Please do reach out to the support team on support@lexisnexisip.com to request your own tailored walk through, or to request the key insights document relating to UTT.
Need help? Request support and we’ll connect you with a Classification expert.