Patenting Activity charts available in Cipher and how to interpret them
Cipher's Patenting Activity Datasets
The Patenting activity section has seven datasets allowing a wide set of analysis. Simply click the activity section of your report dashboard to view all of the activity charts available in your report.
You can add any chart in cipher to a saved list of charts by selecting the tick in the top right of the chart icon as shown below. To access and then save the chart selections you've made in your report for review later on, click the 'tick' icon in the top left of your report screen and select 'save'. For more information on saved charts, click here.
Cipher's Patenting Activity data is broken down into datasets providing analysis of:
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Families, by organisation and publication year
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Families, by technology and publication year
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Families, by organisation and priority year
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Families, by technology and priority year
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Families, by organisation and grant year
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Families, by technology and grant year
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Entrance year, by organisation and technology
Cipher's Patenting Activity datasets Descriptions
The analysis you want to undertake, will determine the activity chart you select. Below is a description of each chart type to help to choose the relevant ones for your analysis:
Families, by organisation and publication year
This chart shows the number of patent families published by each organisation in any given year, by publication year.
This chart is useful to understand how many patent families are published in any given year. You can also click into the data to understand exactly which families were published in that year. If there is a spike in publications, you can review the data to understand why this may be the case.
For multi technology reports, you can also use the technology filters to review activity across a selected technology in this chart.
Families, by technology and publication year
This chart shows the number of patent families published in each technology in any given year, by publication year. Numbers are aggregated if multiple organisations are selected.
This chart is useful to understand how many patent families are published in any given year for each technology. You can also click into the data to understand exactly which families were published in that year. If there is a spike in publications, you can review the data to understand why this may be the case. If an organisation published a significant number of patents three years ago and nothing since, then they may have lost interest in that technology area.
For multi organisation reports, you can also use the organisation filters to review activity for a selected organisation in this chart.
Families, by organisation and priority year
This chart shows the number of patent families filed by each organisation in any given year, by priority year.
This chart is useful to understand in what year an organisation was doing the work, for example, a priority year of 5/6/7 years ago tells you when that invention happened. You can also click into the data to understand exactly which families had a priority date in each year. If there is a spike in a particular year, you can review the data to understand why this may be the case and which inventions those organisations filed in that year.
For multi technology reports, you can also use the technology filters to review activity across a selected technology in this chart.
Families, by technology and priority year
This chart shows the number of patent families filed in each technology in any given year, by priority year. Numbers are aggregated if multiple organisations are selected.
This chart is useful to understand in what year an invention was filed, for example, a priority year of 5/6/7 years ago tells you when that invention happened. You can also click into the data to understand exactly which families had a priority date in each year. If there is a spike in a particular year, you can review the data to understand why this may be the case and which inventions those organisations filed in that year.
For multi organisation reports, you can also use the organisation filters to review activity for a selected organisation in this chart.
Families, by organisation and grant year
This chart shows the number of patent families granted by each organisation in any given year, by grant year.
This chart is useful to understand an organisations granted estate, and when those families were granted. These metrics could be useful when considering who to license with, or who to grant a license to.
For multi technology reports, you can also use the technology filters to review activity across a selected technology in this chart.
Families, by technology and grant year
This chart shows the number of patent families granted in each technology in any given year, by grant year. Numbers are aggregated if multiple organisations are selected.
This chart is useful to understand the granted families of a particular technology, and when those families were granted.
For multi organisation reports, you can also use the organisation filters to review activity for a selected organisation in this chart.
Entrance year, by organisation and technology
This chart shows the year that each organisation entered the technology space. Entrance year is calculated by the earliest priority year for that organisation and technology.
This chart if useful to establish new entrants to a technology space, and to be able to click into those assets to review the inventions. These organisations could be potential disruptors. You could also use the territory filters to review new entrants filing to specific territories.
This chart is also useful to review the year in which specific organisations entered the technology space by using the organisation filter to select your organisations of interest in your report. You can then compare whether your competitors are relatively new to the tech space, or whether they entered the space at a similar time to you.
Active Families CAGR, by Organisation
This chart shows the percentage change in number of active patent families by organisation over your defined time period. Not to be mistaken for changes in revenue often associated with CAGR (compound annual growth rate)
You are able to use the year slider (top left) to input the date range you're interested in. CAGR will take into account the number of active families at the start and end points to give you the percentage change:
This is useful for easily tracking changes in portfolio size across multiple organisations, including you and your competitors.
The chart is not available in reports with 10 or fewer patent families, to avoid bloated growth rates.
You could use this chart to answer questions such as:
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Which Organisation's portfolios in my report are growing fast?
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Does it look like the orgs in my report might be accelerating or slowing down their patent activity overall? (can use the technology filter to zone in particular technologies per org)
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You could also use this chart in conjunction with patenting activity timelines and the 'entrance year' chart for fuller context.
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You could use this chart in competitor intelligence to take a wide view of an industry, for example, comparing activity for one organisation to activity across multiple organisations or across your whole list of competitors.
Active Families CAGR, by Technology
This chart shows the percentage change in number of active patent families by technology, over your defined time period. Not to be mistaken for changes in revenue often associated with CAGR (compound annual growth rate).
You are able to use the year slider (top left) to input the date range you're interested in. CAGR will take into account the number of active families at the start and end points to give you the percentage change:
This is useful for easily tracking changes in portfolio size across multiple technologies in your report.
The chart is not available in reports with 10 or fewer patent families, to avoid bloated growth rates.
You could use this chart to answer questions such as:
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Which technology sectors in my report are growing fast?
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Does it look like the orgs in my report might be accelerating or slowing down their patent activity in any particular areas? (can use the global org filter to zone in on this)
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You could also use this chart in conjunction with patenting activity timelines and maybe the 'entrance year' chart for fuller context.
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You could use this chart in benchmarking to take a wide view of the technology space, for example, comparing activity in one of my technologies to activity in related technologies or across your whole taxonomy.
Pending Families % by Organisation
This chart shows the number of pending families per organisation as a percentage of the total active families owned by that organisation.
You could use this chart to answer questions such as:
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What does each organisation's "pipeline" look like?
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I might use this chart in a landscape report to tell me which orgs have a lot of new/ recent filings, and again, who might be investing heavily in the technologies in my report. It is another way of looking at growth and activity.
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Are there any new/previously overlooked competitors in my technology space that I should be aware of?