A patent landscape refers to an analysis of patent data within a specific technology area. Patent landscapes have become indispensable tools for companies to understand the state of innovation, identify emerging trends, and monitor key players within specific technology domains. A reliable patent landscape can not only reveal the true competitive environment but also highlight potential gaps and opportunities, guiding research and development (R&D) investments and shaping technology strategies. However, the creation of reliable, high-quality patent landscapes is increasingly complex, particularly as the volume of patent filings continues to surge globally, adding layers of data noise and inconsistencies.
Professionals working in highly innovative spaces face mounting challenges in extracting meaningful insights from the vast sea of patent data. This is where Generative AI (GenAI) offers transformative potential, automating labor-intensive processes such as patent categorization, technology clustering, and competitive intelligence gathering. When trained on reliable, enriched patent data, GenAI solutions can accelerate the creation of trustworthy patent landscapes. Tools like LexisNexis® TechDiscovery are doing exactly this, allowing these individuals and teams to focus on more strategic aspects of intellectual property management.
Dr. Michael Adel, Vice President of Intellectual Property, Lumus Ltd., joined Dr. Silvan Berg our Head of Customer Success to discuss creating instant patent landscapes with the help of Gen AI.
Lumus is a leading innovator in augmented reality optics technology. The company is the inventor of reflective waveguide technology for transparent displays for AR glasses. They employ around 100 people, including 63 scientists and engineers, and 14 Ph.D.’s. The company currently has 966 granted patents and over 500 additional pending applications.
Watch Dr. Adel and Dr. Berg in our recent webinar: Collaborative Innovation: Building Instant Patent Landscapes with Gen AI .
Dr. Adel explained how he was looking for a tool to help align business, R&D, and IP strategy. He did not want the teams to use open-source products because they didn’t want to expose their ideas. At Lumus the key inventors are in constant contact with their customers. Members of the IP team work closely with the inventors to make sure ideas are filed, at least provisionally, before disclosing information to customers. This requires everyone to work together to make a filing in a very short timeframe.
He described the situation: “One of the biggest challenges IP departments face is getting the R&D team to engage in technology exploration. R&D engineers tend to focus on internal IP and developing it further. By providing them with an easy-to-use tool that lowers their barrier to entry for searching global patent databases and retrieving valuable information, companies can save resources that would otherwise be spent on back and forth between IP and R&D teams.” The IP department faces challenges in getting R&D involved in understanding the patent landscape. Dr. Adel wanted to find a rapid response tool for R&D to conduct research quickly and simply. They looked at a few different tools. The final decision to use LexisNexis Tech Discovery was based on two things: the simplicity of the tool and the data integrity provided in the LexisNexis® Intellectual Property Solutions suite of tools. Dr. Adel has used LexisNexis® PatentSight+™ for several years, and his experience has been that there is a constant upward trend in data integrity. In his opinion, this put the LexisNexis product ahead of other tools.
Conducting prior art research before filing a patent application can have a profound influence on patent strategies and application outcomes. Not only can understanding prior art help to determine whether an invention is patentable, but it can also inform how a patent application should be drafted and who the main competitors in a specific technology are. Many prior art questions are ad-hoc. Inventors may need a quick response. Prior art searches can also be directional to provide quick guidance before a detailed search is needed. IP searchers are experts in Boolean research, but not necessarily in the technology area where information is required. R&D teams and inventors, on the other hand, are mostly experts in the technology area but not necessarily experts in Boolean research. Both IP searchers and R&D need help getting relevant results quickly. Other tools in the market have yet to fill that need. In the webinar, Dr. Adel and Silvan discuss how LexisNexis TechDiscovery solves this problem for IP and R&D teams.
LexisNexis TechDiscovery is a Gen AI-powered tool designed to simplify patent research. It is a module on the PatentSight+™ platform. LexisNexis TechDiscovery makes patent searches fast and intuitive, allowing IP experts and business partners to find relevant patents using simple natural language inputs. Users can conduct searches based on single words, brief descriptions, patent numbers, or excerpts from patents, articles, or non-patent literature. With simple input, the powerful generative AI and machine learning algorithms can instantly create an overview of patent landscapes. Thus providing users with patent families to discover new spaces or countercheck existing searches.
Figure 1: The process employed by LexisNexis TechDiscovery to identify and retrieve similar patents.
Key benefits of using LexisNexis TechDiscovery:
Watch this workflow in action in our recent webinar introducing LexisNexis TechDiscovery.
Gen AI enables faster, more accessible search and patent landscape building. It lowers the barriers to IP analytics by decreasing the efforts to get meaningful insights. LexisNexis TechDiscovery allows for quick strategic intelligence, initial technology exploration, prior art searches, and identifying similar families. R&D inventors can use LexisNexis TechDiscovery to gather intelligence on new technology areas and perform initial analysis to understand existing prior art. Dr. Adel explained that at Lumus an inventor can do a simple search, review the results, and refine if needed. Then, if the inventor wants more in-depth information, they can share the results with the IP department, which can create a more in-depth landscape using PatentSight+. Also, inventors can identify possible white spaces for R&D. IP professionals, including analysts and patent portfolio managers, can generate rough landscapes for strategic intelligence. In addition, they can create IP awareness to monitor technology spaces efficiently and strategically plan portfolio generation and answer one-off questions. IP searchers and patent attorneys can identify keywords and classifications to develop search strings. They can also use LexisNexis TechDiscovery to enhance traditional searches and minimize the risk of overlooking crucial information. Additionally, they can perform initial scans to determine novelty and the need for in-depth research. Business-focused professionals can identify organizations operating in your technology area and spot patent families of interest for potential patent purchasing. They can also conduct due diligence on potential validity risks within opposition periods. The use of Gen AI can help to quickly identify licensing or partnership opportunities. This can accelerate time-to-market or reduce R&D costs. Furthermore, LexisNexis TechDiscovery can help uncover potential startups or companies with relevant patents for mergers, acquisitions, or new business ventures.
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