Updated patent value indexes

We are updating and improving the calculation methods for the Questel patent value indexes

Overview of the changes

• Impact index. Updated normalized score.
• Market coverage. Replace by a new metric Market strategy: Granted expired patents are now included in the calculation.
• Strength index. New score available for both alive and dead patent families.
• Value index. Normalized score and a new remaining life factor.

Impact index

Score based on the number of forward citations received by the analyzed patent families, corrected to account for age and technical domain.

The calculation method for impact index remains the same but the results have been normalized so that an average patent family now has a score of 1, making it easier to identify whether the portfolio you’re analyzing scores above or below the average.

Market Strategy

Score based on the GDP of the countries where the analyzed patent families are granted or pending.

Previously, as soon as a patent within a family expired, we remove the GDP associated with the expired country from the score. This made it difficult to answer questions like « Does my competitor tend to protect in a larger overall market than me? » because patents which were granted in a country but have since expired were removed from the calculation. Now we keep countries with expired patent rights in the calculation, as long as they were at one point granted.

Example 1 – patent family which was pending in the US but never granted and has now lapsed would not be included in the calculation.

Example 2 – patent family which was previously granted in the US but has since expired would be included in the calculation.

Patent strength — New value index

Single score which combines the results of impact and market strategy indexes.

This new metric gives you a combined score which is available for both alive and dead patents. You can use it to answer questions like « Are my competitors patents generally stronger than mine? », « What were the strongest patents in my results set? »

Patent value

Score based on the number of forward citations, the GDP of the countries where the analyzed patent families are granted or pending and remaining life of those patents.

The patent value index has been updated to include a remaining life factor in the calculation method. The calculation will now be weighted based on the maximum possible remaining life of the patents within the family.

As with the impact index we have also normalized the results so that an average scoring patent will have a patent value score of 1, making it easier to identify whether the patents you are analyzing score below or above average.

Portfolio value

The sum of all the patent value scores for all patents in the analyzed portfolio.

As the patent value calculation method has been updated, the portfolio value results will also change accordingly.

Accessing the patent value indexes

To access the patent value indexes, you need to create a new saved analysis and then select the new value indexes from the settings menu.