However, the true scope of iPhone innovation is not limited to the information contained in these patent documents. The product initiated a multitude of changes in consumer habits, business models, and even industry design standards, not all of which are captured in patents . This raises an important question: are patent databases, despite their wealth of information, sufficient to fully understand the implications of such innovation? The iPhone is an example that illustrates the need to go beyond patents to capture the full impact of an innovation on the market and society.
Patents do not provide a complete picture of innovation
When we ask ourselves whether the patent bases are sufficient , we are tackling a central problem in the field of industrial property. In short, no, they are not sufficient to understand the landscape of past and present innovations, due to several key factors.
- Rapid technological change : The rapid evolution of technologies and industries means that patent bases can quickly become outdated, failing to reflect the very latest innovations or emerging trends.
- Increasing complexity of innovations : Today's innovations are often interdisciplinary and complex, making it difficult to fully capture their essence through patents alone.
- Unpatented Information : Many strategic innovations are not patented for reasons of trade secret or other intellectual property strategies, meaning that patent bases do not provide a complete view of the innovation landscape.
- Globalization and diversity of sources : With globalization, relevant information can come from multiple sources and jurisdictions, making patent databases too limited if not supplemented by other types of data.
Technological evolution and limits of patent bases
Technology evolves at a dizzying pace, and patent bases do not always manage to keep up. Take the example of artificial intelligence (AI), a field where innovations occur faster than the patenting process can record them. In 2016, Google subsidiary DeepMind made a major breakthrough with AlphaGo, an AI program capable of beating a world Go champion. Although the techniques underlying AlphaGo, such as neural networks and deep learning, are partly patentable, the speed of evolution of AI means that many advances are not immediately patented , if ever.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), patent applications increased slightly in 2022 to 278,100, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. This statistic highlights the scale of patenting activity , but it does not fully reflect the total volume of innovations . Many important technological advances, especially in rapidly evolving areas like AI, are not captured in these applications, either because they are kept secret or because the patenting process cannot keep pace with innovation.
This gap between technological developments and patent documentation raises challenges for companies that rely exclusively on these foundations to guide their innovation and intellectual property strategies.
The complexity of modern innovations
Today's innovations are characterized by their complexity and interdisciplinary nature , making them difficult to fully encapsulate in a single patent. Consider the development of electric vehicles (EVs). An EV, like those produced by Tesla, does not rely solely on a single invention or patent, but rather on a constellation of technologies covering areas ranging from the battery to the energy management system to software. driving assistance.
This complexity poses a challenge for patent bases. A typical patent is designed to protect a specific innovation or a set of closely related innovations. However, in the case of EVs, a comprehensive overview would require an analysis of multiple patents, often filed by various companies and covering several technology areas. This fragmentation makes it difficult to obtain a clear and comprehensive picture of the state of the art in such complex areas.
Additionally, how these technologies intertwine and evolve may not be evident in patent databases. Advances in battery materials directly influence the performance and efficiency of EVs, but the connections between these advances and specific vehicle improvements may not be immediately apparent in patent documents.
This situation highlights a crucial need for industrial property professionals: to go beyond patents to understand innovations , integrating market analyses, scientific publications and industry reports.
Beyond patents: strategic information and commercial secrets
In today's industrial world, many key innovations are not patented, but rather protected as trade secrets . Famous example: the Coca-Cola formula. This is one of the best kept trade secrets. Although technically patentable, the company chose to never patent the formula, opting to maintain it as a trade secret. This strategy allowed Coca-Cola to protect its recipe well beyond the 20 years that a patent would have offered.
In the technology sector, the algorithms used by digital giants like Google or Facebook for their search engines and news feeds are other examples of valuable unpatented innovations. Patenting could require disclosure of technical details that these companies prefer to keep confidential. Furthermore, the speed with which these algorithms evolve would make a patent quickly obsolete anyway.
This reality highlights a gap in patent databases: they do not capture critical strategic information that is often hidden as trade secrets. For businesses, this means that monitoring patents alone is not enough for a complete understanding of the competitive landscape. Deeper analysis, incorporating market research, trend analysis and competitive assessments, becomes essential to stay competitive.
Towards a holistic approach: integration of various sources of information
In the current context, it is a priority for companies to supplement information from patent databases with other sources. A good example is using market analytics and industry reports to understand emerging trends. In the renewable energy space, market reports can provide insights into technological advances, regulatory initiatives, and competitor moves that are not always immediately visible in patents.
Another important tool is technology monitoring , which involves monitoring scientific publications, conferences, and industrial forums . Advances in specific areas such as nanotechnology and advanced materials illustrate this trend well: they are often explored and discussed in research articles and conferences long before materializing in patent filings. This monitoring allows companies to stay at the forefront of innovation and anticipate changes in their field.
Additionally, professional social networks like LinkedIn and collaboration platforms like GitHub offer valuable insights into current trends, expertise, and ongoing collaborations in various technical domains. Thus, following opinion leaders and innovators in the field of artificial intelligence on these platforms can reveal new directions and collaborations that are not yet formalized by patents.
This holistic approach, combining patent bases with diversified information sources, allows companies to develop a richer and more current understanding of the innovative environment in which they operate.
Extension of monitoring domains
The way we understand and manage industrial property must transform. Patent databases, although essential, are no longer sufficient to provide a complete vision of the innovative ecosystem. In the future, we can expect that the integration of data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning into patent and innovation monitoring will open new avenues to capture emerging trends more quickly and more efficiently.
Furthermore, collaboration between different innovation actors, including universities, businesses, and research institutes, will likely become more integrated, creating a more dynamic and interconnected innovation ecosystem . Industrial property professionals will therefore need to broaden their skills to include the management of these complex collaborations and the analysis of diverse data.
Finally, faced with the acceleration of the innovation cycle, a more agile and proactive approach to intellectual property will be necessary . This involves not only protecting innovations, but also using them strategically to drive growth and continued innovation. By embracing these changes and challenges, industrial property professionals will play a key role in shaping the innovation landscape of tomorrow.
