Crafitti’s (www.crafitti.com) Technological Alternatives Study (TAS) on a Patent, Patent Application, or an Invention
Objectives and Process
The objective of a Technological Alternative Study (TAS) is to analyze a given Patent or Patent Application and explore various ways in which the invention described in the patent can be transformed to next levels in its evolution. Crafitti uses a combination of the methodology of TRIZ and own propriety techniques to help domain experts generate technological alternatives to a patent/patent application. There are four main phases of this study and it is always carried out with the domain experts from client organization.
Phase I: Patent study and analysis
A comprehensive search for Patents and other documents in and around the patent/proposed invention is carried out. This involves study of forward and backward citations of the patent or the patent which is considered closest to the proposed invention as per prior art search, as well as other state of the art documents. Crafitti uses its own proprietary methodology and an online product called SocialCitNet (http://www.socialcitnet.com) to map the citation network of a patent and estimate its relative strength.
Social Citation Analysis of US 4416788
Patent:
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US4416788A
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Database:
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EPO
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Depth:
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1
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No. of Nodes:
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17
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No. Of Connections:
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21
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In the Ego-Centric network of Patent US4416788, the patents US4505830A , US5877130A, US3130159A and US59558849A have high PDNI. However, when we look at NDPI, EP1070756A1, WO0107545A1, US2004014613A1 seems to be very important patents. The NDPI indicates how much the network of 17 patents uses/cites each of the individual patents. The PDNI indicates how much that patent cites the network of 17 patents.
The depth 2 analysis of US4416788, however, gives us a network of 263 patents.
Patent:
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US4416788A
| |
Database:
|
EPO
| |
Depth:
|
2
| |
No. of Nodes:
|
263
| |
In the Social network of Patent US4416788, the patents US5958849A, US5877130A, US5009553A and US4505830A have high PDNI. However, when we look at NDPI, US3130159A, US4505830A, US2431010A, US2941945A and US4119549A seems to be very important patents. One can see the usefulness of this analysis. Now we have about top 10 key patents in the field – otherwise we have to analyze 263 patents.
The patent of interest is studied comprehensively and analyzed to find key contradictions identified or solved by the patent. This phase also provides a mapping of patent on 9 laws and lines of evolution defined by TRIZ. A claims hierarchy provides the independent and dependent claims to study the protection given in the patent. A detailed report including contradictions, claims hierarchy, lines of evolution mapping and list of documents for current relevant art is also presented.
Phase II: Preliminary ideation
Based on the analysis of patent/invention and current state of art, preliminary first level ideation is conducted in-house or in collaboration with the client domain experts. In this process, TRIZ Inventive Principles, Lines of system evolution and system complexity estimator is used to generate possible ideas to transform and develop the invention towards a more ideal system.
Phase III: Collective brainstorm in a workshop setting
Based on analysis report and preliminary ideation report, a solution generation brainstorm is conducted in a workshop setting. This involves usage of all tools and information generated during previous phases of the study.
Phase IV: Solution evaluation and final report submission
Using the methodology of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) solution directions are rank ordered and a final report is submitted which list solutions that are closer to ideal system. The report maps different ideas on a strategic map which rank orders the potential concepts on Inventiveness, Readiness/Feasibility and Business Potential (BP).
The TAS study typically generates large number of raw ideas (in 100s) which get combined into concepts and classified under themes. Typically these concepts will be between 10 and 20. These concepts are rank ordered in the strategy map and ranked relatively to each other in terms of their inventiveness, feasibility and business potential. The methodology of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to create the TAS strategy map. Typically this results in more than one new invention and can speed-up the invention productivity of the organization.
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