Patents and Strategic Inventing: The Corporate Inventor's Guide to Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage

CHAPTER 11PATENT LANDSCAPES: DIVIDING UP THE PIE

Now that we have a basic understanding of patent strategy, it’s worthwhile to develop a more comprehensive view of the competitive situation, sometimes referred to as a “landscape.” Looking at patent landscapes should always be one of the first steps in developing a good patent strategy. You need to know what the current competitive landscape looks like before you can adequately develop a strategy for the future. As with a game of chess, how the pieces are distributed on the board will determine your next move. You may be operating in a well-developed market where there are hundreds or even thousands of related patents, or perhaps this is a new technology and there is very little prior art.

There ...