It is often heard that the R&D personnel roast: “The technological innovation we have worked hard to make is either preempted by competing products to apply for patents, or because the protection scope is vague after application, we can’t protect our rights and interests”; Some business leaders are also confused: ‘Every year, a large amount of research and development funds are invested, but a few valuable patents are not converted, and in the end, it becomes’ patent stuffing’, which not only wastes costs but also fails to provide protection. ‘.

Many companies face the dilemma of investing heavily in research and development, achieving numerous innovative results, but either being preemptively applied for patents by competitors, or having vague patent protection scope, weak rights protection, and even falling into the misconception of “collecting patents”, wasting costs and failing to provide protection. The core issue lies in the lack of mastery of scientific patent mining methods, treating patent mining as a ‘post event supplement’.

The essence of patent mining is the process of accurately extracting innovative points from technological achievements and transforming them into patent assets, rather than blindly gathering numbers or remedying afterwards. The Five Step Method for Patent Mining is a universal and practical process that can help R&D and IP practitioners avoid misunderstandings and convert every R&D investment into valuable patents. Today, we will break down these five steps step by step, from practical operation to avoiding pitfalls, and thoroughly explain patent mining!

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01 Technical speaker, capturing core innovations

The first step in patent mining is not to rush to find innovative points, but to let the most knowledgeable people “explain” the technology itself – the core of this step is “listening” rather than “asking”. After all, R&D engineers have long been deeply involved in the front line, are creators of technological achievements, and are also the ones who understand the details of innovation the most. Their so-called “core breakthroughs” are often the top priority of patent mining.

The core of the specific operation is led by R&D engineers, who fully explain the technical achievements to the patent mining team. Patent personnel listen throughout the process, focusing on guiding engineers to explain their “innovative points” without interrupting or asking for specific technical details.

There is a key misconception to note here: R&D engineers who have been deeply involved in a certain field for a long time may unconsciously elevate their existing technological level, ignore some “seemingly small” improvements, and only focus on the core innovation points.

The core task of patent personnel in this step is to be a “guide” and “recorder”:

1. Guide engineers to explain from the perspective of “problem”: why do we need to make this technological improvement? What are the pain points of existing technology? What core problem does this technology solve?

2. Record all the innovation points mentioned by engineers, even if they are “insignificant” small improvements, and do not easily negate them – these small improvements may be an important foundation for expanding patents in the future.

3. Retell the technical solution and confirm understanding: avoid missing key innovative details due to technical cognitive biases.

The goal of this step is very clear: collect all the “core innovation points” in the technology, make a list, and lay the foundation for further in-depth exploration – these core innovation points are likely to become the core patents of the enterprise and are the top priority of patent layout.

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02 Step 2: From the core to the periphery, comprehensively covering innovation points

After the first step of listening, we have captured the core innovation points, but this is far from enough. A complete technological achievement, whether it is a product or a method, cannot be composed of a single “core component” or “core step” – it is often composed of core and secondary parts, and core innovation will radiate to various links of the entire technological system.

The core logic of the second step is to take core innovation as the starting point, gradually extend to secondary components and auxiliary steps, achieve comprehensive coverage of innovation points, distinguish the levels of innovation points, plan the layout of core patents and peripheral patents, and build a complete patent protection system.

The specific operation can be divided into two steps:

1、 Split technical achievements: Split the product into “core components – secondary components” and split the method into “core steps – auxiliary steps”.

2、 Exploring the extension of core innovation: Based on the innovation of core components/steps, investigate whether there is linkage innovation and adaptability improvement in secondary components/steps one by one. For example, if the core component of an air conditioner is the compressor (core innovation: single rotor to double rotor), patent holders can further inquire whether the crankshaft balance method of the compressor has been improved? Is the design of the suction and exhaust ports compatible with a dual rotor structure? Is the air conditioning control system optimized to complement compressor innovation?

The key here is “linkage thinking” – core innovation often drives the improvement of the adaptability of secondary parts. Although these improvements are not the most core, they still have patent value and can form peripheral patents, forming a layout of “attack and defense combination” with core patents: core patents protect core technologies, while peripheral patents prevent competitors from bypassing core technologies and seizing the market.

It should be noted that this step should avoid the misconception of “focusing on the core and neglecting the periphery” – many companies only focus on core patents and ignore peripheral patents, ultimately leading to core patents being bypassed by competitors and intellectual property protection being virtually non-existent. Only by balancing the core and periphery can we truly build a patent “moat”.

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03 Step 3: Traverse in a single direction and fill in the blind spots:

In actual research and development, not all technological achievements can clearly distinguish between “core components” and “secondary components” – for example, in some complex process methods and software algorithms, it is difficult to clearly distinguish between core and secondary components, and the second step method is difficult to apply.

The core function of the third step is to “fill in blind spots”: when it is impossible to distinguish between core and secondary, a comprehensive investigation of every technical link is conducted through a “single direction traversal” approach to ensure that no potential innovation point is missed. Although this method does not emphasize the hierarchical division of innovation points, it can greatly enhance the comprehensiveness of patent mining and avoid missing valuable innovations due to unclear division.

The choice of a single direction has no fixed criteria, and the core is “comprehensive, orderly, and non repetitive”. There are two common directions:

1. Spatial direction: from top to bottom, from left to right, from inside to outside, from input to output, from air inlet to air outlet. For example, to discover the innovative points of an industrial valve, one can search for structural, material, and connection innovations from the spatial direction of “valve shell (external) → valve core (internal) → interface (input/output) → control device (top)”.

2. Time direction: From the first step to the last step of the technical process, sort out the innovative points of each step one by one. For example, to discover innovative points in a food processing technology, one can follow the time sequence of “raw material processing → heating and sterilization → molding → packaging → storage” to investigate whether there are any improvements in the process parameters and operating methods of each step.

The key to this step is patience and meticulousness. Don’t rush to achieve success. Every step should be carefully checked, and even seemingly routine operations should be asked whether there are improvements or differences from existing technologies. Many seemingly routine improvements, as long as they can solve practical problems and have novelty, may become effective patents.

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Step 4: Recall unused solutions and enrich patent portfolio:

After the first three steps, most of the innovative points that have already been implemented in the technological achievements can be captured, but there is another type of innovation point that is easily overlooked – the solutions that have been proposed but not adopted during the research and development process. Although these solutions were not ultimately incorporated into the finished product or final process, they are still the crystallization of the wisdom of the research and development personnel, with extremely high patent value, and can be regarded as the “pearls of the sea” in patent mining.

The core of the fourth step is to guide R&D engineers to recall the “unused solutions” in the R&D process, explore their innovative points, and enrich the patent portfolio. Many companies may overlook this step and believe that ‘unused solutions have no value’, but in reality, the value of these solutions may not be inferior to those already adopted.

Why are unused solutions worth exploring? There are two core reasons:

1. Competitors may encounter technical problems during the research and development process, which they are likely to encounter when developing similar products. If we do not patent these unused innovative solutions, competitors may adopt these solutions and apply for patents, which in turn will constrain our development.

2. Can be used as a reserve patent: Some unused solutions are not due to immature technology, but because of current high costs and mismatched market demand, but they have strong foresight. Applying for patents for these solutions as reserve patents can quickly transform them into core competitiveness in the event of future market changes or technological upgrades.

Specific operation: Patent personnel guide R&D engineers to recall “the problems encountered during the R&D process and all the solutions proposed”, with a focus on questioning: “What other solutions were used besides the current one at that time? Why were they not adopted? Are there any innovative points in these unused solutions

It should be noted that unused solutions can apply for patents as long as they meet the requirements of “novelty, creativity, and practicality” – even if they have not been implemented, as long as the technical solution is complete and can solve practical problems, it meets the requirements of patent application.

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05Step 5: Expand and extend, amplify the value of patents:

After the first four steps, we have collected the core innovation points, peripheral innovation points, blind spot innovation points, and innovation points that have not adopted the plan, forming a preliminary patent list. But the work of patent mining is not over yet – the core of the fifth step is to “expand and extend”, by optimizing and deriving existing innovation points, amplifying the value of patents, and improving the level of patent layout.

The core logic of expansion and extension is to find alternative solutions, improvement solutions, and extension solutions for each discovered innovation point, enrich implementation examples, expand the scope of protection of claims, and even discover new independent patents.

There are three common directions for expansion, each of which can effectively amplify the value of patents:

1. Alternative solution expansion: Look for alternative technologies with the same functionality but different implementation methods for existing innovation points. For example, the core innovation of a certain product is “using plastic material to reduce weight”, which can be expanded to alternative solutions such as “using aluminum alloy material” and “using carbon fiber material”. Although these alternative solutions belong to the same invention concept as the core innovation and cannot be applied for as independent patents, they can enrich the implementation examples of patents, support independent claims to obtain a larger scope of protection, and prevent competitors from bypassing patent protection by “replacing materials”.

2. Expansion of improvement plans: Based on existing innovation points, appropriately reduce technical indicators and form solutions that are suitable for different scenarios. For example, the core innovation of a certain industrial equipment is “high-precision control (error ≤ 0.1mm)”, which can be expanded to “ordinary precision control (error ≤ 0.5mm)” – although this improvement scheme reduces technical indicators, it can adapt to low-cost, low precision application scenarios, expand product market coverage, and also enrich the scope of patent protection.

3. Forward looking expansion: Based on existing innovation points and industry development trends, explore forward-looking extension solutions. For example, the core innovation of a certain smart home product is “voice control”, which can be expanded to “voice+gesture control” and “voice+AI linkage control” – although these forward-looking solutions may not be implemented at present, they have extremely high technical value and can be applied for as independent patents to seize the future technological high ground.

It should be noted that expansion and extension are not “unlimited creations”. All expansion plans should revolve around “solving practical problems” and cannot be separated from the technology itself and market demand – otherwise, even if a patent is applied for, it will only be an “invalid patent” and cannot bring practical value to the enterprise.

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In summary:

Patent mining is not a complex professional problem, and there is no need to wait for major technological achievements. By relying on the five step method of patent mining, various technological improvements and alternative solutions can be accurately excavated to achieve efficient layout. Patent mining requires collaborative efforts from multiple departments and the participation of all staff in order to effectively solve the dilemma of “no patents to report” and transform every technological innovation into the core intellectual property advantage of the enterprise.

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