Patents as Early Indicators of Technology and Investment Trends: Analyzing the Microbiome Space as a Case Study

Abstract

The human microbiome is the collective of microbes living in symbiosis on and within humans. Modulating its composition and function has become an attractive means for the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases including cancer. Since the initiation of the human microbiome project in 2007, the number of academic publications and active patent families around the microbiome has grown exponentially. Screening patent databases can be useful for the early detection and the tracking of new technology trends. However, it is not sufficient to assess portfolio sizes because emerging players with small but high-quality patent portfolios will be missed within the noise of large but low-quality portfolio owners. Here we used the consolidated database and software tool PatentSight to benchmark patent portfolios, and to analyze key patent owners and innovators in the microbiome space. Our study shows how in-depth patent analyses combining qualitative and quantitative parameters can identify actionable early indicators of technology and investment trends from large patent datasets.

Keywords: big data; cancer; investment trends; microbiome; patent analysis.

Figure 1

Overall published academic research publications and patent families. (A) Cumulated number of academic publications retrieved from the PubMed database related to microbiome research and to cancer research within the microbiome space. (B) Cumulated number of patent families related to microbiome research and to cancer within the microbiome space from consolidated data extracted from multiple patent databases.

Figure 2

Bubble plot of the top 32 microbiome patent owners as assessed and plotted with PatentSight (reporting date: 31.12.2017).

Figure 3

Patent Asset Index^TM and portfolio size of the top 20 microbiome patent owners and inventors with their current affiliation.

Figure 4

Portfolio quality and size of the 4 startup companies with the highest Technology Relevance^TM by 2017 plotted over time.

Figure 5

Emerging patent owners with equal or less than 10 patents ranked according to published patents since January 2017, and the Patent Asset Index^TM and portfolio size of the top 20 microbiome patent owners looking at using the microbiome for diagnostic or therapeutic approaches in cancer.

Figure 6

International patent classification (IPC) statistics of the analysis set of 1,142 patent families, including the inactive families. The bars show the shares of the top 20 IPC level 4 classifications with regard to number of patent families (Portfolio share, gray bars) and with regard to their cumulated value (Patent Asset Index™ share, blue bars). Detailed descriptions of the IPC classifications are available via the website of the World International Patent Origanization (WIPO). (World Intellectual Property Organization website, IPC classifications: Available online at: http://www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/en/).