What are your competitors doing?

You can use patent databases to monitor the progress of your competitors’ patent applications, granted patents, and validity of patents. Patent information will help you find out many other facts about your competitors. Database searches answer questions such as:

• In which countries has my competitor applied for a patent?
• What markets are the products aimed at?
• What is my competitor’s product development focusing on?
• What annual changes can I see in their patenting?
• Who are the competitor's inventors and product developers?
• Does my competitor have co-operation partners in other businesses or research institutes?
• In which countries is research in my field carried out? Where is the market?

You can also order a “competitor monitoring" from us. Read more.

Tips for monitoring

Inventions developed in co-operation are often patented in partnership. Co-owned patents thus reveal that the organisations are co-operating. If only one of the partners owns the patents, the connection may by revealed by the inventor’s details.

You can monitor your competitor’s activities to a large extent by monitoring all steps in their patenting. Active patenting of certain technology clearly shows what areas your competitor is prioritizing, which tells you what new commercial applications are to be expected.

When you compare businesses, you should note that there are differences in their patent strategies, which is why the numbers of patents are not necessarily comparable. However, you may get an idea of the changes in product development and its results if you annually check the number of patents and the technology fields for the patents. In this way, you can see the various directions towards which your competitors are steering their research and development.