PIUG 2022 - Tuesday

T U E S D A Y A F T E R N O O N

Use of Temporal Context in Identifying Fundamental Patents Kevin Hess (HTS LLC) 3:30 – 4:00 pm

ABSTRACT When assessing the value of patents, many factors have been proposed as contributing to the per ceived value, including: claim length, family size, prosecution time, citations, etc. While each has some merit, they do not account for the technology landscape at the time of invention. Consideration of a patent’s temporal context provides insights into how fundamental a patent is its peer group. A case study is presented to demonstrate approaches to temporal analysis and how the results may be useful in valuation or business intelligence. A technology development curve, or S-curve, is derived for tech nologies relevant to the subject patents. The relative location of the patents along the timeline suggests how fundamental a patent is to the technology. As a refinement, rejection analysis is used to identify pat ents that the Examiners consider more fundamen tal within the peer group. The analysis is useful to benchmark dates for further prior art search. Finally, the assessment of which assignees are leaders within the peer group is determined from analysis of cita tions and each company’s relative speed of innova tion. With each approach, the business decisions that may be supported by the analysis are discussed.

BIOGRAPHY Kevin Hess is patent analyst and program manager at HTS LLC (HighTech-Solutions), a technology firm focusing on intellectual property consulting for the wireless, video, telecommunications, semiconductor, battery, and consumer electronics markets. Kevin is also a subject matter expert and founder at Patent Technics LLC which specializes in patent technical analysis for the semiconductor, LED lighting and dis play, and additive manufacturing (3D printing) mar kets. Kevin’s IP experience has spanned many stages of the IP lifecycle, including: inventing, prosecution support, market analysis and valuation, reverse engineering, claim charting, and licensing/litigation. His areas of interest are patent analytics, IP land scaping and taxonomy development. His industry experience includes R&D and product development positions at Tyrex Corporation, Freescale Semicon ductor, Motorola, Huntsman Corporation, Phillips-Su mika, ConocoPhillips, and JemPac, a semiconductor startup. Kevin is a named inventor on over 50 US and foreign patents granted in semiconductors, electron ics, and materials. He has published on patent search strategy, semiconductor device design and reliabil ity, and polymer materials formulation. Kevin holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His interests include music and guitar collecting.

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