COMMERCIAL INFORMATION HOW THE MARKET IS CHANGING. Rob Willows (UK) Derwent Information Ltd

Transcription

1 COMMERCIAL INFORMATION HOW THE MARKET IS CHANGING Rob Willows (UK) Derwent Information Ltd INTRODUCTION I would like to start off with a few words of introduction. I am Senior Manager of the Industrial Property Organisations Group at Derwent Information Ltd, a world leader in the provision of scientific and technical information. I have been working at Derwent for over 30 years, a situation which is relatively unusual in this day and age. When I started at Derwent I had a full head of hair and did not need to wear glasses, which I suppose could be taken as an indication of the pressures of working in the commercial patent information market! I would also like to thank the organisers of Patinnova for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today, in this wonderful venue. In my presentation today I would like to start off by giving you a brief overview of Derwent and the changes our company has gone through over the last 40 years. I will then move on to cover the major factor affecting the commercial intellectual property information market today, which is of course the internet. I would like to share with you the results of some market research that Derwent has carried out into how commercial organisations are using the internet as a source of intellectual property information, and conclude by outlining some of the ways Derwent is approaching the changing information market. OVERVIEW OF DERWENT It has become fashionable in the last four to five years, particularly in 75

2 the media, to observe that the information world is changing. In truth it has been changing continuously over a much longer period. Those who have been working in the commercial information industry for as long as I have can look back on an amazing pathway of development during their working lives and observe wryly that many things we needed to do long ago are still far from simple. The development of increasingly sophisticated search and retrieval technology can in some cases simply mean that it is possible to sink into a morass of facts much faster than was previously possible. In order to set a benchmark for the changing commercial intellectual property market, I would like to start by giving you a brief review of Derwent Information Ltd. Derwent is a world leader in the provision of patent and scientific information solutions, and has been providing services to industry, government and academic organisations for over 40 years. Part of the Thomson Group, Derwent is a global organisation, with main offices in the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Tracing the history of Derwent since its establishment in 1951 gives a good indication of how market demands have changed over the last few decades. Derwent started off by providing a paper-based alerting abstract service for patents released by a limited number of patenting authorities. In the 1960s, as the first machine-aided retrieval systems became available, Derwent developed innovative indexing and retrieval systems to facilitate faster and more accurate information access. In the 1970s, as dial-up online systems became available, Derwent became a major player in the introduction of commercial intellectual property databases on the major online hosts, and continued to extend 76

3 its technology coverage and indexing systems. In the 1980s, in response to demand from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, Derwent introduced graphical chemical substructure searching to its databases. In the early- to mid-1990s we added images of technical drawings and chemical structures from patent documents to our online databases, and introduced the first database of patented gene sequences. At the present time, while traditional online databases continue to be a key element of the services we provide, we are becoming increasingly involved in the provision of internet and enterprise-wide intranet information solutions. Despite the increasing impact of technology in our industry, Derwent s key asset remains our staff. Derwent employs around 750 people; 350 of these are science and technology graduates with expertise in translating, abstracting and indexing patent and scientific literature documents. We process over one million patent documents from 40 patent issuing authorities each year for inclusion in our World Patents Index database; for each unique document we create an English language abstract and a value-added title. We also generate valueadded indexing and coding to facilitate sophisticated retrieval, and create a patent family record of all related patent documents. Derwent s products and services are used in the corporate sector by major pharmaceutical, chemical, engineering and electronics companies worldwide, and are also used extensively by the major patent offices. Key users of Derwent information in the corporate sector are information professionals, R&D managers, research scientists, design engineers, patent attorneys, marketing managers and strategic planners. And why do they use our information? As I am sure you are 77

4 all aware, intellectual property information is vital to the success and efficient operation of commercial organisations and of course, patent offices. In a recent survey carried out by Derwent in Europe, over 70% of the companies surveyed admitted that they had spent money on R&D and patent developments, only to find that the product or technology in development was already protected by a competitor s patent. Recent surveys by the European Commission have indicated that 70% of all innovation research is duplicated, at a cost to European industry of US $20 billion. Having established the credentials of Derwent as a major player in the intellectual property information business, let us now take a look at how the internet is changing the market in which we operate. THE INTERNET In truth there are a whole range of factors, many of them interrelated, that are impacting on the commercial intellectual property information market. These include: an increasing awareness of the commercial importance of scientific and technical information; the changing role of information professionals within commercial organisations, and the increasing importance of delivering business-critical information directly to the end-user s desktop; and the increased awareness in commercial organisations that they need to innovate in order to survive. The ongoing trend for mergers in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and the increasing need for small and medium enterprises to use intellectual property information are also key factors. However, the emergence of the internet as a medium for information dissemination has had the greatest impact on the 78

5 commercial information sector in the last five years, and has facilitated the development of many of the other factors I have just mentioned. The internet is a truly revolutionary phenomenon. To appreciate its potency one need only consider the way in which companies like Amazom.Com, Netscape and Yahoo! have practically overnight gone from obscure start-ups to major international brands. Likewise, the speed with which traditional businesses, not only in the information sector, are having to respond to the competitive threats thrown up by the world wide web is truly daunting. While there can be no doubt that the advent of the world wide web has changed the market, we need to look a little deeper for an assessment. It should also be remembered that the internet, despite the synergy and universality which it has offered, is just a delivery medium. Like all such media it is susceptible to the age-old garbage in/garbage out syndrome content and quality of information still remain vital components of the information needed for business-critical decisions. In the intellectual property information market, the major driving force for change has been the provision of `free' information on internet. In Europe, the United States and Japan, the major patent offices have been at the forefront of this drive to make intellectual property information more accessible. The internet has provided a totally new and user-friendly medium for patent offices to make published patent and trademark information available to the public. It has enabled the patent offices to respond to criticism from their respective governmental bodies that a lack of access to intellectual property information was restricting the level of scientific and technological innovation and subsequent economic growth within the geographical 79

6 regions they cover this was particularly evident in the small and medium-sized enterprise sectors. It has also allowed the patent offices to take a giant step forward in meeting their side of the patent bargain information in return for protection. Traditionally the paper-based system used by patent offices to publish and disseminate patent information, while being the only practical option available to them, created a nightmare scenario for those organisations and individuals that needed access to patent information to make business-critical decisions. It was for precisely this reason that commercial companies like Derwent became key information providers in the intellectual property arena they were providing a service that patent offices themselves were unable to offer. The introduction of CD-ROM technology in the last decade provided an interim solution for patent offices to provide their information on a more user-friendly electronic medium, but the internet has finally offered patent offices a way to give new meaning to the concept of `laying open a patent to public inspection'. The internet has also benefited patent offices by offering a cheaper option to the increasing cost of paper dissemination, and this, coupled with the drive towards electronic filing of patent applications, is helping to shorten the period between filing and publication of a patent. In Europe, the EPO has led the way with its esp@cenet project. esp@cenet will be covered in great detail in other presentations at these Patinnova and Epidos conferences, but to give a brief overview, esp@cenet offers access to the EPO's patent archives, which cover patents from 63 authorities. Users can choose to access the EPO's European, Japanese or worldwide patent archives either directly from 80

7 the EPO, or via a number of national patent office web sites using a national language interface. Using a simple, user-friendly search and retrieval interface, users can access bibliographic details and abstracts of patent documents, and can then choose to view the relevant drawings and diagrams and all or part of the original patent document as an electronic image. The individual European national patent offices can offer their own national patent archives, usually the most recent two years, through esp@cenet. In the United States, the USPTO first offered access to the bibliographic details and abstracts of US patents through its web site in In the autumn of 1998 they made the full text of all US patents going back to 1976 available on their site, accessible by a powerful but user-friendly search interface. Plans are under way to extend the archive back to 1790 over the next 12 months. In Japan, JPO have made Patent Abstracts of Japan, an English language translation of the front page of Japanese patent applications going back to 1975, available via their web site. Users can also search a range of additional Japanese patent information, including the full text, in Japanese, of Japanese Industrial Property gazettes going back to 1885 via this site. Each of the above-mentioned patent authorities claim to have targeted their offerings at the occasional and first time user of patent information, rather than the patent information specialist, recognising that the commercial information sector has developed a range of products and services that are more focused towards the needs of this specialist group. They also publish clear warnings that searching their free first level offerings does not constitute an adequate search on 81

8 which to base a patent application. It is obvious that these and other developments in the provision of free patent information on the internet have significantly increased public awareness of the importance of patent information. Amidst all the excitement, however, there are a number of misconceptions about this new medium not the least being the widely held belief that the growing tide of free information on the web sounds the death-knell for commercial information services. While this may or may not prove to be the case in certain consumer markets, we at Derwent believe that the web offers a further opportunity to deliver value-added commercial information services that will provide the additional levels of coverage, quality and retrieval that are required for business-critical decisions. I would now like to share with you the results of a survey commissioned by Derwent in April The survey, carried out by an independent market research consultancy, was based on interviews with 349 European companies, 136 (39%) based in the UK and 213 (61%) based in the rest of Europe. The industry breakdown of these companies included relatively large samples from the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, which are traditionally heavy users of patent information, but other sectors, including engineering, automotive and electronics, were also covered. While not all the respondents were able to answer every question in the survey, it gives an important insight into the way that the internet is influencing the market for patent information in Europe. In order to set the scene, the survey started by determining the importance of patents to the participating companies. Over 99% of the companies interviewed owned patents, with over 60% owning over

9 patents and over 30% owning 500 patents or more. The survey then went on to determine why patent information was important to the individual companies. The main reason given for using patent information, mentioned by 51% of respondents, is that patents offer an important source of information on competitors. As expected, protecting a company s intellectual property is the other major reason for using patent information. The third key reason given for using patent information, somewhat surprisingly some way behind the other two reasons in importance, was to support R&D activities. Looking at the results from a regional perspective, in the UK a clear majority of respondents believe that patents are important for competitive information, but this falls to only 47% in mainland Europe. In Europe the most important reason for using patent information is to protect a company s intellectual property, cited by 52% of respondents, while in the UK this was mentioned by only 34% of respondents. When the responses were analysed by industry sector, the value of patent information to monitor competitor activity was evident in most sectors. As expected, using patent information for protection of intellectual property was rated highly in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. 83

10 The survey then went on to ask if companies use the internet to obtain patent information. Almost 68% of the respondents used the internet to obtain patent information. The main factor in this high use has been the growing popularity of free internet sites over 90% of the users were accessing free sites. Analysis of the internet usage by industrial sector indicates high levels in the pharmaceutical sector, where 84% of respondents use the internet for retrieving patent information. The next question asked covered security on web services. Eighty-one per cent of respondents were worried about questions of security and confidentiality associated with searching the web, with doubts about security being particularly prevalent in Europe. The next series of questions covered the use of commercial patent information services. Commercial services were rated as the most important source of patent information, used by over 90% of all respondents. Almost 80% of the respondents indicated that they use only one main commercial service; 14% use two commercial services on a regular basis; while just 3% regularly use three services or more. This emphasis on the importance of commercial services was maintained when respondents were asked if their use of free patent information sources had affected search times on commercial services. The emergence of free patent information sources on the internet has undoubtedly stimulated interest in patents amongst a broader audience, but seems to have had little effect on the use of commercial information sources. Over 75% of all respondents indicated that their level of use of commercial systems had remained essentially unchanged despite the availability of free sources. This was most evident in Europe, where over 81% indicated no change in their use of commercial 84

11 systems. This situation was less marked in the UK, where only 64% felt that their use of commercial systems had remained unchanged. However, there was a suggestion that the overall effect of free patent information has actually been to increase the use of commercial systems, with 17% of respondents reporting an increase in the use of these information sources, while only 7% reported a decrease in use. The free patent information sources, are, however, regarded as playing an important role in patent search strategies. Over 58% of all respondents felt that the free sites were either important or very important in developing an overall search strategy. However, a significant proportion, around 41%, were not convinced about the value of free patent information in their overall search strategies. Given the fact that most free patent information sites have been developed by the patent offices themselves, most users appeared to be satisfied with the accuracy of the information on these sites. However, when asked if they would be happy making business-critical decisions based on free patent information from the internet, the overwhelming majority indicated they would not rely on these sources when making business-critical decisions. The largest group of respondents, around 49%, would not be very happy about using free information in businesscritical decisions, and another 33% would be either unhappy or very unhappy. These responses seem to indicate that while these patent information users will utilise free patent information, and are confident about its general accuracy, this information needs to be combined with more detailed, value-added information from commercial sources before it can be used in business-critical decisions. One of the final elements of the survey was an evaluation of customer 85

12 satisfaction. Respondents were asked to rank free and commercial patent information services according to various criteria, including comprehensiveness; ease of use; customer support; value for money; security; and reliability/accuracy. I am pleased to report that Derwent came out top in the survey, followed by various other commercial patent information services. Free patent information services were ranked not too far below the commercial services. Derwent was rated particularly highly in the comprehensiveness, ease of use, reliability/accuracy and security categories. Not surprisingly, the free sites were ranked highest in the value for money category, but were the weakest performers in the security and reliability/accuracy categories. 86

13 Surveys of this type can, of course, only provide a snapshot of current opinions and attitudes, and it will be interesting to see how these findings compare with the results of similar surveys in the future. However, to Derwent, this survey seems to indicate that the arrival of free patent information sources on the internet has moved the partnership between patent offices as information providers and commercial information sources to a new level. The pattern that seems to be emerging is a more marked two-tiered process, with users exploiting the free information sources for very simple searches, or to obtain a general overview of their area of interest, and then migrating to commercial services when they need to be confident that they have all the relevant business-critical information. This is not surprising professional information users know full well that when perhaps hundreds of thousands of investment euros could be resting on the results of their searches, it is vital that they have access to the full universe of data, as well as recourse to the relevant value-added search and retrieval functionality to filter the relevant from the irrelevant. If the partnership between the free and commercial patent information providers does remain successful in the future, this can only benefit the innovation processes and industrial development in Europe and the rest of the world. However, for commercial information providers, and ultimately, European industry as a whole, there are risks in this information partnership. The cold, hard economic facts are that the provision of commercial patent information is a highly competitive business companies like Derwent are committed to provide high value information services to meet the business requirements of our customers, but at the end of the day we need to make a profit to stay in 87

14 business, keep our shareholders happy, and re-invest in developing further value-added options for our users. While information dissemination is an important component of the policy of all patent offices, and has been given a new dimension with the advent of the internet, I would contend that their primary aim should be to process claims for intellectual property protection with the maximum speed, efficiency and accuracy, at the minimum cost to the applicant. However, in Europe and the rest of the world there will undoubtedly be pressure from public and political sources for patent offices to move up the value chain of patent information. It must also be borne in mind that no patent information is actually free. With the increasing trend amongst patent offices to information dissemination at marginal cost, the cost of providing information is funded, to a greater or lesser extent, from applicants fees. Increasing the level of value-added in patent office information services on the internet will require additional funding; while such developments would be high profile, in Europe the innovation process may well be helped more by applying resources to areas such as reducing the number of EP applications published without search reports, reducing the cost of translation in the European patent system, or following the US example of introducing lower filing fees for small and medium-sized enterprises. There are commercial dangers in the present scenario which, with all good intentions, may fall into the arena of competition policy. These have been expressed, not only by commercial suppliers, but also by the PDG; which represents patent information users in the key companies in Europe. While the declared objectives of EPO, USPTO and other 88

15 patent offices are not to destabilise the market, it is conceivable that pressure from information users and from political circles could result in such a situation. Collapse of the commercial sector would leave the patent offices with the responsibility to provide the complete range of patent information to users would they be able to meet the demands for continuous improvement of services and customer support that are an integral part of the commercial patent information business? There is a difficult balance to be struck and there are many unknowns at present. The worst case scenario is that in attempting to satisfy the needs of smaller users the economics for established users and the major companies in Europe are put at risk. The best case scenario is that the free services and the commercial sector work each exploit their main strengths to encourage a much larger market for patent information overall, from which all benefit, and within a practical time frame. There are obviously many variables that could affect the future of commercial patent information, but we at Derwent look forward to working with patent offices and the public sector to provide the widest range of options for patent information users in Europe and the rest of the world. I would like to finish my presentation by outlining some of the ways in which Derwent is meeting the changing needs of patent information users. DERWENT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR THE NEW INFORMATION AGE a) Derwent Innovations Index As I mentioned earlier, the internet has provided the enabling technology to support many of the other factors that are changing the commercial patent information business. Information users require access to all levels of patent information on their desktop at the click 89

16 of the mouse, and Derwent has moved to meet that need by combining with its sister company ISI to create Derwent Innovations Index, a web-based information service. Version 1.0 of Derwent Innovations Index is now available, and features Derwent s World Patent Index and Patents Citation Index as a merged file, delivered via the web on ISI s Web Of Science platform. Features of the service include desktop access to Derwent s value-added patent information, a user-friendly interface, easy navigation through citation data via hypertext links, and the ability to link to ISI s extensive range of non-patent literature databases. Innovations Index offers a fixed price, unlimited use of patent related information via internet and intranet platforms. Version 2.0 of Innovations Index is scheduled for release early next year. This will offer further enhancements, including selected images, direct links to full text patent specifications, an extended range of search fields, including the Derwent Manual Codes, enhanced linking to related records and related accession numbers, and improved marking of records for document delivery. Features planned for subsequent releases include chemical structure searching and access to the DWPI Documentation Abstracts Archive. b) Derwent Discovery The pharmaceutical industry has traditionally been one of the most intensive users of scientific, technical and medical information, and Derwent Discovery, which was released earlier this year, offers internet/extranet access to an integrated service featuring Derwent s two premier pharmaceutical databases, Derwent World Drug Alerts and the Derwent Drug file. Derwent World Drug Alerts is a fast alerting pharmaceutical current awareness service, containing data from patents, scientific journals and conferences. This database 90

17 currently comprises over 80,000 records. The Derwent Drug File is a literature-based biomedical database covering all aspects of drug development, synthesis, evaluation, manufacture and use. The database covers data from 1964 to the present, and contains over 1.6 million records. The key features of Derwent Discovery include value-added abstracts, updated weekly, text and graphic chemical structure searching, a keyword thesaurus and other user aids, all delivered to the user s desktop via a user-friendly internet/extranet interface. c) In-house Information Solutions Rather than relying on external information sources such as traditional online and internet, many organisations are extending their internal knowledge management initiatives to include patent information. Derwent has developed a range of customised information solutions that enable secure in-house management of international patent information. These include: Data solutions provision of all or subsets of the Derwent World Patents Index database for loading on the customer's own in-house search and retrieval system. These solutions are ideal for organisations that have established internal information systems, or who are planning to create bespoke systems. Existing corporate customers include major engineering, electronics and chemical companies. The full Derwent World Patent Index database has been loaded by EPO on its internal EPOQUE system, and is heavily used by EPO examiners (around 25,000 connect hours in 1998). A number of patent offices of EP member states have also signed licence agreements with Derwent to access DWPI via remote access to EPOQUE. The US, Korean and Chinese patent offices also 91

18 use in-house loads of DWPI as a key component of their search and examination process. Intranet solutions these allow customers to disseminate DWPI and other Derwent information across their corporate intranet. Designed as a server-side software application, all functions are accessed through a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator no other software is required by the user. As web browsers become standard on many desktops, these solutions offer an efficient and secure way of delivering customised subsets of DWPI to information specialists and end-users. Lotus Notes/Domino solutions these are currently generating a great deal of interest amongst our customers. For organisations who utilise GroupWare as part of their knowledge management systems Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino solutions provide an ideal way to disseminate customised sets of patent information for current awareness and retrospective searching within and across organisations. They also represent an excellent entry-level option for organisations considering client/server or intranet-based internal information systems. d) New Content for Derwent World Drug Index While the exploitation of new delivery media offers an exciting alternative to traditional online systems for commercial patent information providers, Derwent realises that irrespective of the delivery medium, the value-added content and quality of its services remains of paramount importance to its customers. Earlier this year we introduced a range of enhancements to our DWPI file, including: New enhanced content and layout for DWPI abstracts, including a new style Alert Abstract, a new Technology Focus Abstract, and a new Extension Abstract for chemical and pharmaceutical patents. 92

19 The Derwent Chemistry Resource, companion chemical compounds database. This database offers chemical structure searching and related chemical substance data, and will be available initially on STN. As part of our commitment to improved content and quality, we also have an ongoing program of investment in internal quality assurance, content management and editorial/work flow systems. e) European Patent Library Initiative In Europe, the patent libraries are a key element in the patent information chain, and play an important role in providing information to small to medium commercial enterprises, patent attorney firms, private inventors and academia. In recent years we have been pleased to learn that DWPI is seen as a useful component of the services these libraries provide. The growth of free patent information on the internet offers both threats and opportunities to patent libraries in Europe. If more of their clients search for themselves, revenues for library patent search services will be adversely affected. Also, if the public expectation for free patent information is raised, funding the library's fee-based service may be put at risk. Patent libraries are finding that the explosion of patent information on the net is increasing public awareness of patents, but in many cases their users now need more help to navigate through the mass of information that is now available. Value-added services such as those provided by Derwent offer vital tools to help this navigation process, but as Derwent services are traditionally aimed at the corporate patent information user, products such as DWPI were often too expensive for 93

20 the libraries to offer to their customer base. As part of our efforts to help the innovation process in Europe, Derwent is working with EPO within the PATLIB framework to provide pay-asyou-go access to DWPI at our minimum price banding. Details of the scheme were announced by my colleague Brian Gore at a presentation at the PATLIB meeting in Lucerne earlier this year. If anyone is interested in finding out more about this initiative, I would encourage you to contact Brian Gore at Derwent, or Nigel Clarke at the EPO. If you are interested in finding out more about Derwent, I would encourage you to visit our web site at In addition to more details about our products and services, you can also find guest articles on key industrial property issues by people such as Gérard Giroud of the EPO, Todd Q Dickenson, the new USPTO Commissioner of Patents, and Shozo Uemura, Deputy Director General, WIPO. That concludes my presentation on changes affecting the commercial patent information industry. It seems to me that these changes are a fascinating continuation of a cycle which began with Hollerith cards, and the basic truths of information science are rediscovered with each round of information technology. The future for commercial patent information providers will be challenging, not always comfortable, but certainly exciting. We at Derwent believe that there will always be a role for added-value patent information in the industrial innovation process, and look forward to providing more options for enhanced patent information to organisations in Europe and the rest of the world in the new millennium. 94