Eight years is a very long time on the planet of patents. After we final revealed what we then referred to as the Patent Energy Scorecard, in 2017, it was a special technological and social panorama—Google had simply filed a patent application on the transformer architecture, a momentous advance that spawned the generative AI revolution. China was simply starting to supply high quality, inexpensive electric vehicles at scale. And the COVID pandemic wasn’t on anybody’s dance card.
Eight years can be a very long time on the planet of magazines, the place we recurrently mess around with codecs for articles and infographics. We now have extra readers on-line than we do in print, so our artwork staff is leveraging advances in interactive design software program to make advanced datasets grokkable at a look, whether or not you’re in your cellphone or flipping by way of the pages of the journal.
The scorecard’s return in this issue follows the return final month of The Knowledge, which ran as our again web page for a number of years; it’s curated by a special editor each month and edited by Editorial Director for Content material Improvement Glenn Zorpette.
As we got down to recast the scorecard for this decade, we sought to strike the proper stability between comprehensiveness and readability, particularly on a mobile-phone display screen. As our Digital Product Designer Erik Vrielink, Assistant Editor Gwendolyn Rak, and Group Supervisor Kohava Mendelsohn defined to me, they needed one thing that might be eye-catching whereas avoiding information overload. The answer they arrived at—a dynamic sunburst visualization—lets readers grasp the important takeaways at look in print, whereas the digital version, permits readers to dive as deep as they need into the info.
Working with sci-tech-focused data-mining firm 1790 Analytics, which we partnered with on the unique Patent Power Scorecard, the staff prioritized three key metrics or traits: patent Pipeline Energy (which works past mere amount to evaluate high quality and impression), variety of patents, and the nation the place firms are based mostly. This final attribute has change into more and more vital as geopolitical tensions reshape the worldwide know-how panorama. As 1790 Analytics cofounders Anthony Breitzman and Patrick Thomas be aware, the subsequent few years may very well be notably fascinating as organizations regulate their patenting methods in response to altering market entry.
Some developments leap out instantly. In consumer electronics, Apple dominates Pipeline Energy regardless of having a patent portfolio one-third the scale of Samsung’s—a testomony to the Cupertino firm’s deal with high-impact improvements. The aerospace sector has seen dramatic consolidation, with RTX (previously Raytheon Applied sciences) now encompassing a number of subsidiaries that seem individually on our scorecard.
And within the college rankings, Harvard has seized the highest spot from conventional tech powerhouses like MIT and Stanford, pushed by patents which can be extra typically cited as prior artwork in different latest patents. After which there are the refined shifts that change into obvious solely if you dig deeper into the info. The rise of SEL (Semiconductor Energy Laboratory) over TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) in semiconductor design, regardless of having far fewer patents, suggests once more that true innovation isn’t nearly submitting patents—it’s about creating applied sciences that others construct upon.
Wanting forward, the actual check can be how these patent portfolios translate into precise services. Patents are guarantees of innovation; the scorecard helps us see what firms are making these guarantees and the R&D investments to appreciate them. As we enter an period when technological management more and more determines financial and strategic energy, understanding these patterns is extra essential than ever.
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