We are data nerds, and new data are always exciting. But there is more to it. The data are invaluable to a variety of users.
IPRoduct™ started as an academic project to help scholars interested in the study of innovation. Often, these scholars work with patent data by lack of a better way of tracking ‘innovation.’ The IPRoduct™ data are one of the holy grails of research in this field because they provide the missing link between inventions (= patents), for which a wealth of data and metrics are publicly available, and innovations (= products), which are what consumers buy and use.
But the IPRoduct™ data are also strongly relevant for IP professionals. It is a well-known fact that the majority of patents are never commercialized. The IPRoduct™ database contains extremely valuable patents that protect actual products. Patents in the database are more cited than non-commercialized patents and have higher litigation rates. The data can facilitate freedom-to-operate searches, the identification of licensing opportunities, and the detection of infringement among other uses.
They are also of potential interest to scientists and engineers working in new product development. By identifying the actual inventions behind specific products, the data facilitate learning by reverse-engineering and may help avoid inadvertent infringement.
Finally, users interested in measuring the ‘real effect’ of scientific research may find the data particularly appealing. For instance, by tracking university patents and scientific papers cited in IPRoduct™-listed patents, policymakers, technology transfer officers, and analysts in funding agencies can track the diffusion of the research they have funded into society.
Oh, and let’s not forget all the technology enthusiasts who are just curious about inventions!
We source the data from virtual patent marking web pages. Everyone has seen the ‘patent pending’ notice on some products. Sometimes, manufacturers print the actual patent numbers on products. We call this practice ‘physical patent marking.’
For example, the back of Microsoft® Basic Optical Mouse 1.0A is physically marked with U.S. patent numbers 6,460,094, 6,442,734, 6,625,790, 6,795,949 and 7,096,435 (see the picture).
Virtual patent marking (VPM) is simply the digital equivalent of this practice. Instead of printing the patent numbers on the products, manufacturers include the URL of a webpage that lists products and the patents that protect them.
The data are not exhaustive. We do our best to identify as many VPM web pages as possible. However, we have certainly missed some of them—in that case, please feel free to share missing web pages with us!
Moreover, not all innovative companies mark their products, and firms that do may not necessarily mark all products in their portfolio. The data may not be 100 percent accurate.
Although we do our best to extract the information as accurately as possible, we cannot exclude the possibility of minor glitches in the process.
Do not use our data for legal purposes.
