Introduction

Now a days the value of intellectual property has greatly increased. New ideas in various fields of knowledge lead to the development of science and technology, improvement of the standard of living in the country, its defensive potentialities, etc. The state of intellectual property of the country can identify the state of the economic, cultural, social, etc. development of the state.

It is worth noting that in order to protect the idea by the state, it should be patentable. The legislation of many countries sets criteria for patentability of inventions, utility models and design inventions, one of which is the novelty. The novelty of the various objects of the patent law can be defined in different ways, but generally, it is just search forana logs.

Another important aspect of patent research is economic one. It is worth patenting a new invention providing it is profitable for the rights possessor. Patent research implies market research of the product of interest and the conditions of its implementation, identificationof key customers and their needs, analysis of the competitiveness of the invention, findingpotential partners, identification of the best scientific and technological gains in the industry, etc.

Search for analogs can be carried out by using a variety of information resources: scientific articles, search engines, books, the Internet, and others. It is worth noting that one invention can have a large number of related documents, so it is essential to conduct information searches, involving the greatest number of relevant and credible information.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO)statistics, each year the number of patent applications filed in various patent offices around the worldincreases (Figure 1) [1], consequently,the number of documents that shall be analyzed before admitting results of intellectual activity patentable increases every day.

Figure 1: The total number of patent applications filed worldwide in 2000-2014. Click here to View figure

In the field of patent law for the search for analogs specialized information retrieval resources containing content-date information on existing inventions, utility models and design inventions are often used.

The data used for search can be divided in two groups: patent and non-patent information.

The patent information is commonly an information about inventions, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks declared as objects of industrial property and/or officially recognized as such by the patent office. Patent information contains scientific and technical information as well as information on the legal status of protected sites and its subsequent changes, authors, applicants and owners, the transfer of intellectual property rights and others. [2]

Non-patent information may include scientific papers, books, scientific, technical and economic reports, design documents, etc.

Choosing the right patent and non-patent documentation can save money on own research and development and avoid duplication. It allows to get license for inventions of interest and find partners willing to cooperate on mutually beneficial terms (patent information can be used to analyze inventive activity of the enterprise) as well as to determine the competitors, their strengths and weaknesses.

Nowadays in the world,there are lots of patent databases and resources, providing access to them. They differ in the number of patent documents, completeness of information, additional analytical potential and access type to the database/resource.

Information about patent databases, in addition to the official sites of the information-retrieval resources, can be found on Internet portals, such as [3-5] and in articles[6]. However, such resources often contain only links to various databases with a brief description of their contents.

Another useful information source is the Patent Search System [7]– atool allowing side-by-side comparison of the patent search systems that have been reviewed by the Intellogist team. Patent Search System contains legal information about the organization that created the database, based on the reviews, data on the amount covered by the patent information, patent family, quoting, classifications, patent status and other information related to the search of patent documents. However, this resource provides only general information about the usability of patent databases.

Moreover, the use of sources of non-patent information when conducting a patent search is still a topical issue, as they are often less known and available and are ignored by researchers in connection with their alleged insignificance.

So nowadays there is no resource providing systematized comparative information about patent and non-patent databased as well as recommendations for their choice that can ease the selection of the database for particular search topic.

Thus, classification and description of popular information retrieval resources containing patent and non-patent documents is relevant in terms of the completeness of the patent information to facilitate the work of developers of new products in order to increase the efficiency of the process of commercialization of the results of intellectual activity in the bringing of goods on the international market.

In this paper the most popular information retrieval resources containing patent documentation, in terms of completeness of patent information will be reviewed and compared. The paper also provides guidance on the use of the considered patent and non-patent databases. Using obtained data the patent research is conducted to prove the stated ideas.

The methodological basis for this research has been formed mainly by analyzing Federal Regulations on patent research, patent and non-patent databases, articles and publications on the topic, as well as by experts’ insight.

Patent Research

Patent research is a study of the technical level and trends of the objects of economic activity, their patentability, infringement, competitiveness (intended use efficiency) based on patent and other information. At the same time, patent research has an economic focus, which is to analyze the market of interest in order to assess product competitiveness.

Patent research is conducted on the basis of the analysis of sources of patent information with the involvement of other types of information (scientific, technical, economic and market), containing information about the latest scientific and technological achievements related to product development, state and prospects of the market of products of this type.[8]

The purposes of patent research are the study of the object`s state of art, trends identification, rational forecast of development, research of markets of interest, establish consumer needs and the requirements to the product, identification of advanced scientific and technological achievements, etc. [9]

The process of creating a new product can be divided into several stages, which differ in tasks and methods of their solutions

search for ideas

market analysis

analysis of production and marketing possibilities

development of terms of reference (TOR)

scientific research (R)

experimental development (D)

experimental batch

organization of mass production

The correlation of different types of patent research with the stages of a new product creation is shown in Table 1 [10].

Table 1: Correlation of different types of patent research with a new product creation stages.

Before proceeding to the patent database search, it is necessary to correctly formulate a script (keywords) that provides the optimal ratio of completeness and accuracy of information found by the search system. To this end, the subject area of ​​interest is divided into several technological areas, each of which are defined using keywords specific to the field of terms to define correctly the International Patent Classification (IPC). Otherwise, search in patent databases without correctly identified keywords is practically impossible. Keywords are also the selection criteria of relevant information for subsequent analysis.

For example, tells consider the search results using FreePatentsOnline.com database looking at the various requests and the number of documents found by the system (Table 2).

Table 2: Examples of requests.

Table 2 shows that the same words arranged in a script in a different order and with different syntax can greatly expand or narrow the number of patent documents found by the system, thereby affecting the accuracy of the picture of the current level of technology.Thus, work on patent research requires detailed preparation, clear understanding of what kind of information the researcher wants to find and precise formulation of assignment for patent research.

Patent Databases

Information technology can facilitate the work with patent information provided by patent databases. In recent years, the establishment of user-friendly search resources has received increasing attention. Some of the ideas are presented in[11-13]. Existing patent databases can be divided into two major groups – the database with free and paid access. Let us consider the most popular search resources with free access as they are used worldwide and can be easily accessed.

In this paper, we consider six popular patent databases: Espacenet, FreePatentsOnline, Google, The Lens (The Patent Lens), PATENTSCOPE, USPTO.

The evaluation parameters of patent information retrieval resources were chosen as follows

The number of patent documents included in database. This parameter shows the fullness of patent search and breadth of information covered by the researcher.

The volume of provided information about patent documents. Shows by which parts of a patent document the search is carried out: abstract, description, full text, etc.

Highlightingscript keywords. Facilitates visual analysis of patent document.

Information aboutthe patent application. Indicates the information completeness of each patent document provided by the patent database.

Types of search withinthe patent database

Additional system functions

These parameters are consideredas the most important when choosing the information retrieval resource, they because provide the most complete picture of the resource and the information contained therein, which ultimately affects the quality of patent research. [14]

For ease of comparison, the basic information about the above free information retrieval systems is represented in the form of tables (Tables 3 and 4).

Table 3: Brief information about popular information retrieval systems.

Table 4: Brief information about popular information retrieval systems (continuation).

In addition to the above-mentioned patent databases, there are many free resources of the state patent offices and regional patent organizations.

When selecting a database that will be used to conduct a patent search it is advisable to first determine its purpose.

For example, in assessing the patentability of an invention it is necessary to check as many documents from different countries as possible in order to avoid infringement of patent rights of other inventors. In this case, it is advisable to use a database, which collects patents and applications of various patent offices, containing a wide range of documents.

When it comes to searchfor patent clearance the situation is opposite. Since the patent clearance is determined on a specific date in a particular country, it is sufficient to check patents in force only in thisstate. For this purpose,it is recommended to use the database of the national patent office, and after that other resources, which may include the inventions protected on a particular territory.

Non-Patent Databases

According to research, patent documents slightly duplicate the scientific and technological information published in the non-patent literature. “Crossing” of data in patent and non-patent documentation is 5-30%. [15] Therefore, during patent research in addition to the patent information it is useful to analyze another scientific, technological, market and economic information.

To facilitate the search of non-patent information specialized databases with free and paid access are developed. In many respects, they resemble the patent information retrieval resources having a keyword search and often other additional features such as advanced search of documents, analysis of the obtained information, stats, charting, etc.

Table 5 provides information about popular non-patent databases containing the full text of scientific publications and books, which can be useful during the patent search.

Table 5: Brief information about non-patent databases.

Thus, based on the data presented in Table 5, it is clear that during the patent search it is advisable to use large non-patent information retrieval systems, as they contain important scientific and technical information presented in articles, books, conference proceedings, etc. These materials can provide insight into the ongoing researches, developed devices, materials, achieved results and the scientific team plans for the future. It should be noted that such databases can also contain patent documents.

A non-patent database should be selected depending on the purpose of the patent research. If the theme is of sector-specific focus, for example medicine, it is advisable to primarily use the specialized resources, such as, for example, PubMed. Then large reputable databases such as Web of Science and Scopus are monitored.

In addition, it is useful to use analytical functions of non-patent databases: selection of necessary documents, building charts and graphs, partitioning articles on publication sources, author, citation index, etc.

Conducting A Patent Research Using Patent and Non-Patent Information

Based on data presented in this paper a patent research on “wireless endoscope capsules” was conducted.

The wireless endoscope capsules (capsule endoscopes) were chosen as the object of patent research. They are medical devices intended for non-invasive examination of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of the patient for the presence of pathological and morphological changes.

In general, the screening procedure with the wireless endoscope capsule is the following: the patient swallows the capsule having a size of a large pill with a built-in camera that slowly passes through the human digestive tract capturing images of the internal walls. The obtained data is transmitted to the external recording device. Then images are sent to a personal computer of gastroenterologist who performs the analysis.[17-21]

The patent search was carried out using free databases: FIPS (www.fips.ru), USPTO (http://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents), WIPO (https: / /patentscope.wipo.int/search)and EPO (http://www.epo.org/searching/free/espacenet.html).

As countries for search Russian Federation, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Germany were selected, as these states are leading in the development of electronics and medical equipment. The United States were selected because they patent the vast majority of foreign inventions. Another leading developer of wireless endoscopecapsules is a Given Imaging company, Israel[22]. However, it was revealed that the company is primarily patentingitsdevelopments in the US, and then in Israel, so Israel has not been included in the search.

Thesearch retrospective is 14 years since wireless capsule endoscopy has been widely used since the beginning of the XXI century, and the effectiveness of this procedure was provedin 2001 [22].

The following keywords were chosen: endoscopic capsule, capsule endoscope, wireless capsule endoscopy, pill, endoscopy.

As a result of the search 63 patents dealing with wireless endoscope capsule were selected. Figure 2 shows the total number of issued patents and the number of active patents in chosen countries from 2001 to 2014.

Figure 2: Number of patents by countries in 2001-2014. Click here to View figure

As it can be seen from Figure 2, most of the developments in the field of capsule endoscopy are patented in the United States, China and Japan. Slightly lower activity is observed in the Republic of Korea. It should be noted that in China and Republic of Korea all patents are active that demonstrates the importance of proposed solutions and their demand in the market. Lowest patent activity is recorded in Germany and Russia.

88% of selected documents belong to commercial companies, among which the leading place is occupied by the Japanese Olympus Medical Systems Corporation. Among non-profit organizations the leaders areuniversities of China (4 patents), Republic of Korea (2) and Russia (1, not active). This can be explained by the fact that the theme of capsule endoscopy is interesting not only for commercial organizations, but also for young researchers and research teams at universities – that means that the problem is quite relevant and has good potential for a scientific development.

Figure 3 shows the curve of inventive activity (real) in patenting the wireless endoscope capsules and its trend. The trend reflects the positive dynamics of inventive activity in the field of improving the performance of the wireless endoscope capsule.

Figure 3: The curve of inventive activity and its trend. Click here to View figure

In addition to patent databases thematic search was also conducted by non-patent information retrieval resources: PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Web of Science (http://apps.webofknowledge.com) and DOAJ (http://doaj.org).

The retrospective is 10 years; the search was carried out in all countries.

During the search analytical capabilities of the international citation database Scopus were used.We entered the key phrase “wireless endoscopic capsule”. Analysis of trends in publication activity was conducted by the method of extrapolation of the time series.

Figure 4 shows the statistics by the countries on articles publication devoted to the wireless endoscope capsules. The data obtained from non-patent sources largely coincided with the information extracted from patent databases. All the countries selected for patent search (except Russia), were found among the 12 most active countries in terms of publication activity.

Figure 5 presents the number of articles over the years. The trend of publication activity, as well as inventive activity, shows a positive dynamics.

Figure 4: Number of scientific articles by countries in 2006-2016. Click here to View figure

Figure 5:  Number of scientific articles by years. Click here to View figure

However, during the analysis of patent and non-patent information some differences were revealed. For example, the publication of scientific articles often deal with universities, research institutes or hospitals, on which basis medical studies are conducted (Figure 6). There are virtually none commercial organizations.

Figure 6: Article authors` institutional affiliation. Click here to View figure

Moreover, another peculiarity was defined: in spite of the fact that the patent search showed that in Russia today there is no valid patents and, therefore, Russian scientists are not interested in the field of wireless capsule endoscopy, in fact, active developments are carried out, for example, based on the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” (NRNU MEPhI). Non-patent search showed that active developments are performed on the basis of NRNU MEPhI. The scientific group is working on creation of a wireless endoscope capsule “Landish”, which is be highly competitive in functionality with the existing foreign analogues. Several patent application have been filled and a number of scientific articles on capsule endoscopy were published.[23]

Conclusion

The performed thematic patent search showed the inventive activity in the field of the wireless endoscope capsules. It also revealed that during the search it is essential to use both patent and non-patent databases whichcollect current scientific publications, due to the fact that:

research papers are available to the reader almost immediately after they were written (from article submission to paper publication it may take just few weeks), while the publication of the invention description becomes available only eighteen months after the application is filled;

scientific papers can propose a disputable idea that has no evidence yet or objective forms of expression (while for patent protection an invention should meet the statutory patentability criteria), but that can hit other inventors upon the new breakthrough developments;

non-patent publications give more information about the research and scientific components of the invention, show the experimental and testing results as well as the evaluation of the development effectiveness;

non-patent publications allow to quickly get feedback on the work from other researchers and research groups, including foreign ones, for example, in the form of a review.

Thus, the study presented in this paper can be used to facilitate the patent researches in different spheres. Based on developed theoretical statements the patent research on wireless endoscope capsules was carried out. The research can be used during commercialization of the endoscopic capsule developed in the NRNU MEPhI. The results of the study can also be used to conduct patent search on different topics and for other purposes.

In the future, it is planned to describe, classify and systematize the resources that can be used during registration of software and databases.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Doctor of Economics, Vice President for Research and International Cooperation of the Russian State Academy of Intellectual Property Smirnova Veronika Removna for her contribution to this study.

This publication is prepared on the results of scientific research project performed by The NRNU MEPhI and JSC RTI as part of the agreement №02.G25.31.0018 on February 12, 2013 between the Joint Stock Company “Radio Engineering Institute named after Academician AL Mints “and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

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