Patent landscaping provides a snapshot of research and development for a chosen technology area, either within a given country, region, or globally. This process helps companies assess the viability of their innovation plans by analysing trends within a technology space. This analysis is a crucial tool to guide R&D teams through the evaluation process.
It can answer the following questions:
A Source Advisors patent landscape will involve the following steps:
Source Advisors provides extensive patent research experience covering a wide range of industries.
Our dedicated in-house technical IP team operates with a commercially focussed mindset, leaving out the legal jargon and delivering a report and debrief meeting with commercial value.
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An intensive assessment of a patent landscape helps identify principal patent holders within a specific technology and identify whether serious competitive pressures exist, and whether the technology area is moving into active commercialisation. Using this information, product owners and R&D managers can identify areas of research where there is little threat of competition and better allocate resources.
Essentially the patent landscape will identify the key, active players in your technology space, and assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of their patent portfolios.
A fundamental part of demonstrating that an R&D project is seeking to achieve an advance in overall knowledge or capability is to establish the baseline. HMRC are now asking for evidence of the baseline as part of the new submission process, they expect the claimant to be able to demonstrate the advance by comparing it to the baseline. It is now common for HMRC caseworkers to challenge the baseline in enquiry, and it is important for the claimant to evidence the technological baseline at the time the R&D project started to ensure its projects is qualifying for tax purposes.
HMRC expect claimants to carry out this study prior to the R&D project starting and not retrospectively.
Source Advisors has a wealth of experience helping companies of all sizes navigate uncertainties surrounding tax and licensing of IP, allowing them to confidently maximise the advantages of IP ownership, licensing and accessing the UK’s Patent Box incentive.
Our IP consultancy services, including Patent Box, are closely linked with R&D tax relief and a company can often claim tax relief under both schemes, including Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC), the new merged scheme and the Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (ERIS) scheme.
Find out more about our R&D tax relief services.
