IPWatchdog Webinar: Using and Understanding the Citation Landscape to Value Patents

There are a variety of different factors that different experts will consider when determining patent rank, but forward citations continues to dominate as the most widely used factor. Many experts believe forward citations are the most significant factor in identifying patents that are likely to be purchased. Indeed, those patents sold through brokers have an even greater number of forward citations than litigated patents.

Why forward citations? Perhaps forward citations are a proxy for industry-wide R&D investment in a particular technology area. Greater investment yielding a greater number of assets, and a higher change of infringement, which drives value. After all, those who seek to acquire patents generally prefer to acquire patents where there is ongoing infringement. Whatever the case may be, forward citation analysis is a valuable tool.

Among other things, this webinar will discuss the following topics:

1. Citation landscape, and how to best evaluate a patent by the citing documents, citing companies, dates of citations, and types of citations you should consider in a holistic citation evaluation.
2. Understanding the intuition behind valuation metrics, and where they are spot on, where they may fail, and where further investigation is required.
3. Whether family size is distilled to one number, or whether a composite number may be a better indicator of importance.
4. Metrics derived from a patent’s prosecution history, such as the narrowness of the claims, number of Office Actions, and claim amendments.