White space mapping helps businesses discover unserved markets that hold potential but do not have any products or services yet. With patents, the goal is to find promising technology areas where patents can be filed in order to strengthen ones portfolio or purely to block others. As the practice is not new, several techniques and visualizations are being used for Patent White space analysis. Using 3D Printing as an example, this presentation will focus on pitfalls in various approaches and recommend best practices for aligning the outcome of the white space analysis to your business objectives.

1. M A N I S H S I N H A
C H I E F T E C H N O L O G Y O F F I C E R
G R I D L O G I C S
M A N I S H @ G R I D L O G I C S . C O M
. I I - S D V . 2 0 1 7 .
Decoding the Gray Shades of
Patent White Space Analysis

2. About Gridlogics
 Founded in 2004 and having more than 12
years of experience in Intellectual Property
Software Solutions
 Strong Focus on R&D and
Rapid/Continuous product enhancements
that solve greater challenges and needs of
IP professionals
 Launched Patent iNSIGHT Pro in Jan 2006
and gained quick market acceptance to
achieve more than 400 users across
100+organisations globally
 PatSeer Global Patent Database crossed
2200+ users in 3 years with more than 300
Professional Searchers and 800 Examiners.
 PatSeer Pro launched in 2016 and PatSeer
360° scheduled in 2017
Patent
Professional
Patent/Scientific
Information
Department
Patent Analyst /
Technology
Manager
Licensing
Professional / IP
Manager

3. White-spaces are gaps in a technology landscape
that have potential for attaining exclusivity

4. ….No clear picture

5. So……Is this it ?

6. Or this ?
Total
Medical
Defense
PCB
Mechanica
l
Clothing
Tooling
Phones
Food
Industry
Toys
Automobil
es
Robotics
Tissue
Engineerin
g
Aircraft
Scaffoldin
g
Aerospace
Furniture
Shoes
Jewellery
Television
Watches
Prosthesis
Constructi
on
Total 687 79 30 130 126 134 140 64 59 31 143 48 253 53 38 53 15 22 35 19 11 77 6
Paper 76 9 5 13 15 27 16 21 8 16 25 8 23 18 11 5 2 6 7 2 4 2
Elastomers 38 7 4 9 11 12 4 4 6 1 7 4 19 3 1 2 1 5
Plastic 120 9 8 11 30 27 36 16 11 5 23 13 44 11 3 6 5 4 7 6 3 20 1
Polycarbonate 70 8 5 16 13 18 23 19 9 10 27 8 32 14 5 14 2 3 1 3 6 2
Polyimide 27 3 3 16 4 8 7 1 3 4 2 10 3 4 4 1 1 1 2
Silver 35 10 3 15 8 13 11 5 3 1 11 6 6 8 2 1 2 1 1 1
Titanium 70 15 4 10 15 14 21 8 6 3 15 7 27 11 6 11 2 3 1 1 13 1
Wax 59 10 4 3 11 6 16 3 11 1 14 6 37 3 8 2 3 2 3 1 25 1
Rubber 81 11 4 22 21 29 19 12 11 4 14 3 21 4 4 4 2 5 2 3 2
Aluminium 85 14 7 20 21 19 33 16 4 8 26 13 29 19 1 19 2 2 2 2 3 4 3
Nickel 64 9 10 13 15 9 18 7 3 1 17 1 15 13 15 1 5 1 2 6
Ceramic 152 10 5 15 33 22 59 18 14 10 35 18 91 18 14 16 4 2 9 1 38 3
ABS Plastic 35 4 2 10 6 5 16 13 5 9 18 8 17 10 1 10 1 3 2
Alkyd 7 2 1 2 1 3 4 3 4 1 2 3 2 2 1 2
Epoxy 88 8 5 43 12 18 11 5 9 3 22 5 17 4 3 7 2 2 6 1 1 3 1
Polyethylene Terephthalate 101 10 3 14 15 40 20 8 11 4 21 10 45 6 9 4 6 6 1 1 2 9 1
Polypropylene 41 5 2 5 8 17 9 2 8 1 14 1 21 3 4 2 3 3 1 4
Polyvinyl Chloride 41 5 3 7 7 18 10 4 6 2 11 5 13 3 2 3 3 2 2 1
Stainless Steel 27 7 2 3 5 3 8 3 1 1 2 2 10 1 1 1 1 6
Methacrylic 20 5 1 6 4 5 5 3 5 7 1 1 2 1 2
Carbon Fiber 29 9 2 3 5 14 6 4 3 9 2 8 9 7 2 2
Polyethylene 63 15 1 6 8 16 10 1 10 2 14 3 29 3 6 2 2 2 6 1 1 7 1
RTV Silicon 2 2 2 2
Thermoplastic 51 7 4 11 11 16 10 5 3 2 11 5 20 3 2 10 2 6 2 1 2 1
Polyamide 55 10 2 8 11 17 19 3 9 3 17 4 23 6 4 5 6 4 3 1 5 1
Phenolic 45 8 2 22 6 18 8 3 5 4 6 4 2 1 2 2 3 1
Palladium 18 3 10 3 7 5 2 1 4 3 1 3 1 1 1
Polylactic Acid 15 2 1 4 2 2 2 11 1 7 1 2
Melamine 8 1 1 3 1 3 4 2 3 2 3 2 2 1 2
Polyvinyl Acetate 19 3 2 3 4 6 3 2 7 6 2 14 3 3 1 1 3
Steel 23 7 2 3 9 5 10 1 1 7 1 5 4 3 1 4 1 2 1

7. • Technology Landscape
• Material/Compounds/Ingredients Landscape
• Applications/Markets Landscape
• IPC/CPC Landscape
• Technology vs. Materials
• Technology vs. Markets
Where to find the Gap ?

8. Something else - Keywords ? Clusters ?

9. Are you jumping into the first haystack you see ?
Should you first focus on finding the right haystack ?

10. Finding the Right Haystack
• What are the different Market areas and what
are the top challenges in the market
• What are the current products or services that
address the market
• What are the company Strengths ?
• What technologies are our strengths
• What technologies are competitor strengths
• Current Markets  Future Markets
Should be a Top Down Approach…

11. 1. Cost of Equipment and Manufacturing
2. Limited Choice of Materials Available
3. Ensuring product Quality and Reliability
1. Surface finish
2. Accuracy of parts
4. Going from basic shapes to Complex Parts
5. Limited Design Tools
6. Lack of formal standards
7. Difficulty in scaling up production from prototype
8. Limited recyclability
Top 3D Printing Challenges

12. Problem vs. Solution Mapping
Challenge 1
(Surface Finish)
Challenge 2
(…)
Challenge 3
(…)
Technology 1 X
Technology 2 X
Technology 3
Material 1
Material 2 X
Material 3 X X
Market 1 X
Market 2
Market 3 X

13. 3D Printing Sample Categorization
By Technologies By Materials By Applications
 Ballistic Layer Manufacturing
 Cladding
 Computer Numerical Control
(CNC)
 Contour Crafting
 Digital Light Processing
 Direct Laser Forming
 Direct Manufacturing
 Direct Metal Deposition
 Direct Metal Laser Sintering
 Direct Shell Production Casting
 Electron Beam Melting
 Electron Beam Projection
Lithography
 Electrophoretic Deposition
 Fused Deposition Modeling
 Inkjet Deposition
 Laminated Object Manufacturing
 Laser Ablation
 Laser Engineered Net Shaping
 Laser Metal Forming
 Laser Powder Forming
 LaserCusing
 Microfabrication
 Multi-Jet Modeling
 …
 ABS Plastic
 Alkyd
 Aluminum
 Carbon Fiber
 Ceramic
 Clay
 Elastomers
 Epoxy
 Fiberglass
 Furan
 High-density Polyethylene
 Melamine
 Methacrylic
 Nickel
 Nylon
 PEEK
 Palladium
 Paper
 Phenolic
 Photopolymers
 Plastic
 Poly paraphenylene
terephthalamide
 …
 Aerospace
 Aircraft
 Automobiles
 Clothing
 Construction
 Defense
 Food Industry
 Furniture
 Jewellery
 Mechanical
 Medical
 PCB
 Phones
 Prosthesis
 Robotics
 Scaffolding
 Shoes
 Television
 Tissue Engineering
 Tooling
 Toys
 Watches

14. Categorization by Query
Application Area Search Query Results
Aerospace (FT) contains (aerospace* or aeronautic* or rocket* or spacecraft*) 93
Aircraft (FT) contains (aircraft* or aviation* or helicopter* or "fighter jet" or helicopter* or
aeroplane* or airplane*)
92
Automobiles (FT) contains (automotive* or car or cars or (auto* w/2 part*) or vehicle* or
automobile* or motorcar* or autocar* or "steering wheel*" or pedals)
264
Clothing (FT) contains (cloth* or dress or apparel* or fabric or fabrics or shirt* or t-shirt* or
garment*)
234
Construction (FT) contains ("contour craft*" or "d shape" or D-Shape or "building* print*" or roof*
or Diorama or walling or flooring)
16
Technologies Search Query Results
Ballistic Particle
Manufacturing
(FT) contains ((ballistic* w/2 manufactur*) or BPM) 25
Cladding (FT) contains (cladding or ((roll or explosive) w/2 weld*)) 53
Computer
Numerical Control
(CNC)
(FT) contains ((computer* w/1 control*) or CNC) 270
Contour Crafting (FT) contains (contour* w/3 craft*) 2
Digital Light
Processing
(FT) contains ((((digital* or direct*) w/2 light*) w/3 process*) or DLP) 25

15. Manual Categorization

16. Matrix based Analysis over Categories

17. X vs. Y Matrix ( Materials vs. Technology)

18. Charts for Workshops and discussions with R&D and
other stakeholders

19. • Always correlate all findings with:
• Corporate strategy and strengths
• Customer Trends (Today and Future)
• Every potential White-space (that meets the problem vs.
Solution constraints) should be subject to a targeted
patent search before any further investments in time or
resources
• Some other Examples :
• Mobile Technology
• Digital Camera
Afterthoughts

20. Thank you . Questions ?