The role of (patent) information in the innovation process
The European Patent Office (EPO) has conducted a survey to find out how patent information ranks as a source of information in the innovation process, i.e. whether patent information supports innovation, in Europe.
The survey shows how patent information contributes to each phase of the innovation process.
The main findings of the survey show that 70% of the innovators who took part in the survey use patent information as a source of information while 72% of them rate patent information as important or very important for their innovation work.
At the same time, 75% of respondents use EPO products including Espacenet, followed by DPMA/DEPATISnet 30%, USPTO 21% and WIPO/PATENTSCOPE 17%.
In addition, the findings show that patent information is predominantly used as a source of technical and legal information but lags behind with business information.