Picking up where we left off, I now have a preliminary draft of the Patent PR study (available here) and a better sense of how the subject matter of clean tech press releases fits into the full universe of patent PR.
The relative proportion of subject matter categories for the full data set, i.e., for press releases generated by patentees across all industries, is shown in Chart 1.
The largest subject matter category is Prosecution, with 215, or nearly half, of patent-focused press releases relating to the patent application process from filing to grant. 106 releases, or just under a quarter of patent PR, involve litigation, the second place category.
Transactional matters comprise 14.9 percent of patent press releases, and Post-Grant Procedures represent 5.5 percent of the data set. The smallest subject matter categories are Honors/Accolades (2.2 percent), Patented or Patent-Pending Product (1.1 percent), and ANDA Patent Challenge (0.9 percent). Miscellaneous subjects comprise just under two percent of the data set.
Subject matter coding for Clean Technology firms is shown in Chart 2.
The Clean Technology industry has the largest spread between the Prosecution and Litigation categories (57.9 percent) and the smallest proportion of Litigation press releases of the industries analyzed. More than two thirds of Clean Technology firms’ releases (68.4 percent; 26 releases) relate to prosecution as compared to about half for firms generally, while the percentage of press releases relating to litigation (10.5 percent; 4 releases) is well below that of the general firm population (24.3 percent).
This may reflect the fact that the Clean Technology industry is relatively young compared to the other industries analyzed. In addition, the Clean Technology industry very rarely reports on patent transactions (2.6 percent; 1 release) compared to 14.9 percent in the full data set. Post-Grant Procedures, however, are reported at a higher rate by Clean Technology firms (7.9 percent; 3 releases) than the general firm population (5.5 percent).
Finally, press releases generated by Clean Technology firms fall into the Miscellaneous category at a much higher rate (7.9 percent; 3 releases) than those of firms generally, which may mean that the relatively young industry is experimenting or still gaining its footing with patent PR. In addition, the variety of subject matter may reflect the fact that Clean Technology is an umbrella term for a diverse array of subsectors such as, inter alia, wind, solar, biofuels, energy storage, and energy efficiency technologies.
Eric Lane is a patent attorney at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@mckennalong.com
