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4th ITU Green Standards Week Disseminating sustainable technologies using patent information – the Smart Grid example Giulio Ceccarini, Patent Examiner WG on sustainable technologies European Patent Office (EPO) Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Agenda Role of Patents Y04S tag: patent taxonomy for Smart Grids Statistics, ownership and trends Findings Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week The basic principle of the patent system Benefit the public Benefit the owner by making the detailed description of the invention available to everyone by preventing third parties from exploiting the invention for commercial purposes without authorisation 18 months after filing Patents Valid for max. 20 years Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week A fair system driving knowledge transfer and innovation Technological innovation Find existing technology Patent application Learn from it Disclosure to the public Build on it Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week An incentive for economic growth Gives patent holders time to recoup their development costs from the commercial exploitation of the invention Prevents duplication of R&D in industry and universities Makes the latest technological knowledge and trends available to the public Inspires further innovation Encourages business by helping identify International new partners and allowing licensing Telecommunication Committed to connecting the world Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week The role of the EPO in the European grant procedure We provide patent protection • in up to 40 European countries • based on a single application • in one of the three official languages (English, French, German) The EPO makes all patent documents available to the public We are committed to ease access to patent-related information, in particular in areas of social relevance. International Telecommunication Committed to connecting the world Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week EPO & Smart Grids Energy-related technologies are indispensable for the challenges of climate change The EPO committed to disseminate technological information Ease access to sustainable emerging new area Smart Grids contributing to climate change mitigation technologies Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union EPO & Smart Grids 4th ITU Green Standards Week If I were into Smart Grid, what would I like to know? What type of technologies exist in my area? Who owns these technologies? Where are these owners? Legal situation? Trends? PATENT INFORMATION ! Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week The Road to Patent Information Patent classification is like a ZIP code for technologies 60 million patent documents worldwide are indexed using patent classification! International Patent Classification (IPC): 70 000 codes Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) for EPO+USPTO+… from 2013: 250 000 codes Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Why not existing classification scheme? scope of Smart Grids new and not univocal scattered nature (e.g. power generation vs. ICT) no fit with any existing coding system Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week The EPO approach Objective: Give all known patent documents relating to Smart Grids technologies a specified tag, and make them available in one accessible place: Y04S no new definition internal expertise analysis of standards: IEEE-SA 2030 and IEC external experts: cooperation with IEEE-SA 2030 WG Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Y04S tagging 90 codes, divided over... Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Y04S40 (example) Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week How is this information available from EPO? Via • • • Espacenet: www.epo.org/espacenet free of charge good for searching somewhat less good for getting statistics Via GPI (Global Patent Index): http://www.epo.org/searching/subscription/gpi.html • *subscription • good for searching • good for statistics periodic update free*, 24/7 availability tailored by a user available to everybody Via PATSTAT: http://www.epo.org/searching/subscription/patstatonline.html • *subscription • good for searching • excellent for statistics International Committed to connecting the world Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Trends in Smart Grids patenting Y04S: 37500 Patent Applications worldwide, 10000 Patent families 5400 Patent Applications published in 2013 Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week How the distribution between technologies look like? Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Where do the Smart Grid applications originate? In 2013, China was the country from which most smart grid patents (world-wide) originated. Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Who owns the Smart Grid technologies? In Europe there is a stronger concentration of Smart grid patents in large companies than in US. The top-3 applicants in Europe have larger share than the top-10 in the US. International Telecommunication Committed to connecting the world Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week How green are Smart Grid patents? Y02 tag for climate change mitigation technologies: Y02 Λ Y04S about 2/3 entries in Y04S have a direct impact (e.g. operation of renewable energies) and are also coded under Y02B, Y02E or Y02T Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Findings The European Patent Office has provided much easier access to Smart Grid patent information. This information is available through use of the "Y04S"-codes in: • Espacenet (free of charge) • GPI or PATSTAT (subscription, more advanced) Patenting Smart Grid technologies has soared, especially after 2005. Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Findings (cont’d) SDOs (members) can profit from a ad-hoc patent search tool in a specific areas: patent mapping, technology trends Policy-makers have an additional tool for assessing technology transfer in sensitive areas Engineers, Scientists may use this knowledge in their work Such information is also available for other "clean" technologies Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union 4th ITU Green Standards Week Thank you Committed to connecting the world International Telecommunication Union