www.espacenet.global.patents

Full URL: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/advancedSearch

The Espacenet platform is our primary source for global patent intelligence. Patents are not just inventions; they are legally enforceable monopolies that companies use to dominate markets. Understanding a company’s patent portfolio is critical to understanding its power, its strategy, and its vulnerabilities. This intelligence is fundamental to our most advanced strategies.

This platform is mission-critical for:

• Identifying Monetizable Assets: Espacenet allows us to find companies with valuable, under-utilized patent portfolios. These are assets that can be monetized through licensing or enforcement campaigns, presenting opportunities for us to facilitate litigation funding or the outright sale of the assets. ¹¹¹¹
• Competitor Analysis and “Benchmarking”: A company’s patent filings are a direct, forward-looking indicator of its R&D strategy. We can use Espacenet to benchmark a competitor’s innovation against the market and anticipate their future product launches. ²
• Evidence for Competition Cases: The platform can be used to identify anticompetitive uses of patents, such as “patent thickets” (dense webs of patents designed to block competitors) or patents that are essential to a standard but are not being licensed on fair terms. This evidence can support an abuse of dominance complaint to regulators like the CMA or EC. ³³³
• Supporting the “USP-to-WTO” Pipeline: By identifying companies in one country with superior patented technology that are being blocked from another country’s market by a discriminatory trade barrier, we can gather powerful evidence for our “USP-to-WTO” strategy. ⁴⁴⁴⁴

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Part I: The Search Platform’s Rules & Functionality

Espacenet offers two modes of search: “Smart Search” (a command-line style search) and “Advanced Search” (a field-based form). The Advanced Search is our primary tool for precision.

• Key Search Fields (Advanced Search):
  • Title, Abstract, Title or abstract: For keyword searching the description of the invention.
  • Publication number: For finding a specific, known patent document.
  • Applicant(s): The most important field for our work. This is the company or individual who has applied for or owns the patent.
  • Inventor(s): The name of the individual inventor(s). Useful for tracking key R&D personnel.
  • Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) or International Patent Classification (IPC): This is a critical tool. These standardized codes allow us to search for all patents within a specific area of technology, regardless of the keywords used.
• Search Syntax and Operators:
  • Boolean Operators: Espacenet supports standard Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) for combining search terms.
  • Phrase Search: Use double quotation marks (" ") to search for exact phrases (e.g., "gene sequencing").
  • Wildcards: Use * to represent multiple characters and ? to represent a single character.
  • Proximity Operators: While not available in the Advanced Search form, the “Smart Search” allows for proximity operators.

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Part II: The COCOO Strategic Search Model for Espacenet

This protocol provides a systematic workflow for any investigation with a technological component.

Phase 1: Adversary & Technology Landscape Profiling

• Step 1.1: Adversary IP Audit: For any target company, conduct a comprehensive search using their name in the Applicant(s) field. This creates a complete dossier of their global patent portfolio.
• Step 1.2: Thematic Technology Search: This is our key proactive protocol. Identify the CPC/IPC codes for a technology area central to a case (e.g., G06N for artificial intelligence). Search using this classification code to generate a list of every single company patenting in that field worldwide. This identifies the market leaders, new entrants, and potential acquisition targets.

Phase 2: The “Strategic Patent” Analysis Protocol

• Step 2.1: Analyze Filing Trends: For a target company, use the date filters to analyze their patent filing velocity. A sudden increase in patent applications in a specific CPC class is a “Simple Indicator” of a major R&D push and a new strategic direction. ⁵
• Step 2.2: Identify “Crown Jewel” Patents: Review the titles and abstracts of a company’s patents. Look for foundational patents that appear to be central to their core products. Check the “Cited by” and “Citing documents” tabs to see how influential a patent is within the technology landscape.
• Step 2.3: Identify “Blocking Patents” and “Patent Thickets”: When analyzing a sector (from Step 1.2), look for dominant players who own a disproportionately large number of patents in a narrow technological field, especially if many of those patents are for minor, incremental improvements. This is a classic indicator of a “patent thicket” designed to stifle competition.

Phase 3: Intelligence Synthesis & Strategic Action

• Step 3.1: Originate Monetization USPs: Based on the IP audit, identify companies with strong but under-enforced patents. This is a direct trigger for a USP. We can approach the patent holder with a proposal to facilitate a non-recourse funding deal to monetize their assets through a targeted enforcement campaign. ⁶
• Step 3.2: Build an Antitrust Complaint: The evidence of a “patent thicket” (from Step 2.3) can be used to form the basis of a complaint to a competition regulator, arguing that the dominant company is abusing its position to harm the market. ⁷
• Step 3.3: Due Diligence for Tenders and M&A: In any technology-heavy tender or M&A deal, we will use this protocol to verify the IP ownership and strength of all parties. This allows us to challenge a competitor’s bid if their claimed technology is weak or potentially infringing, or to advise on a MATOIPO transaction. ⁸⁸⁸

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Part III: Application to COCOO Doctrines

This model is designed to provide the technological intelligence needed to support our most sophisticated strategies.

Mind Map Doctrine	Application of the Espacenet Model
USP (Unsolicited Proposal)	The model is a direct engine for originating USPs by identifying undervalued or under-enforced patent assets that can be monetized through litigation finance. 9
Benchmarking / Competitor Analysis	The Adversary IP Audit (Step 1.1) and Thematic Technology Search (Step 1.2) provide a clear, data-driven benchmark of a competitor’s technological strength and R&D strategy. 10
EC/CMA Complaints	The “Strategic Patent” Analysis (Phase 2) is our method for gathering the evidence needed to file an antitrust complaint based on the abuse of patent rights, such as creating anti-competitive patent thickets. 11
Noisefilter	A company’s marketing about its “cutting-edge technology” is noise. Its portfolio of patents on Espacenet is the verifiable, legally protected signal of its actual innovation. 12
MATOIPO Analysis	An Espacenet audit is a non-negotiable component of due diligence in any MATOIPO event involving technology companies, allowing us to assess the value and risk of the IP assets being transferred. 13
USP-to-WTO	By finding a company in Country A with a dominant patent portfolio in a key technology, and then using Global Trade Alert to show they are blocked by a discriminatory standard in Country B, we build a powerful, evidence-based case for our USP-to-WTO pipeline. 14141414