Valuing patent portfolios

Introducing Diyas, the new intellectual property currency, based on patent forward citations, to identify influential inventors of tomorrow today.

Patents are unique and powerful tools for innovators, allowing them to protect their intellectual property from exploitation or infringement. Patents also provide inventors with a way to monetize their ideas and inventions. A patent forward citation is an essential metric in evaluating the success of a patent – it measures how many times other patents have cited the original patent. Forward citations are considered one of the most critical metrics in assessing patent value. Here is an interesting statistic – 42% of issued utility patents have never been cited. This metric came from analyzing utility patent data between January 1, 2002, and May 23, 2023.

The number of forward citations is essential because it can reveal market trends, give insights into industry competition, and indicate an invention’s success. The more forward citations a particular patent has, the more valuable it is likely to be as an asset. It’s not uncommon for highly cited patents to become standards in their industries, used by multiple companies over time. It also indicates whether or not a patent is likely to be infringed upon by competitors.

All inventor badges will have this information going forward. Here’s the inventor badge for Bill Gates. His portfolio of 211 issued patents has generated 2,356 patent forward citations.

Here is a couple of links to play with:

Most cited patents and Find patent forward citations by typing in a patent number.