Patent Research

Automatically discover, analyze, and connect patents to your data for comprehensive intellectual property insights.

IP Discovery

Find patents related to specific technologies, companies, or people

Patent Analysis

Extract key patent information including claims, filing dates, and inventors

Relationship Mapping

Connect patents to your existing data for comprehensive IP landscapes

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Understanding Patent Research

Raycaster’s Patent Research capability enables you to automatically discover and analyze intellectual property relevant to your data. This feature searches through patent databases and extracts key information about patents related to specific drugs, technologies, companies, or scientific concepts.

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What Patent Research Can Do

Patent Research helps you:

  1. Discover relevant patents related to specific data points in your tables
  2. Extract key patent information including filing dates, inventors, assignees, and claims
  3. Analyze patent landscapes to understand IP positioning and competitive advantages
  4. Identify technology trends by examining patent activity over time
  5. Map relationships between patents, companies, and technologies

The Patent Research capability works with the Research column type.

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How Patent Research Works

1

Identify Source Data

The system identifies the data to research, such as drug names, technologies, or companies in your selected column.

2

Search Patent Databases

Raycaster gets to work, utilizing multiple sources and AI agents to get the most relevant patents that match the criteria.

3

Analyze Patent Documents

The system extracts and analyzes key information from patent documents, including claims, assignees, inventors, filing dates, and technology classifications.

4

Present Structured Results

Research results are formatted according to your column type with structured patent data, citations, and links to original documents.

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Setting Up Patent Research

Follow these steps to set up and use Patent Research in your workspace:

1

Create or Select a Column

Start by identifying which column contains the data you want to research (e.g., drug names, company names, or technology descriptions). Either use an existing column or create a new one.

2

Create a Research Column

Create a new column where the patent research results will appear:

  1. Click the ”+” button at the right end of your column headers
  2. Choose a name for your column (e.g., “Patent Information”)
  3. Select the “Research” column type and Patent “Research” type
3

Configure Research Settings

Configure the column for patent research:

  1. In the column editor, scroll to the “Research Configuration” section
  2. Enter a custom patent search query or utilize the default query provided
  3. Provide a prompt for the highlights and summary analyis, emphasizing key aspects that you want the highlights and summaries to representation.

Helpful Tip: Utilizing the ’@’ character within the search query allows you to utilize variables from other columns. For example, names of companies or people.

4

Save Your Configuration

Save your column configuration:

  1. Click “Save” to save your column settings
  2. Alternatively, select “Save & Run All” to immediately start research for all rows

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Running Patent Research

Once your column is configured, you can run patent research for a cell by clicking the research button You can also run patent research on a whole column with the “Save & Run All” option.

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Understanding Patent Research Results

Patent research results provide structured information about patents related to your data:

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Types of Information Included

Depending on your research prompt and column configuration, patent research can provide:

  • Patent Identification: Patent numbers, application numbers, and document IDs
  • Filing Information: Filing dates, publication dates, and priority dates
  • Expiration Data: Patent expiration dates and term adjustments
  • Ownership: Assignees, inventors, and ownership transfers
  • Technical Content: Claims, abstracts, and technical descriptions
  • Classifications: IPC, CPC, and US classifications
  • Legal Status: Current status, litigation history, and maintenance fee information
  • Citations: Forward and backward citations to related patents
  • Family Information: Related patents in different jurisdictions

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Viewing Detailed Results

When you click on a cell containing patent research results, the side panel will open with comprehensive information:

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Main Results View

  • Summary of patents found
  • List of most relevant patents
  • Key information for each patent
  • Links to original patent documents

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Patent Research Use Cases

Technology Landscape Analysis

Map out the patent landscape in a specific technology area to understand key players, trends, and whitespace opportunities.

Competitive Intelligence

Analyze competitors’ patent portfolios to understand their technology positioning, R&D focus, and potential future products.

Freedom to Operate

Identify potential patent barriers for new products or technologies to avoid infringement risks.

Outbound Messages

Provides the ability to send targeted outreach taliored to patents for outreach.

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Optimizing Patent Research Results

Follow these best practices to get the most accurate and useful patent research results:

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Tips for Better Patent Research

  1. Be specific about patent types - Clearly specify what types of patents you’re interested in (e.g., composition patents, method patents, formulation patents)

  2. Include relevant technical terms - Use precise technical terminology that would appear in patents related to your area of interest

  3. Specify date ranges - Indicate whether you want recent patents, historical patents, or a specific time period

  4. Mention key jurisdictions - Specify if you’re particularly interested in US patents, European patents, or global coverage

  5. Request specific metadata - Clearly state what patent information is most important (filing dates, assignees, claims, etc.)

  6. Use filtering criteria - Include parameters to filter results (e.g., only active patents, only patents from certain companies)

  7. Request specific organization - Indicate how you want results organized (chronologically, by relevance, by assignee, etc.)

Patent research works best when your source data is specific. Generic terms may return too many unrelated patents, while highly specific compound names or technologies will yield more relevant results.