assess-ip-landscape

# Assess IP Landscape Map the intellectual property landscape for a technology area — identify patent clusters, white spaces, key players, and freedom-to-operate risks. Produces a strategic assessment that informs R&D direction, licensing decisions, and IP filing strategy. ## When to Use - Before starting R&D in a new technology area (what's already claimed?) - Evaluating a market entry where incumbents have strong patent portfolios - Preparing for investment due diligence (IP asset assessment) - Informing a patent filing strategy (where to file, what to claim) - Assessing freedom-to-operate risk for a new product or feature - Monitoring competitor IP activity for strategic positioning ## Inputs - **Required**: Technology domain or product area to assess - **Required**: Geographic scope (US, EU, global) - **Optional**: Specific competitors to focus on - **Optional**: Own patent portfolio (for gap analysis and FTO) - **Optional**: Time horizon (last 5 years, last 10 years, all time) - **Optional**: Classification codes (IPC, CPC) if known ## Procedure ### Step 1: Define the Search Scope Establish the boundaries of the landscape analysis. 1. Define the technology domain precisely: - Core technology area (e.g., "transformer-based language models" not "AI") - Adjacent areas to include (e.g., "attention mechanisms, tokenization, inference optimization") - Areas to explicitly exclude (e.g., "computer vision transformers" if focusing on NLP) 2. Identify relevant cl...