Innovation tools in the Industrial Biotechnology
Keywords: innovation tool, software, patent software, patent analysis tool, patent analytics
Abstract:Innovation in the Industrial Biotechnology world faces several information mining and visualization challenges. It is difficult to systematically mine the thousands of patents and academic papers published each year around the world in this area. Without appropriate information visualization tools, it is not possible to fully understand the universe of organisms, enzymes, feedstock, products and by-products and the inter-relationships between them. Industrial biotechnology innovation can be mapped to the following basic variables: a) Various feedstock b) Pre-treatment methods for feedstock c) A variety of enzymes, bacteria, fungi, yeast or a modified version of any of these that feed on feedstock d) Output or products that are obtained when the enzymes or bacteria or fungi or yeast feed on these feedstock It is extremely hard to map all the technical data to the above categories using existing information visualization tools. Current tools only allow for a piecemeal analysis of narrow sets of data. It is hard to visualize the global landscape comprising competing/substitute methods or technologies. Each of the existing tools has a limitation to the number of categories one can be use for this multivariate analysis. Also, the tools do not have a flexible structure to create the categories into any number of levels. The Dolcera Biotechnology Dashboard is an interactive tool used by biotechnology companies around the world to review large quantities of patent, scientific and product literature in an aggregate fashion. It enables hundreds of categories across many levels of categorization. It has an intuitive interface for users to easily navigate through these categories, to select multiple categories (a specific enzyme, a specific feedstock and a specific product) to get the relevant IP for that specific combination. This ability for multivariate analysis, using a highly visual and intuitive format, makes it extremely easy for research professionals to study the scientific and competitive landscape. It also saves precious time and enhances the efficiency of mining this data. The other advantage of Dolcera’s dashboard is that it makes sharing of information extremely easy. It is build using Web 2.0 technologies and works inside the web browser. As a result, research teams can use the Dashboard for collaboration with their teams and external partners globally. The Dolcera dashboard is designed for use by research teams and business managers alike. Research teams can access the detailed technical strategies followed by competitors, while business executives can use this tool to monitor competitive activity at a higher level of abstraction. This is possible, since the Dashboard is extremely easy to use and does not require any special training for its use.