Invention and Patent Services

Co-Crafting Inventions

Invention
and
Patent
Services
Services
Crafitti’s TRIZ based Patent Related Services

 Basic Patent Analysis using well-established TRIZ methodology (Level of Invention,

Contradictions and Inventive Principles)
 Advanced Patent Analysis using TRIZ with Contradictions, Laws of Technical
Evolution, Ideality, Function analysis and Knowledge Effects
 Technological Alternatives Study (TAS) on a Patent
 Valuation of a Patent using Scenario Planning, TRIZ and Analytic Hierarchy Process
(AHP)
 Patent Portfolio Management using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
Advanced Patent Analysis using TRIZ and Other Techniques

Patents are the most comprehensive source of information and knowledge. In the rapidly globalizing world of
continuous change and cut-throat competition, every enterprise searches for competitive advantage. Patent
information although realized by many as highly critical is not really tapped by enterprises at large, simply as the
understanding of patents as a source of information and trigger for inventing the “next” is still in infancy.

Although there are many open tools and databases

Assignee

visualization of patent data, there doesn’t seem to be

Filing date

enough awareness of using patents for inventing the

IPC Class
“next”!

US Class

Genrikh Altshuller, a Soviet Union naval patent officer after

6708333
Second World War, started a systematic study of patents –
© CREAX Information Technologies Ltd.
his aim was to find out what makes a successful invention.
Can there be an algorithm for inventing? His search led him to develop a unique methodology called Theory of
Inventive Problem Solving (acronym TRIZ in Russian). In the process he also developed a systematic
methodology to analyze and study patents. TRIZ discovered technological evolutionary laws that surprisingly
can be used to predict the future of an invention.

Crafitti Consulting has developed on the TRIZ way of doing patent analysis and reinforced it with other
techniques to build a comprehensive framework for Patent analysis. For the first time this framework is offered
in India.
The framework is based on following high level techniques
 Understanding the level of an invention and a patent
 Finding out the key contradictions the invention is solving
 Function Diagrams/analysis of a patent/invention to make it more robust
 Pruning or Trimming as a means of inventing
 Technological Evolutionary Paths of the Invention
 System Complexity Estimation

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
 The framework helps in
 Finding Technological Alternatives to a Patent
 Writing Future-proof claims of a Patent
 Understanding the evolution of an invention compared to prior art
 Finding white space in a field to leverage

Basic Patent Analysis using well-established TRIZ methodology (Level of Invention,

Contradictions and Inventive Principles)
Read the Abstract – Identify the Key Element of
5 Levels of Inventions Invention
crafting innovation together
crafting innovation together

• Pioneering Invention – based on newly discovered phenomenon

Level 5 (<0.3%) • Pushing existing technology to a higher level

• Revolutionary

• New System Developed

Level 4 (< 4%) • Interdisciplinary solutions

• Replacing old technology with New

• Radical change or elimination of one principal system component

Level 3 (19%) • One Engineering Discipline

• Resolution of a physical contradiction
crafting innovation together
crafting innovation together

Identify the sentence where

• Slight Modification of the system
the key invention is
Level 2 (45%) • Knowledge from different areas within the industry
• Resolution of a technical contradiction mentioned?
• A simple improvement
Can you also identify the
Level 1 (32%) • Knowledge within the trade
• No system conflicts are resolved function or effect produced by
the invention?
Confidential © Crafitti Consulting Private Ltd. March 1, 2009 41 Confidential

After studying and analyzing more than 2.5 Million

Patents and Inventions, TRIZ has categorized patents
crafting innovation together
into 5 levels of inventions. 77% of these fall under

Claim 2 Claim 6 simple modifications or improvements. TRIZ

describes a lens to find out where is on these levels
Claim 3 Claim 4 Claim 8 Claim 7
Claim 5 Claim 9
is the patent/invention. A Level 4 Invention is real
diamond, but rare. Further TRIZ process helps in
crafting innovation together

finding out what key problems the invention is

solving – if the invention solves a contradiction it
becomes interesting from the point of view of its
Confidential
increasing strength. Further, TRIZ identified 40
Inventive principles used by inventors. The basic patent analysis gives the level of the invention, contradictions

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
solved by the invention and inventive principles used by the invention. It also gives guidelines on possible
principles that could also be used. This is a very powerful input for the inventors to reinforce their inventions.

Advanced Patent Analysis using well-established TRIZ methodology (Laws of Evolution,

ideality, function analysis, knowledge effects)

Besides the basic analysis, the advanced analysis provides a

mapping of patent on 8 the laws and lines of evolution
defined by TRIZ. A claims hierarchy provides the independent
and dependent claims to study the protection given in the
patent. A detailed report including contradictions, claims
hierarchy, lines of evolution mapping and list of documents
for current relevant art is also presented.

TECHNOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE STUDY ON A PATENT

Objectives and Process

The objective of a Technological Alternative Study

(TAS) is to analyze a given Patent and explore
various ways in which the invention described in
the patent can be transformed to next levels in its
evolution. Crafitti Consulting Private Limited
(http://www.crafitti.com) uses the methodology
of TRIZ and own propriety techniques to help
domain experts generate technological
alternatives to a patent. There are four main
phases of this study and it is always carried out
with the domain experts from client organization.

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
  Phase I: Patent study and analysis
A comprehensive search for Patents and other documents in and around the patent is carried out. This involves
study of forward and backward citations of the patent as well as other state of the art documents. The patent of
interest is studied comprehensively and analyzed to find key contradictions identified or solved by the patent.
This phase also provides a mapping of patent on 8 the laws and lines of evolution defined by TRIZ. A claims
hierarchy provides the independent and dependent claims to study the protection given in the patent. A
detailed report including contradictions, claims hierarchy, lines of evolution mapping and list of documents for
current relevant art is also presented.

 Phase II: Preliminary ideation

Based on the analysis of patent and current state of art, preliminary first level ideation is conducted in house or
in collaboration with the client domain experts. In this process, TRIZ Inventive Principles, Lines of system
evolution and system complexity estimator is used to generate possible ideas to transform and develop the
invention towards a more ideal system.

 Phase III: Collective brainstorm in a workshop setting

Based on analysis report and preliminary ideation report, a solution generation brainstorm is conducted in a
workshop setting. This involves usage of all tools and information generated during previous phases of the
study.

 Phase IV: Solution evaluation and

final report submission
Using the methodology of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)
solution directions are rank ordered and a final report is
submitted which list solutions that are closer to ideality.

Patent Valuation and Patent Portfolio

Management

Crafitti uses a comprehensive, propriety methodology based on Scenario Planning, Analytic Hierarchy Process
(AHP) and TRIZ to provide a robust patent, invention and venture valuation. Further, these methods are used in
a hand-in-glove consulting process with our clients for patent portfolio strategy and management.

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore
About Crafitti

Crafitti Consulting is an innovation consulting firm in the business, science

and technology space. Crafitti uses a co-crafting approach to facilitate
innovation in various enterprise contexts with the help of powerful
frameworks, techniques and tools, honed over the years through research,
experimentation and grassroots application.

How do we work with our co-crafters?

The CRAFITTI engagement includes processes to explore any system through our science based proprietary
frameworks developed over a period of almost 2 decades of experimentation, exploration and evaluation. The
process steps include mining Patent and web based information in a particular field to provide large number of
triggers in multitude of directions for the Inventive minds to come out with large number of ideas for developing
products, processes and patents in the chosen technical field. The Co-crafting Innovation methodology results in
a large number of possible ideas that can be converted for commercial benefits in very quick time. Starting from
the vague information about the technological area to look into, the Co-Crafting Innovation process rapidly
penetrates through the barriers of psychological inertia in the minds of experts, to create insights into the
problems that have hitherto been not possible. The systematic way to convert the unidirectional thinking along
the core competencies of the experts in the fields into multi-dimensional storms of ideas in a limited amount of
time is the greatest benefit that the clients have achieved through the Co-Crafting Innovation Engagements.

Contact Details

© Crafitti Consulting Private Limited www.crafitti.com

CRAFITTI CONSULTING IS INCUBATED AT NSRCEL @ Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore