Essential Skills of a Patent Analyst as Seen from Job Requirements

In recent years, China has been vigorously advocating independent innovation and actively promoting the intellectual property strategy. As a result, the intellectual property industry has naturally attracted more and more talents. Patent analysis and consultation, as an early "non-mainstream" business in the field of intellectual property, has gradually come into the public eye. Its low-key practitioners - patent analysts - have also gradually revealed their mysterious veil. 

In the IP (intellectual property) world, what "survival skills" must a patent analyst possess? In this issue, we will discuss this topic from the perspective of the job requirements for patent analysts. 

Patent analysts are professionals specializing in patent information analysis. Currently, they mainly work in the consulting and analysis departments of some large intellectual property agencies, professional intellectual property consulting institutions, and the intellectual property management departments of large enterprises. A glance at the job scope of this position often reveals these high-frequency words: 

Just looking at these high-end labels, one can already feel a sense of mystery. Now, let's take a look at the specific job requirements, which are roughly like this: 

Has the sense of distance been shortened a lot? Below, the author will continue to interpret the profession of patent analyst based on their own workplace experience. 

The core work of a patent analyst is data retrieval and data analysis! Generally speaking, it involves obtaining, verifying, screening, and marking data including patents, and then conducting multi-dimensional analysis to draw conclusions and provide suggestions. The purpose of obtaining, verifying, screening, and marking data is to get the target data that meets the analysis requirements, which can be said to be the foundation of the entire patent analysis work. If there is a slight mistake in this step, the conclusion may be far off the mark! After obtaining the target data, it is necessary to start using reasonable methods for in-depth analysis, and finally obtain valuable intelligence and provide corresponding strategic suggestions in a targeted manner. 

Therefore, data retrieval and analysis skills are the first essential skills for a patent analyst to have and need to be continuously improved. This is also the reason why various employers list it as the top requirement for the position. On this basis, good writing skills can make the analysis content, conclusions, and countermeasures and suggestions more clear, organized, and readable. As for the requirement of English reading ability, it is because once a patent document is published, it can be accessed globally. As the most commonly used language in the process of document dissemination, English is the preferred language for processing non-English patent documents in various databases. Therefore, for projects involving a global scope, it is often necessary to read English documents. Although many databases have automatic translation functions, and the translation functions of Baidu and Google are also quite good, the patent documents translated by machines still need to be verified by humans. As for work experience, most job requirements clearly state that it is "preferred" rather than "essential". If you don't have experience, as long as you truly enjoy the work of retrieval and analysis and are willing to learn professional knowledge and cultivate professional skills for it, you still have the opportunity to become a qualified patent analyst. 

If you're interested, the editor will continue chatting with you next time - How a science and engineering novice grows into a patent analyst~ 

Sunlight IP has nearly 20 years of experience in intellectual property analysis, consultation and research. It is one of the first batch of "Intellectual Property Analysis and Evaluation Service Demonstration Creation Institutions" and "National Intellectual Property Service Brand Institution Cultivation Units" awarded by the National Intellectual Property Administration. The company's research and consultation department is a high-end service team undertaking various intellectual property consultation projects, with 20 core members at present. The main business types include intellectual property risk early warning, patent layout analysis and planning, patent navigation, intellectual property strategy formulation, standardization guidance and various special research. It has successively participated in the drafting and formulation of industry standards such as the "Patent Information Retrieval Service Specification" and "Patent Literature Information Service Guide Standardization" of the National Intellectual Property Administration, as well as the "Credit Rating Evaluation of Intellectual Property Service Institutions" of Beijing. It has also undertaken important special research projects such as the "Research on the Intellectual Property Environment in India" and "Research on the Intellectual Property Environment in the Middle East" of the National Intellectual Property Administration, as well as various intellectual property strategy promotion plans, high-value patent cultivation and various patent navigation projects of local intellectual property bureaus. Among them, it has continuously undertaken the "Beijing Enterprise Overseas Intellectual Property Early Warning Analysis Project" of the Beijing Intellectual Property Administration for 14 consecutive years. In addition, it has provided patent early warning, patent navigation, patent mining and layout analysis and other types of patent analysis for enterprises such as Lenovo Group, State Grid, Mobike, Mengniu Group and Gree Electric Appliances.