Patent mapping helps win £50m for stem cell research

A pioneering patent mapping process has helped to win £50 million of extra funding for stem cell research over the next two years, part of a huge cash boost that UK stem cell scientists are set to receive over the next 10 years to keep the UK at the forefront of stem cell research. An expert body set up by Chancellor Gordon Brown, the UK Stem Cell Initiative (UKSCI), recommended that Government spending on the research should be increased by between £350 million and £520 million over the next decade. Strong support for these recommendations was provided by the analysis of stem patenting, commissioned by UKSCI from Scientific-Generics, part of The Generics Group based in Cambridge. Generics' patent mapping system, 'IQIP', works by classifying the patents unambiguously, according to IPC code (subject classification) for example. The maps are 2D grids with defined axes and show the number of patents (often normalised or weighted by significance) in a particular 'bin' on the grid. This patent 'map' helps indicate what the future commercial landscape may look like globally and can pinpoint active inventors and where they are located. Using the term 'stem cell', searches were performed on patents that had been filed anywhere in the world since 1993. This analysis was designed to identify: prominent UK and global organisations in stem cell research, as judged by the citation levels of their patents in other patents; patents with significant impact on stem cell research, as judged by the citation levels of those patents in other patents; and global trends in patenting activity over the last decade. Mick McLean, head of economics and policy at Scientific Generics commented: "Our analysis identified sixteen key stem cell patents - the most influential when ranked by their number of citations in other patents. Twelve of these belonged to organisations from the USA, three to organisations from the UK and one to a Canadian company. Lastly, we examined international trends in stem cell patenting activity over the last decade. As with other areas of technology, the US has been consistently dominant in this area." He continued: "What our results show is that since 2004 there has been a significant upturn in the level of patenting activities in the US. In addition, several other countries are patenting in the stem cell field more aggressively than before, including Israel, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and Sweden." "The rest of the world, with Korea and China accounting for 50% of that figure, are also significantly accelerating their patenting activity. By contrast, stem cell patenting activities in the UK, Germany, Japan and France do not show any corresponding increase." "Overall, the UK has obtained a proportionate amount of intellectual property over the last decade, although many of the UK patents were filed in the early 1990's. It seems likely that other countries will continue to accelerate their patenting activities in this area. We are delighted to have been a useful partner in this process that will help fund more invaluable research into stem cell capabilities," said McLean.