Mapping the Technical Terrain

In the recent article “Mapping Out a Total War Strategy” in the magazine America's Civil War, the author Earl McElfresh tells the story of how Union General William T. Sherman's topographical engineers made maps in support of his march from Chattanooga to Atlanta late in the war. Several useful strategic principles can be drawn from the actions of those map makers and applied to present-day efforts in developing new products and intellectual property to “fight” a competitor. In Sherman's case, many times a battle was fought based on the terrain, and having an intimate knowledge of the terrain put his army in a better position. The same is true for the role in investigating the technical terrain in developing intellectual property.

In the filing of a patent application, the patent agent or attorney is like the commanding officer conducting the battle. This “General” has specialized techniques for drafting and prosecuting patent applications and attempts to get the best patents issued for the client. The equivalent map makers are technical personnel who have studied the competitive landscape for intellectual property prior to and during the invention process. That is, they study the technical area prior to any patent searches in support of the patent filing process. Therefore, patent agents and attorneys can provide a valuable service to their clients by encouraging them to “map” their technology area early in the product development process. Now this does not mean requiring the making of an actual patent landscape map such as can be generated by many popular computer databases. While such maps can be useful, by “map” we mean the in-depth study and understanding of the technical “terrain.”

So what principles can be applied by these modern technical map makers? Mapping was a dedicated command in Sherman's army; the engineers that produced maps did only that. While most businesses can't have such dedicated resources, the same three-pronged approach utilized over a century ago can be used today. The approach involves: 1) innovating to obtain information, 2) organizing that information, and 3) providing the information in a standard manner to the organization.

Those Civil War map makers innovated in obtaining information by first collecting any existing maps to generate a “skeleton” map that was filled in as more information was obtained. To flesh out the details, the engineers did reconnaissance and interviewed people with knowledge of the terrain. They looked at how goods were exchanged in the countryside to find the best roads and places to cross rivers. They used information developed by other engineers and local government tax maps. Finally, they were interested in getting good information about the important details of their surroundings quickly and were less interested in overall absolute precision.

Sherman's engineers quickly made maps, duplicated them, and distributed them so that his entire army was working from the same information. The maps used uniform symbols to reduce any potential confusion over what the maps illustrated. They also found that making these maps was inexpensive despite the estimate that some 4,000 maps were distributed during the summer months of 1864. It was also said it cost the army more to purchase and maintain a team of mules for a month than to fund the entire mapping effort.

Innovate to Obtain Information

The parallels with IP strategy are obvious. Innovation in obtaining competitive information is always encouraged, utilizing not only existing information that is easily obtained, such as patent and literature searches, but also by incorporating other techniques, ranging from reviewing existing market studies to interviewing academic experts and potential customers. To carry the analogy further, the emphasis should be on getting good information quickly rather than absolutely perfect information that could take an eternity to complete. For example, when dealing with a literature or patent search, sometimes the size of the data set can become an issue. A large number of references can quickly overwhelm and bog down the analysis. This can be addressed by limiting the time range of the study and concentrating only on the recent past, so as to deal with a more manageable data set. Older references can be then spot checked to confirm older information.

Organize the Information

Once information becomes available, the hard work of characterizing the technical terrain then becomes the challenge. This is when a dedicated or assigned technical resource becomes most valuable. This ongoing analysis requires a large time commitment and the quality of the analyses and the speed at which they are generated will suffer if the assigned personnel do not have adequate time to devote to the task. Their goal will be to understand what has been done in the technical area of interest and to identify fruitful areas for further technical development. Also, not only can potential inventive areas be considered, but also valuable information on freedom-to-operate issues can and should be identified. This characterization of the information entails a two-tiered process involving sorting through the information to identify the key technical and legal leads, and then reviewing those in detail. Just as it is likely new technical information will be revealed during this process, it is not unusual to find granted patents that require additional study from a freedom-to-operate perspective. In fact, there may be such a thicket of granted patents that other technology areas should be considered.

Standardize the Communication

The information and analysis is of no use if no one sees it, or if it is displayed in a confusing or difficult-to-use manner. Here, common sense should prevail in that the final information should fit the desired audience, with varying levels of detail as needed. Since this process of obtaining and analyzing should be ongoing, a standard form or format can be useful in that the audience becomes comfortable with the type of information being provided and how that information has changed since the last report.

In that summer of 1864, it took Sherman four months to advance from Chattanooga and capture Atlanta while being opposed by Confederate troops. His further “march to the sea” from Atlanta to Savannah took only one month because of essentially no organized opposition. The analogous learning here is that if an organization is faced with stiff competition, then the generation of maps and understanding the technical terrain become more important. Without a direct competitor or when working in a radically new technology area, the organization can move ahead fast in new terrain, and maps may become less important. However, similar efforts to map the technical terrain always provide valuable information in setting an organization's strategic focus.

H. Jackson Knight ([email protected]) is Intellectual Property Manager for DuPont Protection Technologies. He is the author of Patent Strategy for Researchers and Research Managers, 2nd Edition (John Wiley & Sons).

In the recent article “Mapping Out a Total War Strategy” in the magazine America's Civil War, the author Earl McElfresh tells the story of how Union General William T. Sherman's topographical engineers made maps in support of his march from Chattanooga to Atlanta late in the war. Several useful strategic principles can be drawn from the actions of those map makers and applied to present-day efforts in developing new products and intellectual property to “fight” a competitor. In Sherman's case, many times a battle was fought based on the terrain, and having an intimate knowledge of the terrain put his army in a better position. The same is true for the role in investigating the technical terrain in developing intellectual property.

In the filing of a patent application, the patent agent or attorney is like the commanding officer conducting the battle. This “General” has specialized techniques for drafting and prosecuting patent applications and attempts to get the best patents issued for the client. The equivalent map makers are technical personnel who have studied the competitive landscape for intellectual property prior to and during the invention process. That is, they study the technical area prior to any patent searches in support of the patent filing process. Therefore, patent agents and attorneys can provide a valuable service to their clients by encouraging them to “map” their technology area early in the product development process. Now this does not mean requiring the making of an actual patent landscape map such as can be generated by many popular computer databases. While such maps can be useful, by “map” we mean the in-depth study and understanding of the technical “terrain.”

So what principles can be applied by these modern technical map makers? Mapping was a dedicated command in Sherman's army; the engineers that produced maps did only that. While most businesses can't have such dedicated resources, the same three-pronged approach utilized over a century ago can be used today. The approach involves: 1) innovating to obtain information, 2) organizing that information, and 3) providing the information in a standard manner to the organization.

Those Civil War map makers innovated in obtaining information by first collecting any existing maps to generate a “skeleton” map that was filled in as more information was obtained. To flesh out the details, the engineers did reconnaissance and interviewed people with knowledge of the terrain. They looked at how goods were exchanged in the countryside to find the best roads and places to cross rivers. They used information developed by other engineers and local government tax maps. Finally, they were interested in getting good information about the important details of their surroundings quickly and were less interested in overall absolute precision.

Sherman's engineers quickly made maps, duplicated them, and distributed them so that his entire army was working from the same information. The maps used uniform symbols to reduce any potential confusion over what the maps illustrated. They also found that making these maps was inexpensive despite the estimate that some 4,000 maps were distributed during the summer months of 1864. It was also said it cost the army more to purchase and maintain a team of mules for a month than to fund the entire mapping effort.

Innovate to Obtain Information

The parallels with IP strategy are obvious. Innovation in obtaining competitive information is always encouraged, utilizing not only existing information that is easily obtained, such as patent and literature searches, but also by incorporating other techniques, ranging from reviewing existing market studies to interviewing academic experts and potential customers. To carry the analogy further, the emphasis should be on getting good information quickly rather than absolutely perfect information that could take an eternity to complete. For example, when dealing with a literature or patent search, sometimes the size of the data set can become an issue. A large number of references can quickly overwhelm and bog down the analysis. This can be addressed by limiting the time range of the study and concentrating only on the recent past, so as to deal with a more manageable data set. Older references can be then spot checked to confirm older information.

Organize the Information

Once information becomes available, the hard work of characterizing the technical terrain then becomes the challenge. This is when a dedicated or assigned technical resource becomes most valuable. This ongoing analysis requires a large time commitment and the quality of the analyses and the speed at which they are generated will suffer if the assigned personnel do not have adequate time to devote to the task. Their goal will be to understand what has been done in the technical area of interest and to identify fruitful areas for further technical development. Also, not only can potential inventive areas be considered, but also valuable information on freedom-to-operate issues can and should be identified. This characterization of the information entails a two-tiered process involving sorting through the information to identify the key technical and legal leads, and then reviewing those in detail. Just as it is likely new technical information will be revealed during this process, it is not unusual to find granted patents that require additional study from a freedom-to-operate perspective. In fact, there may be such a thicket of granted patents that other technology areas should be considered.

Standardize the Communication

The information and analysis is of no use if no one sees it, or if it is displayed in a confusing or difficult-to-use manner. Here, common sense should prevail in that the final information should fit the desired audience, with varying levels of detail as needed. Since this process of obtaining and analyzing should be ongoing, a standard form or format can be useful in that the audience becomes comfortable with the type of information being provided and how that information has changed since the last report.

In that summer of 1864, it took Sherman four months to advance from Chattanooga and capture Atlanta while being opposed by Confederate troops. His further “march to the sea” from Atlanta to Savannah took only one month because of essentially no organized opposition. The analogous learning here is that if an organization is faced with stiff competition, then the generation of maps and understanding the technical terrain become more important. Without a direct competitor or when working in a radically new technology area, the organization can move ahead fast in new terrain, and maps may become less important. However, similar efforts to map the technical terrain always provide valuable information in setting an organization's strategic focus.

H. Jackson Knight ([email protected]) is Intellectual Property Manager for DuPont Protection Technologies. He is the author of Patent Strategy for Researchers and Research Managers, 2nd Edition (John Wiley & Sons).