274611 external_news 1391692648 1475893616 Success often means anticipating what’s coming -- not just connecting the available dots, but accurately predicting where they will lead next. By visually identifying hot spots for innovation as well as connections between industries, patent maps -- graphical models that provide visual representation of the areas in which companies are protecting intellectual property -- can help your business stay one step ahead of the curve. When mapping patents from 2001 to 2006, Jan Youtie, a researcher at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, noticed that Samsung had noticeably more patents in the biomedical realm than other companies with similar portfolios. “That made me to wonder: what are they up to?” she says. In 2011, Samsung announced plans to move into the biomedical business, producing drugs for cancer and arthritis patients at a plant in Seoul.

]]> 2014-02-03 1224