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Patents are a key source of technical and com-mercial intelligence, as described in a previousarticle in this Journal (1). Osmium is often seen asthe forgotten member of the platinum group met-als, but nevertheless still attracts interest (2, 3).

Modern software allows us not only to searchout patents relating to osmium, but also to visu-alise the search results. The landscapes, (Figures 1and 2) were created using the AurekaThemeScapeTM software (4) which uses statisticalalgorithms to analyse the usage of words andphrases, and discern themes and relationshipsamong documents. They show the results of apatent search on osmium covering the period 1981

to 2005 in the US (United States), EP (EuropeanPatent), PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty), GB(British) and JP (Japanese) patent collections.Figure 1 shows a ThemeScape map of the set of3400 patent documents in which the word osmiumappears in either the title, the abstract or theclaims, once duplicate family members have beenremoved. The map labels represent key themeswithin particular sections of the map. Figure 1clearly depicts clusters of patents relating to cataly-sis (e.g. “acid, acetic acid, carbonylation”;“metathesis, alkyl, ligand”), fuel cells and sensors(e.g. “electrode, reference, sensor”, “anode, cath-ode, electrolyte”), and electronic applications (e.g.

Platinum Metals Rev., 2006, 50, (1), 27–28

DOI: 10.1595/147106706X91404

Osmium – The Patent LandscapeA VISUALISATION OF THE TECHNOLOGY DESCRIBED IN PATENTS RELATING TO OSMIUM

By Richard SeymourJohnson Matthey Technology Centre, Blounts Court, Sonning Common, Reading RG4 9NH, U.K.; E-mail: seymorj@matthey.com

Fig. 1 A patent landscape based on ~ 3400 patents in which osmium is mentioned in the title, abstract or claims

“capacitor, layer, device”, “layer, electrolumines-cent, device”). The search could be narrowed todisplay patents in which osmium occurs only in thetitle or abstract (just over 800 patents), or bebroadened to show patents in which osmiumappears in the full patent specification (> 14,000patents).

In Figure 1, the dots in the map are examples ofspecific patents. Clicking on a contour will pick upall the patents within that contour line, which isuseful when further analysis of an area is required.The blue “ocean” represents areas of low patentactivity.

It is possible to use to use this map to identifytrends in patent activity over time, or to illustratethe patent activity of a particular company (bymeans of coloured dots). For example, Figure 2shows patenting by three companies selected atrandom: red, a pharmaceuticals company; green, achemicals company; yellow, an electronics compa-

ny. With this patent visualisation approach, abroad picture of the actual and potential uses ofosmium can be obtained, and be followed by moredetailed examination of clusters of specific interest.

References1 I. Wishart, Platinum Metals Rev., 2005, 49, (2), 982 J. W. Arblaster, Platinum Metals Rev., 2005, 49, (4),

1663 Ian Shott, Chem. Eng. News, http://pubs.acs.

org/cen/80th/osmium.html4 MicroPatent, Thomson, http://www.micropat.com

The AuthorRichard Seymour is the Head ofTechnology Forecasting andInformation at the Johnson MattheyTechnology Centre in the U.K. He isinterested in the use of information inthe areas of competitive intelligence,technical innovation and new productdevelopment.

Platinum Metals Rev., 2006, 50, (1), 27–28 28

Fig. 2 The osmium patent landscape showing the patent filing activity of a pharmaceuticals company (red), achemicals company (green) and an electronics company (yellow)