The benefits of having the Universal Technology Taxonomy
Delivering transparency on who owns patented technology globally
Universal Technology Taxonomy
The first taxonomy to provide a consistent and objective analysis of patented technologies owned by all companies globally.
Harnessing the latest in machine learning, the Cipher Universal Technology Taxonomy (UTT) provides a fast and effective way to:
- understand global technology trends
- compare the innovation profile of companies, competitors and technology landscapes.
On this page:
The Cipher Universal Technology Taxonomy (UTT) is organised by reference to Technology Superclasses (9) and Subclasses (114).
The taxonomy was designed to ensure that the 45m+ active patents and applications globally are equally represented.
In the UTT, the user can view all patented technologies by:
- A single organisation or by a group of companies
- Technology trends – either globally or nationally.
The UTT includes patent intelligence relating to:
- Size, geography, and activity
- Quality, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), or cost
- Risk – both from operating companies and from non-practicing entities (NPEs)
Why UTT?
Why is it important to understand what a company owns?
Patented technology is a core strategic asset. Information about the intellectual property rights owned by a company is not made available as part of its annual or quarterly accounts. Yet 80% of the value of a company is intangible. In an era where innovation is critical to success and value creation, understanding what technology a company is protecting is essential. Put another way, how can you understand a company if you don’t know what strategic assets it owns?
Do companies generally own patents in just a few of the technology classes?
There is no hard and fast rule. For companies with many divisions or activities expect their technology to fall in many categories. Even companies with a narrower focus still have patents relating to a dozen or so technologies. The insight comes from the trends within the categories. Which are growing/declining? Where are the hot-spots for litigation? What are the differences in international protection?
Why is UTT different to Patent Office CPC codes?
There are over 300,000 CPC (and a similar number of IPC) codes. These help Patent Offices identify prior art when examining patent applications. They are not useful for identifying patented technologies and do not purport to classifying patented technologies.
Download the Universal Technology Taxonomy
Full UTT layout
The UTT can give you an objective view of patented technologies globally and also provide details of:
- 9 technology Superclasses
- 114 technology Subclasses and their scope definitions
FAQ
What’s the difference between the Universal Technology Taxonomy and Cipher Custom Taxonomies?
The UTT as the name suggests is Universal. It analyses the entire patented world through a common lens. Custom taxonomies are created by companies to see the world through their technology taxonomy. They are much more specific as to scope – and typically only cover part of the technology landscape
What’s the difference between Cipher’s Universal Technology Taxonomy and clustering?
The universal technology taxonomy is a fixed taxonomy that classifies patents into one of the defined classes. Cipher clustering (unsupervised ML) analyses patents into the ‘buckets’ most relevant to the selected company. The UTT is the only approach that provides a consistent view of all patents globally.
Does the UTT provide a better classification than say SIC, CPC or NAICS codes?
SIC and NAICS codes classify companies by their primary activity or principal source of revenue. They form a bedrock for economic and financial analysis. But there is a big difference between what a company does and the technologies that it chooses to protect.CPC codes could give you this answer, there are over 300,000 of these – too many to get your head around or to provide any form of meaningful comparison. Also, there is a predictive element to investment in patents. Patenting activity provides insights into what a company is likely to do in the future. This is totally outside the scope of existing corporate classification systems.
Articles, podcasts and source material featuring the UTT
Inventions & Innovators powering the Energy Transition
A detailed view of the leading innovators to watch based on recently-published inventions and applying weightings to technologies which enable the energy transition.
Read more
Oil and Gas Supermajors – Energy Transition
Our updated report finds that supermajors’ technology innovation is more evident in the Materials, Mechanical, and Sensors & Optics categories.
Read more
Sustainability and detergents: environmentally friendly innovation
Our report on patent owners in the Sustainable Detergents space identifies the firms producing new formulations and the countries leading innovation.
Read more
A global view of innovation
This Cipher report provides a breakdown of the world’s inventions and activity into individual technology sectors.
Read more
Life Sciences top patent publishing list
Life Sciences is a clear leader out of all of the patent categories tracked to chart the pace of innovation. This was one of the lead findings in Cipher’s recent global report.
Read more
Machine Learning for Patents
Episode 3 in Season 2 of the Cipher Vision Podcast series features Tony Trippe, founder of ML4patents.com. Tony explains how patents are an “amazing source of information” and why machine learning will help businesses make decisions far more quickly.
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BlackBerry Patent Sale Announced
Using the Cipher Universal Technology Taxonomy we have identified the top areas of technology innovation protected by the BlackBerry portfolio.
Read more
Example Taxonomies by Industry sector
Aerospace and Defence
Technologies within this taxonomy include: air turbine starters; electromagnetics; flight management systems for drones; head mounted displays (HMDs); and virtual cockpits.
Read more
Semiconductor
Supporting the sector in times of fast pace and high stakes technology evolution
Read more
Industrial Automation
A patent taxonomy developed at the heart of Industry 4.0, including 3D printing, robotics and connectivity
Read more
Listen to the Cipher Vision Podcast
Innovation-led Sustainability
Episode 1 in Season 3 features Gregorio Ossola, Head of Corporate Solutions at one.five. Greg shared with us the importance of a data-led approach to sustainability.
Read more
Communicating the Impact of Innovation
In our holiday special, Episode 11, Season 2, our hosts Francesca and Nigel introduce a medley of the best snippets from Series 2. Tune in to enjoy our highlights and key takeaways.
Read more
Understanding Patent Value
Episode 10 in Season 2 features Jay Yonamine, Product Manager, GEO, Google, who shared with us his perspective on patent value, his thoughts on existing valuation methods and what the future could look like, given the possibilities and limitations of ML and AI.
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in IP
Episode 9 in Season 2 features Mike Binns and Braxton Davis, both Associate General Counsel at Meta. They shared with us their experience pioneering DEI in the workplace and the current initiatives that they are working on, including ADAPT and The NCPP.
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Investing in IP
Episode 8 in Season 2 features Julian Moore, Managing Director, Technology Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey. Julian shared with us his experience and understanding of investing in the IP analytics field, and more.
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Standard Essential Patents
Episode 7 in Season 2 of the Cipher Vision Podcast series features Lew Zaretzki, who shared with us his thoughts and experiences with SEPs, discussing what the current environment looks like, and how they can create less friction and more productive IP efficiency.
Read more
With Cipher you can…
Optimise your portfolio
Ensure you have the right portfolio to meet your strategic patenting objectives.
Gather competitor intelligence
Understand who’s doing what by automating patent to technology mapping.
Model cross licensing
Combine patent and revenue data to determine rational licensing outcomes.
Manage your budget
Justify patent budgets and communicate the impact of your investment.
Conduct due diligence
Automate manual reviews for efficient execution of M&A and licensing transactions.
Tackle inbound patent assertion
Be prepared with evidence to create a fast and effective threat assessment.
Benchmark your portfolio
Assess your portfolio in comparison to other owners through your technology lens.
Monetise your portfolio
Identify opportunities to create value through licensing or sale of patent assets.
Predict technology trends
Track new technologies and discover the unknown owners of future innovation.
Create Risk Mitigation Strategies
Understand the materiality of your threats to define your risk mitigation strategy.