WIPO Patent Landscape Reports is a WIPO activity which was launched in 2010 as a Development Agenda Project "Developing Tools for Facilitating Access to Patent Information", adopted by the WIPO Committee for Development and Intellectual Property. Its objective is facilitating access of developing and least developed countries to the technical, business and legal information included in patent literature. A Patent Landscape Report (PLR) provides a snapshot view of the patenting activity in a particular area of technology (e.g., in public health, food ad agriculture, climate change and energy). A PLR describes innovation trends, major players, varieties of technical solutions, the geography of protection, and the extent to which technologies are in the public domain. PLRs provide patent-based evidence to policy and decision-makers, and facilitate policy discussions and informed decisions on R&D investment, innovation policy, technology transfer, research and trade cooperation etc. Topics of patent landscape reports already completed and published include:- Desalination Technologies and the Use of Renewable Energies for Desalination;- Membrane Filtration and UV Water Treatment;- Electronic Waste Recycling Technologies; - Vaccines for Selected Diseases;- Ritonavir and Atazanavir (antiretrovirals); and- Solar Cooking and Solar Cooling.

During the planning phase, the specific needs and expected outcomes are defined in consultation with the cooperation partner(s), and respective Terms of Reference are prepared for subsequent tendering.Active participation of the partner institution in this phase is essential since WIPO usually has no technical expertise in a specific field of technologies to be covered by a PLR, and since WIPO has limited knowledge of the context (i.e., policy discussions) to which a PLR is expected to contribute. WIPO's expertise will assure that only such objectives and expected outcomes are defined that can realistically be answered by analyzing patent information. During the delivery phase, WIPO will involve the partner institution in the reviewing of patent search and analysis results, and draft reports. Upon completion of the PLR, WIPO will publish the report and prepare additional information material, like infographics or further visualizations.In the third phase, which covers dissemination, utilization and evaluation, the collaboration partners are expected to disseminate the PLR to their stakeholders and their own partner community, to utilize and evaluate the report. WIPO will provide further assistance in this phase, e.e.g, by giving presentations in user meetings, policy bodies, etc. The collaboration partners will be expected to report to WIPO on, for example how the PLR was disseminated, how useful it was for the activities of the partner, what feedback was received etc.In an optional fourth phase, the report may be updated or further analysis or visualizations may be added.

Collaborating with WIPO experts on a PLR provides an opportunity for capacity building the field of patent information and the patent system. Upon request WIPO may also provide further training in the area of patent information, technology search, and technology transfer, including licensing arrangements.

WIPO coordinates the preparation of a PLR in collaboration with a partner institution (or several) in a developing country (an SID State) that wishes to explore the patenting situation in a particular area of technology. Each collaboration consists of a planning phase, a delivery phase and post-delivery phase which covers dissemination, utilization and evaluation of the PLR. Active participation of the partner institution is expected in each phase to assure the relevance and utility of each report and its later dissemination and utilization.The delivery phase further involves collaboration with a commercial contractor to which the actual preparation of the PLR is commissioned, i.e., patent search, analysis and report drafting.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)