Technology Partnership Analysis

TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIP ANALYSIS

When a company wants to update its product range or begin in-house development of new or existing products, it can benefit from having clear answers to the following questions:

These questions can be answered with a technology partnership analysis otherwise known as a comparative technology search.

Technology Partnership Analysis - Example

A Technology Partnership Analysis was performed for a client with manufacturing infrastructure for garden-care products. This client noticed that an emerging customer preference was to use safer “soft” chemicals for pest treatment and deterrence, even though the soft chemicals were less effective than mainstream agrochemicals.

Technology Outcomes conducted a comprehensive search of organic/soft chemicals that have been registered for use by the EPA in the USA, and the following useful information was obtained:

• 110 “soft chemical” agents for potential garden use were identified. Focussing this search on active agents approved by the US EPA meant that manufacturing and regulatory risks were minimised.

• A subset of the above soft-chemical agents was found to have potential synergy with the client’s existing products. An important opportunity would be to use such synergistic action to reduce the concentration of active agent in key garden products.

• A further subset of soft-chemical agents that were available for licensing in Australia was obtained (based on the absence of exclusive licensing arrangements with multinationals).

• A list of patents with teachings about the above soft-chemical agents was provided.

• More than half of these patents were taken out in USA but not in Australia, so that the client could consider using this information for its own product development activities.