Patent information: an integral component of the deeptech ecosystem

On 2 June, the Renault Group Technocentre in Guyancourt hosted Paris-Saclay SPRING — the annual gathering of the deeptech ecosystem of the Paris-Saclay cluster. Organised by the Paris-Saclay public development authority (Établissement Public d'Aménagement Paris-Saclay), the event brings together each year startups, laboratories, major industrial groups, funders and support organisations in a dense format: startup pitches, conferences, B2B meetings and networking. With more than 1,300 participants, it is one of the major meeting points of deeptech, at both the French and European scale. The 2026 edition showcased the "SPRING 120" — one hundred and twenty key players selected across four sectors: Greentech & Food, Health-Biotech, Industry & Services and Digital Technologies — against a backdrop of a theme very much of its time: innovation, competitiveness and technological sovereignty.

Beyond the technology projects themselves, what strikes you as you go through the event catalogue is the presence — discreet but real — of the intellectual-property and patent-information professions. It is a point worth highlighting to our community: patent information is not a peripheral service to innovation, but genuinely a component of its ecosystem, on the same footing as funding, industrialisation or support. A diversity of profiles in the service of innovation.

The catalogue lists several families of actors. First, the industrial-property consultancies — Santarelli, Lavoix, IPSILON, YESMYPATENT, Groupe Vidon, IP Trust, or the Cabinet Anthony Berton — which combine legal expertise, protection strategy and support for applicants. Next, the institutional actors: the INPI, present as the reference interlocutor on industrial property; SATT Paris-Saclay and CNRS Innovation, whose mission of valorisation and technology transfer naturally places patent data at the heart of their activity. Finally, providers specialising in patent information and analysis, whose work — technology watch, state of the art, patent landscaping, freedom-to-operate analysis — often forms a bridge between research, applicants and decision-makers.

This plurality is in itself a signal. It shows that the needs for patent information take different forms and entry points within a single ecosystem, and that the profiles which address them are complementary rather than competing.

Among these profiles, that of the independent provider specialising in patent information is taking shape around actors positioned in specific technical fields. TechnoGenesis, for example, works in deeptech — photonics, quantum physics, advanced materials — with an approach to patent analysis underpinned by scientific expertise. StartingBloch, for its part, supports innovation players in the life-sciences field. Two organisations, two fields, but a shared conviction: patent information is best conceived as close as possible to the technical specificities of each sector. In optoelectronics and photonics — well represented at Saclay — this is particularly clear. Several leading actors were present: HORIBA, a specialist in scientific instrumentation and spectroscopy; the III-V Lab, a joint research laboratory dedicated to III-V semiconductor components; the Île-de-France Photovoltaic Institute (IPVF), which develops next-generation photovoltaic technologies; and 3D PLUS, a designer of miniaturised electronic components for space applications. In fields as patent-dense as these, where the boundary between the academic state of the art and industrial innovation shifts constantly, technology watch and patent analysis are not a luxury: they shape R&D choices, investment decisions and protection strategies. It is precisely at this intersection that the work of the patent-information expert lies — and the same reasoning holds for the life sciences or any other patent-intensive sector. In the end, Paris-Saclay SPRING is a reminder of something sometimes underestimated: patent information is an integral part of the deeptech innovation chain. Wherever researchers, industrialists and investors meet, patent data circulates, informs decisions and creates connections.

Meletis Mexis, TechnoGenesis English version: AI-assisted translation of the French original, reviewed by the author.