Understanding Citation-Based Blocking & Influence

Professionals working in IP strategy, R&D, or legal analysis increasingly need to understand not only what patents exist, but how they interact—who is influencing whom, what’s getting blocked, and where competitive pressure is forming. Patsnap now supports a set of advanced citation queries that help illuminate these dynamics by revealing where patents are blocked, referenced, or rejected - both inbound and outbound - at the company and patent level.

This article groups the new capabilities into practical use cases that can inform strategic patenting, freedom-to-operate (FTO), licensing, and competitive analysis decisions.

Expand out the sections below to see how you can use citation information!

• Query:

  B_CITES_ANC: "Company A"

  Retrieve all records company A cites.

  Insight Unlocked:
  This highlights the prior art or technologies that company A is building upon—offering a clear view into their research direction. It can also reveal potential licensing targets or inspiration sources.

  Example use case:

  A competitive intelligence professional may review this to track whether a competitor is beginning to rely heavily on a particular technology domain or another firm’s portfolio.

• Query:

  ALL_AN: "Company A" AND B_CITES_ANC: "Company B"

  Retrieve all company A patents cited by company B.

  Insight Unlocked: 
  Shows which of A’s patents are actively referenced by B. This reveals B’s awareness of A’s innovations and may indicate technology overlap, interest in licensing, or even risk of infringement.

  Example use case:

  A legal team assessing enforcement potential may use this view to identify entities whose products or filings are potentially stepping on A’s IP.

• Query:

  F_CITES_ANC: "Company A" GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all patents blocked/rejected by company A patents.

  Insight Unlocked:
  This identifies external applications that have been rejected due to company A’s filings—highlighting the defensive power or enforcement footprint of A’s portfolio.

  Example use case:

  Patent counsel might use this data to assess the effectiveness of A’s filings at deterring competition or shaping the IP landscape.

• Query:

  B_CITES_ANC: "Company A" GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all records company A cites that blocked/rejected company A’s applications.

  Insight Unlocked:
  Reveals prior art that caused rejections of A’s own applications. These records expose where A’s innovations are vulnerable or limited by external IP.

  Example use case:

  R&D teams can use this to pinpoint external technologies limiting their patentability, potentially guiding design-arounds or licensing strategies.

• Query:

  ALL_AN: "Company A" AND F_CITES_ANC: "Company B" GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all patents owned by company A that were blocked by company B’s patents.

  Insight Unlocked:
  Shows where company B is actively impeding company A’s filings. This is crucial for competitive risk analysis and infringement triage.

  Related query:

  ALL_AN: "Company A" AND B_CITES_ANC: "Company B" GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all records company B cites (owned by A) that led to rejections in B’s filings.

  Insight Unlocked:
  Demonstrates A’s power over B’s freedom to operate, strengthening A’s licensing and negotiation leverage.

  Query (blocking power):

  F_CITES: US1234567 GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all patents blocked/rejected by patent US1234567.

  Query (vulnerabilities):

  B_CITES: US1234567 GAND CITE_CATEGORY: (X OR Y OR 102 OR 103)

  Retrieve all prior art that blocked patent US1234567.

  Insight Unlocked:
  These queries allow for individual patent-level investigation—either to assess how disruptive a patent has been in prosecution (its blocking strength) or to understand how vulnerable it was to prior art.

  Example use case:

  IP litigation teams can use this to profile a key patent’s defensibility before asserting it in court.

Key Takeaways

These new citation query capabilities offer a deeper lens into the blocking influence, vulnerabilities, and citation relationships across companies and patents. They support strategic decisions in FTO, litigation, enforcement, competitive analysis, and licensing by identifying:

• What external IP is limiting your organization
• Where your portfolio is influencing or blocking others.
• How two specific entities are interacting at the IP level

Grouped and filtered use of these queries allow you to target specific risks or opportunities with greater precision than ever before.

For guidance on how to construct these queries in the Patsnap platform or to interpret results for specific use cases, please contact your Patsnap representative or explore our advanced search tutorials!