We approach patent portfolio management in the same manner that an expert money manager would administer an investment portfolio. We have a keen eye for opportunities to create and maintain the volume, scale, diversity, and balance of your portfolio.
Patent Portfolio Management
Patent Optimization
Patent Optimization
Each of your patents should correlate to a certain invention. Does your portfolio correlate to your business needs? Are you realizing the full benefit of modern tools to manage your portfolio?
Business Strategy Compliance
Business Strategy Compliance
What are your goals? When do you plan to achieve them? What are you going to do to reach those goals? How much will it cost you? Or, putting it straight – what is your business strategy?
IP Strategy Development
IP Strategy Development
Depending on your business goal, your IP portfolio could be expanded, amended or reduced. How to turn your IP profit center, how to effectively manage it – IP Strategy addresses all those questions
IP Strategy Implementation
IP Strategy Implementation
How do you steer R&D to not step on someone’s IP toes? Where to file, what to file and how to file, how to prosecute and how to commercialize – all these should be addressed by implementing coherent IP strategy.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
It pays to treat your patent portfolio with the same level of attention as you treat your investment portfolio. The standard rules of investing apply equally to patent portfolio management – asset allocation, scale, diversification, buy, hold or sell. When it comes to patent management, if your patent portfolio is to be successful and effective, it needs to be expertly managed. Outsourcing this function will allow you to keep your team dedicated to your business goals instead of patent formalities.
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About Your Patent Portfolio Management
The true benefit of your patents is in the collective value of your portfolio as a whole and not in the individual patents themselves. Your patent portfolio has the potential to spread your risks among many patents and decrease dependency on any individual patent. This decreases reliance on individual claim scope and validity.
Holding multiple key patents in one technology gives you a controlling interest in that market. Furthermore, you can also influence markets that rely on that technology. A well-managed patent portfolio can be a powerful tool to enable market power and innovative technological development, all while minimizing risk.
What is the optimal size of a company’s patent portfolio? Does your business require multiple narrow patents? Should it include a few broad ones? In how many jurisdictions? The answers to these questions will be different for each company. Our approach to patent portfolio management incorporates an organized strategy that considers risk allocation and reduction, and close scrutiny as to which innovations to file patents on. These decisions are driven by your business strategy, innovation harvesting and IP strategy among other things. We encourage you to visit our blog to learn more about the importance of using patent portfolio management.
Scale Appropriately
A well-scaled patent portfolio will create category leadership and drive profitability for your organization. Your scale is your effective total filing in a given subject matter. This includes issued patents and applications in all jurisdictions. The scale of your patent portfolio enables market and category leadership. Category leadership has a significant impact on profitability. The ability to exclude your competitors with multiple related patents provides broad protection of the subject matter. This is an added benefit that extends beyond straight profitability.
Thanks to our patent management services, we have helped many clients create a strong and properly scaled patent portfolio which served as a defensive weapon against litigation. A properly scaled patent portfolio can also be used as an offensive weapon. It becomes a barrier to entry discouraging your competitors from entering the field.
When you command category leadership from a scaled portfolio you can shape industry choices and standardization decisions. Your portfolio’s scale represents broad protection of a subject matter which in turn will increase you bargaining power in licensing and monetization of the patent portfolio.
Cut Risk With Diversification
We look for ways to help you diversify. It is a form of risk hedging. This involves obtaining patents in different areas.
Similar to market-based assets, the value of your patents, sub-portfolios or categories will fluctuate in value due to shifts in consumer demand and competitive innovations. Since each category is likely to react differently to a market shift, your portfolio as a whole is more risk-averse than one whose value increases or decreases based on a single event.
Diversity is important but it must not replace scale. Scale creates category leadership while diversity reduces risk. Over-diversification can reduce the benefits of scale so it is important to make these decisions carefully. As part of our patent management service, we work closely with your executives and senior management to provide input to shape your diversification strategy.
Achieve Balance
A properly balanced portfolio is the result of ongoing determination of which patents to discard, which patents to maintain or renew, and which to pursue.
Our patent management services help you to systematically review and rebalance your patent portfolio. It should be adjusted in accordance with your company’s current needs and the life span of a given technology or patent. You may decide to not renew some patents and pursue others.
The decisions will be driven by an analysis of your competitive position across industries, segments and/or categories to identify areas of strength and market leadership versus areas where you may be weaker. We’ll help you to identify where you have true industry leadership potential and functional scale.
The 4-Step “ASAP” Approach
Assess The Portfolio
We identify the patents, technologies and categories, and the combinations of these that will provide the most scale in terms of additional value and ROI.
Segment The Portfolio
We identify sub-portfolios, sub-segments or sub-categories that have sound fundamentals with best claims scope and potential competitive use.
A Targeted Growth Plan
We assist in the definition of initiatives to develop and support growth to the sub-portfolios then rationalize those with limited value.
Portfolio Balancing
Assess how to best scale and diversify in order to optimize your portfolio.
Get the Right Balance and Reduce Resources
Reduce clutter. If a patent is determined to be a waste of resources to renew, (especially if it is approaching the end of the product lifecycle), it should be abandoned. This is particularly true if the benefits of new patents exceed the benefits of your older ones. If a patent is protecting a product in the early or middle stage of its lifecycle, maintaining it and paying renewal fees is in the best interest of the portfolio.
Changing technologies in the early stage of a product lifecycle may require new and similar patents for adequate protection. You will also need to update continuing applications and continuation-in-part applications with new matters and disclosures commensurate with market changes.
Good timing is essential for effective patent portfolio management and balancing. Entering a field late will significantly devalue the patent, and the consequent narrowing of claims, while early entry may result in an overload for your company. We will help you decide if it’s time to get out. You don’t want to waste resources on patents in crowded fields with limited value when you could capture new innovations.
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