Business Tips for IP Portfolio Management

Intellectual Property is one of the most valuable assets of a company or organization. It covers company names, domains, symbols, drawings, logos, images, designs, ideas, or anything that distinguishes your business from your competitors. You can use IP to build start-ups, diversify products, license/sell to other businesses, and even as collateral to secure corporate loans.
To get full benefits of your innovative ideas and concepts, you need to patent them. If you don’t go for patenting, anyone can use your valuable IP assets without your permission. The patent application process and validity can vary from one country to another. In the United States, it takes two to three years for an IP asset to be granted by the USPTO, and it is valid for 20 years. However, you can renew your patent if you want.
Intellectual property means creations by one’s mind. It can be a unique process/procedure to solve a problem, your company name, logo, artistic work, etc. IP protection is covered in several categories, and the most common are patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
To stay competitive in the market, you need to utilize your IP portfolio as per business objective and future trends.
Here are 6 useful tips that will surely help you manage your patent portfolio and reap the full benefits of it:
1. Determine your IP Portfolio
Determine your portfolio (patents, in-process and non-patented ideas), have in-depth understanding of markets pertaining to each, and their applications in different industries. Thus, you can identify your core patents, which meet the future market demands and customer needs, and build exclusive monetization strategies.
2. Obtain Patents
You may have ideas that are not patented yet, thus, there is the possibility of IP infringement. So, file patent applications to ensure complete intellectual property protection.
3. Do Complete IP search (Prior Art, Market Analysis, Investor Study)
Patents are granted to the inventions that are unique and useful. Thus, before filing IP applications, you need to check patentability. But, along with getting information about patented technologies, you should also consider market analysis and investor study. This will help you obtain patents with marketable claims, and know potential investment options and IP monetization opportunities.
4. IP Licensing and Start-Up Business Plans
In your portfolio, there may be patents, which don’t align with your current product lines and future business strategies. However, you can license these assets to other companies and drive your revenue stream. Another option is to design start-up business plans.
5. Do Competitor Analysis
Competitors are the core barriers to growth, and if you want to emerge as a leading player, you need to provide better products and services than them. So, track their business activities, and get detailed information about their latest and upcoming product launches. Also, try to know the technologies they are working on, and if they partially/completely match with your patented technologies. Thus, you can invent advanced technologies, and provide better services to the customers.
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