By: Katherine (Katie) McGuire, Esq., Registered Patent Attorney; Partner, Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP; Chair, Intellectual Property Practice Group In the past few decades, the Information Age has evolved to the point that Wall Street puts a laser-like focus on intangible assets when evaluating technology-based companies. To remain competitive, you have to protect your intangible assets—specifically, your intellectual capital. One way ... Read More
InnovationQ Tips: Viewing and Interpreting the Competitive Landscape
When conducting searches in the patent space, one way to use the data gathered is for competitive intelligence. By discovering the competitive landscape, you can better answer questions such as:
- Who are the major players in the field?
- What areas should I consider investing in?
- Should I acquire a license?
- Are my patents in certain technology spaces more likely to be infringed?
8 Inventions That Were Patented on April 26th
In honor of World Intellectual Property Day, we wanted to share eight interesting inventions that were patented on April 26th.
1. 1892 – Sara Boone patented an ironing board. [1]
2. 1901 – Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company patented improvements ... Read More
Why Consider IP.com’s Prior Art Search Team?
Here's a short graphic on just three reasons why we think our Prior Art Search Team stands out:
... Read More
Two Patent Search Brains Are Better Than One
Two Patent Search Brains Are Better Than One: The benefits of combining semantic and Boolean engines By: Nasreen Bakht Brady, Client Engagement Director at IP.com If you’re like a lot of patent professionals, you’ve lost more than a few hours of sleep worrying about missing an important piece of prior art. Because one critical miss can cost your company billions of dollars. And the risk is real whe ... Read More
InnovationQ Tips: Setting Litigation Alerts on a Technology Space
Statute tells us what is patentable subject matter, but as technology and the world evolve, so must the law. Patent litigation has had a great effect on what is deemed patentable subject matter. Surely when patent cases occur in your technology space, it is of huge interest, as it may shape how and what you can patent. Think back to 2007, when CLS Bank International and CLS Services Ltd (CLS Bank) filed suite against Alice Corporation for a decla ... Read More
InnovationQ Tips: Selected Results vs. Results Button
When conducting intellectual property research, users often need to generate exports or reports for deeper analysis and collaboration with others. The exports and reports found in IP.com’s semantic search tool, InnovationQ, have always been a customer favorite with the ability to download a wide variety of file types and prepackaged templates. Recent releases have addressed requests from users for additional customization of the Microsoft Ex ... Read More
Do You Need a Patent Review Committee?
At many organizations, this collaboration is done informally, but creating a more formal review committee can enhance the IP portfolio management process. At its core, a patent review committee can get different parts of the company talking to each other and thinking about the role that intellectual property and continuous innovation plays in the health and growth of the business. Review committees are typically comprised of representatives f ... Read More
Assessing the Quality of Patents: 3 Key Metrics
An important element of patent portfolio management involves assessing the value of issued patents. After all, if you don’t have some idea about what a patent is worth in the context of your business or industry, it’s hard to make strategic investment decisions about your intellectual property. Patent valuation is determined by three critical drivers: legal strength, technology strength, and commercial value. Legal strength:Read More
Freedom to Operate: Protecting IP Assets Against Patent Infringement
No one wants to end up on the wrong end of a patent infringement lawsuit. Even if you prevail, defending infringement claims can drain your business of important resources. That’s why a Freedom-To-Operate (FTO) search is a critical step before bringing new products or features to market. FTO search, also known as a right to use search, clearance search, or patent infringement risk assessment, is a due-diligence process to uncover any in-forc ... Read More
Patentability Search: Why You Need to Look Beyond Major Patent Offices
Is your invention unique enough to warrant a patent? Searching databases from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and other government organizations may not be enough to determine the novelty of your product, process, or technology. There’s a vast amount of non-patent literature that will have an impact on your ... Read More
How to Turn Patent Search Into Business Intelligence
As intellectual property (IP) assets become an increasingly important driver of competitive advantage, companies are looking for better ways to mine their IP for business intelligence. Patent landscaping is an effective way to analyze patent portfolios and extract the types of insights that guide business strategies. Patent landscaping involves a detailed state-of-the-art search that provides a competitive view of an industry, market segment ... Read More
Patent Mapping: A Better Way to Visualize IP Opportunities and Risks
One of the more interesting trends to emerge from the big data movement is the rise in data visualization tools. The market for data visualization applications, which enable users to present and interact with large data sets in a visual way, is expected to grow from $4.1 billion to $6.4 billion over the next five years. Driving this growth is t ... Read More
5 Ways to Turn Your IP Into New Sources of Revenue
Research by intellectual capital firm Ocean Tomo shows that, on average, 80% of a company’s value comes from intangible assets, and that patented technology makes up a significant portion of this intangible value. Are you doing everything you can to turn those intangible assets into revenue opportunities? There are five primary ways to monetize as ... Read More
5 Search Methods to Improve IP Portfolio Management
Successfully managing your organization’s intellectual property requires more than just unleashing analysts and lawyers on public patent databases. Advanced patent portfolio management involves five distinct search methods, each of which contributes important insights that can help you make quicker, more informed business decisions about your intellectual property assets. 1.Patentability: Patentability search helps you discover and identify ... Read More