28 Aug, 2023 • 4 min read
What Is a Patent Portfolio & How To Effectively Manage One
Creating and managing your patent portfolio is a pivotal business strategy that helps you increase and improve your overall revenue. In this blog, we’ll discuss the purpose of a patent portfolio and how to develop a comprehensive portfolio management strategy that sets your business up for success.
What Is a Patent?
A patent is a legal right the government grants to an investor or assignee, which effectively gives you ownership over a product, an invention, a process, or a brand element. The patent protects the details of your service or product and can be very specific. It includes details about manufacturing, software, processes, machines, chemical compositions, improvements, and new uses.
When you hold a patent, you have exclusive rights to an invention or a process for a set amount of time. You alone have the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention or process.
Why Have a Patent Portfolio?
Having a patent portfolio is the pathway to securing exclusive and comprehensive protection over current inventions of products and services patents that you hold.
When you hold a patent, you secure your position by eliminating copycat products that can compete with yours. You’re in control and can issue related licensing options as it suits your business needs – which, in turn, can be a strong business opportunity.
A collection of individual patents is a patent portfolio. Your business goals should guide your patent portfolio strategy to elevate your overall performance and long-term trajectory.
What is a Portfolio Strategy?
A patent portfolio strategy is your planned and focused approach to managing your patents and intellectual property (IP) assets. It is about making strategic decisions on what patents to acquire and maintain, how to use your patents, and how to align these decisions to support your business strategy. Global patent filings are on the rise, with 278,000 filed in 2022 – the highest number recorded to date.1 Having a foundational patent portfolio strategy is key to building a broad portfolio primed for business success. It can help you protect your IP, establish leadership in a competitive market, and maximize the value of your patent assets. The most comprehensive approach to your patent portfolio will involve legal professionals, patent experts, and your business stakeholders.
How To Manage Your Patent Portfolio
You’ll need to develop an extensive portfolio management strategy before you collect intellectual property rights, such as patents. In this section, we’ll explore portfolio management and the steps you’ll want to pay attention to.
Identifying Potential Inventions for Patent
At the forefront of portfolio management is having an eye for the inventions you should patent. Not everything warrants a patent, and not everything is eligible. When filing a patent, ask yourself these questions:
- Is the invention important to your future products and services?
- Is the invention new and has not been publicly disclosed? If the invention is known to the public, has been described in a publication, or has already been filed as a patent application, it most likely will not be approved.
- Does this fit within the budget strategy?
- Can you identify and prove if a competitor copied the invention?
Filing a Patent
When it’s time to file a patent, you proceed to the appropriate government intellectual property office. For example, here are the offices you’d visit in the following countries:
- Canada Intellectual Property Office in Canada
- United States Patent and Trademark Office in the USA
- Intellectual Property Office in the UK
A search report through the patent office will identify prior documentation that may be relevant to the patentability of your invention. Information about patents and patent applications will differ based on the country you’re applying in and can be found through the governing patent office.
Deciding Which Country to File In
Patents are geographically bound, so you should file a patent for each country you are interested in. Keep in mind that there’s a timeframe to apply for patents after the initial patent. Typically the deadline is up to one year after you’ve filed the first patent. You can base what countries you should file a patent in on the following:
- Is the invention important to your business?
- Where will your products and services related to your business be sold?
- In what countries are your competitors likely to manufacture and sell products?
- What legal support is available in the countries you’re considering?
- What is the cost of filing and maintaining additional patents?
Protecting Your Patent
Throughout your patenting strategy, your patent applications are converted into granted patents in a process called patent prosecution. Patent prosecution involves a negotiation exercise conducted at the patent office, which is when amendments to the application are made. This is also your opportunity to present arguments supporting the invention in favor of the office granting a patent.
If you’ve filed for patents in additional countries, you can coordinate the prosecution process. Coordinating patent prosecution provides consistent protection of your patent across the countries of interest.
Optimizing Your Patent Portfolio
Patent portfolio optimization is sometimes referred to as patent pruning and involves determining which patents in your portfolio to maintain and which to eliminate. Optimization helps you analyze your patent portfolios and identify, optimize, and categorize your patents.
Optimizing your portfolio allows you to watch for potential opportunities to expand your product and its protection. Patents should align with your current business growth strategy and play a key role in moving your business forward. Rather than acquiring a single patent, a broad patent portfolio aligned with your business objectives helps you grow strategically.
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