31 Aug, 2023 • 3 min read
How To Manage Your IP Portfolio With Strategic Analytics
Managing your intellectual property (IP) is vital to maintaining a competitive advantage, especially in today’s knowledge-based economy.
Indeed, research shows that the economy of intangible goods is thriving. In Canada, 17.5% of all businesses own at least one type of intellectual property, and IP-intensive industries support more than 30% of all employment in the U.S.1 On the other side of the globe, EU-based firms that own IP rights have an average of 20% higher revenue per employee than firms that do not.2
Whether you run a large-scale enterprise or a small company, protecting your intellectual property and maximizing its ROI is essential. To do so, you need a strong IP portfolio that will protect and advance your overall investment. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of linking your IP strategy to your business objectives and how IP portfolio management can help.
Why Invest in IP Portfolio Management?
IP portfolio management is an ongoing process that starts as early as the planning and R&D stage and includes all aspects related to IP assets, such as intellectual rights implementation and preservation. Patent analytics combine data analysis with evidence-based information to help you take full advantage of your intellectual property and leverage your IP management portfolio strategy.
With IP portfolio management solutions, you can detect and analyze millions of filings and references, helping you protect your IP rights more efficiently. Moreover, dedicated software allows you to run competitive analyses and generate data-based foresight of emerging technologies.
By managing your IP portfolio based on strategic analytics, you can make solid decisions on research and development, innovation policies, IP licensing, research collaborations, and more.
How To Conduct a Strategic Analysis of Your IP Portfolio
As in all business projects, strategic analysis is fundamental in any intellectual property undertaking. Comprehensive IP portfolio analytics are a critical part of the process that helps your R&D team identify trends and evaluate performance – all resulting in informed investment decisions.
Here are some standard practices to follow when conducting a strategic IP portfolio analysis:
Identify Meaningful Data Sources
Identify the data sources relevant to your present and prospective IP assets, such as patents, registered designs, trademarks, copyrights, and know-how.
Evaluate the IP Landscape
Once you’ve found relevant data sources, you can evaluate the overall patent landscape. This will provide you with an in-depth overview of current activity and emerging technologies. You can then identify areas to align your intellectual property strategy and innovate to outrank your competitors.
Gather Information
Search dedicated databases, like Google Patents or USPTO records, to get an overview of existing patents and patent applications relevant to your niche. Other platforms give you access to different types of IP-related data, such as tracking changes in market dynamics through the years.
You can also examine the intellectual property portfolios of your competitors and get insights into what other industry businesses are doing. Performing a competitive SWOT analysis leads to enlightened business decisions, saving time and money.
Detect Emerging Technologies
By conducting a thorough investigation of patent applications, you can get a clear understanding of what other industry organizations are working on and detect emerging technologies. This is an important stage in your patent portfolio management process that takes you a step ahead and helps you find suitable merger and acquisition opportunities.
Overall, getting a clear overview of where the technology sector is heading gives you a leading advantage and increased ROI.
Identify Market Opportunities
When faced with capital-spending decisions and IP assets, you must identify market opportunities that will benefit your organization without rolling the dice. AI-driven data solutions – such as the ones we use at Ontologics – can provide detailed analytics on technology innovation audits, intellectual property value ratings, and more.
By accessing this type of strategic analytics, you can discover white spaces in the market and identify areas where you can have a strong IP position.
Plan Your IP Portfolio Protection
Safeguarding and maintaining your IP rights includes a set of processes, like renewals, recording of changes, and reinforcements. Simply put, IP portfolio protection creates a barrier that keeps competitors out of your IP field of activity. Plus, securing intellectual property rights can shield your business if you decide to aggressively expand your activities through licensing opportunities.
During the R&D stage, identifying innovative IP and securing IP rights for your target markets are critical for preventing third-party infringement. Protecting your IP rights is an ongoing process of maintaining IP registrations and taking action against infringers.
Enhance Your IP Portfolio Management With Ontologics Data
IP analytics, such as patent analytics, are essential to creating a winning IP portfolio management strategy, where guesswork is replaced by data, and the desired outcome is not jeopardized.
Ontologics Data can help you gain comprehensive insights and intelligent scoring reports, including technology innovation level and intellectual property value scores, to streamline your operations. Our platform also offers access to meaningful IP analytics that help you establish a solid foundation for critical business decisions. Contact us today to get started!
FAQ
Our experts answer the most commonly asked questions about IP portfolios below.
What Is an IP Portfolio?
An intellectual property portfolio is the collection of an entity’s IP rights, usually including registered and unregistered IP rights like patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial processes, etc.
What Is IP Portfolio Analysis?
IP portfolio analysis involves analyzing an entity’s IP assets to get meaningful insights and, as a result, make informed decisions on how to best protect and manage them.
What Are the Benefits of IP Portfolio Management?
With IP portfolio management, an organization can coordinate its IP assets, such as patent filings, with its commercialization strategy to get maximum value from its IP portfolio.
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