Patent Mining: 3 Tips To Successfully Navigate The Crowded IP Marketplace
Do you want to make marked improvements to your company’s bottom line while also maximizing shareholder value? Patent mining, coupled with methods for extracting value from your IP portfolio, is capable of producing very positive results.
Fifteen years ago, corporate income from patent licensing in the U.S. was at $15 billion. Today, the sum of U.S.corporate income that results from patent licensing exceeds $100 billion.
An effective patent mining program involves searching for valuable opportunities for your intellectual property, such as:
- New applications of technology
- New markets for the technology
- Extensions of the technology
- Patent infringement candidates
- Hot technology or divisions for joint ventures
Portfolio assessment and patent mining is a proven process for uncovering the hidden gems within your IP portfolio. However, you need to avoid the pitfalls when attempting to successfully navigate the crowded patent mining marketplace.
The following three tips help to ensure you take the most solid path for patent mining that results in profitability:
1. Know The Processes Of Patent Mining
Patent mining may be done manually or automatically – both process have their shortcomings.
Automated tools are not a guaranteed strategy for patent mining, as there is no way to ensure that no stone is left unturned. These tools often miss applications of a technology across other industries. Manual patent mining is a very deliberate, thoughtful process, but it takes a long time, and is therefore also an expensive process.
The most beneficial patent mining process for uncovering your intellectual property gems is to partner with a firm that has a proven method of iteratively mining IP portfolios.
2. Understand That You Get What You Pay For
The CFO of your firm might find cost-containing appeal in cheap offshore patent mining services. However, offshoring your IP services comes with many issues:
Does the offshore organization follow processes to maintain confidentiality and have a sufficient amount of insurance coverage? Are they current with U.S. case law? This list of questions concerning the practices of offshore patent mining goes on and on…
The point is, with offshore patent mining, you receive no guarantee that those miners have anywhere close to decades of industry experience or comprehensive knowledge of a technological space.
3. Look For A Firm With Balanced Patent Mining Experience
It is important to ensure the firm you partner with for patent mining and portfolio assessment employs talented people with years of experience.
A great question to ask any intellectual property consulting firm is if their talent is in-house or through contractors. If the consulting firm employs an endless army of patent mining contractors, those contractors may work to a different set of standards from your own.
The potential to mine gold from your IP portfolio is great. But, you must partner with the right intellectual property consulting firm: one that approaches your portfolio assessment and patent mining with hard-won expertise.
A proven track record, along with a comprehensive approach to patent mining, ensures you are going to extract the most income for your company in the most efficient manner.
Ready to learn more about a capable intellectual property consulting firm that puts into practice the best methods for patent mining? Contact the patent mining experts at TechPats today.
