Patent Continuation Strategy: Filing Continuation Applications to enhance the Value of a Portfolio
Technologies, nowadays, are so dynamic they often overlap multiple fields and application areas. For instance, virtual reality, a branch of computer technology has applications in healthcare, military, entertainment, and other major industries. However, the patent claims filed in the nascent stage of that technology remain the same, and it is often observed that because of those […]
Tracking Patent Citations – A Strategy to strengthen your Portfolio and market position
We all know that studying patent citations can reveal a lot of insights – Be it understanding the strength and potential of a patent, or figuring out the strategies being followed by companies. But that is not it. Studying patent citation data can also reveal some sophisticated insights that can help an organization expand its […]
How Technology Scouting Could Help Enhance Your Patent Portfolio?
Have you ever wondered how Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft emerged as market leaders, despite having thousands of competitors in the technology domain? The popular notion of their success is believed to be continuous progressive and disruptive innovation. Though true to an extent, it should be noted that innovation merely can’t contribute to the success of […]
How to Check The Essentiality Of Standard Essential Patents?
Did you know that licensees pay huge licensing fees for Standard Essential Patents (SEP)? Unfortunately, not all those patents qualify for the criteria of being a SEP. Hence, in many licensing deals, a licensee can end up paying millions for false SEPs. How does that happen and how can it be avoided? The answer to […]
4 Reasons Why You Should Build A High-Quality Patent Portfolio
NuCurrent Inc., a Chicago-based wireless charging equipment manufacturer earns millions in patent licensing every year, its licensees including the likes of Apple and Motorola. Did I mention they merely have 29 granted patents in their portfolio? That’s the power of a strong patent portfolio. NuCurrent is not alone. There are multiple companies that make millions […]
Patent Pruning: How to increase the value of your patent portfolio?
A couple of decades ago, patent portfolios were considered one of an organization’s most indispensable assets. It was when quality was given more importance, and filing patents was not a mere numbers game. The blind filing was extremely low, and granted patents were normally considered valuable, both in terms of quality and face value. But […]
Patent Prosecution: 5 ways to cut the cost to file a patent
hbspt.cta.load(1791848, ‘5a9b267c-02a7-4033-a894-fa9187d5e4d6’, {}); “It is great to be the owner of hundreds of patents, but it is not a simple task to obtain and maintain these patents.” – Legal Counsel at an Inc. 5000 Company The cost to file patents is an expensive task. Especially when you have filed patents for a variety of products […]
How to get more with a smaller IP budget?
Corporate leadership is squeezing IP budgets across the country. This impacts both staffing and overall IP creation efforts. In-house IP management is being asked to file more applications with less staff, under strict budget limitations. For example, several months ago we visited a west-coast client, a U.S. subsidiary of a large multinational electronics company. The […]
Why is it important to check the strength of your patent?
Before we move ahead to the topic – importance of checking patent strength, for the uninitiated, here is a definition of the term: What is patent strength? Patent strength, in simplest terms, gives an idea of the survivability quotient of a patent. A granted patent doesn’t always mean that it is novel or can survive […]
When does a Mathematical Formula or a Law Of Nature become patent eligible?
The gist of the verdict: Claims having a mathematical formula or an application of laws of nature are patent eligible if they improve a particular process. If you don’t know, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program under which the US and other allied nation developed a fifth generation single engine aircraft, F-35, for their Navy and […]
Patent abandonment: IBM’s grant to lapse ratio touched 50% in 2016
IBM received more than 8000 patents last year but at the same time, they also abandoned more than 4000 patents from their portfolio. For the last few years, their patent grant to lapse ratio has been increasing continuously which touched 50.6% in 2016. As we all know that IBM is the biggest patent filer across […]
How Technology Life Cycle helps in Patent Portfolio Maintenance?
Imagine the world where you’d be clicking pictures on your Kodak DSLR and uploading them on Instagram with hashtag #KodakMoment while checking comments on the post on your revolutionary Blackberry. The foldable Nokia Smartphone that you wore on your wrist is still your backup phone because Nokia phones never run out of batteries. The above […]
7 Post-Alice patent cases that survived 101 rejections – Clearing some cloud of doubts on software patent eligibility
By the time the Alice decision marked its second anniversary, more than 8400 applications got abandoned while 60,000+ applications got rejected due to the decision. The district court decisions clocked around 247 – invalidating 70% of them – and Federal Circuit at 40 – invalidating 95% of the patents under 35 USC 101. “No U.S. Supreme […]
How To Get High Quality Patent Applications Under Fixed Budget?
Back in the early 1980’s, I used to watch the BBC show “Danger UXB”. For the uninitiated, Danger UXB chronicled the post-war exploits of a British bomb disposal unit called to defuse and remove unexploded aerial bombs dropped by the Germans on London during the Blitz of World War Two. Unexploded bombs are still being […]
Smart Patent Prosecution – How Patent Examiner Analytics can help save time and money?
Having a sound prosecution strategy is as exigent to the growth of a portfolio as is the necessity of a sound patent strategy for the development of a business. And like every business has its own version of patent strategy; prosecution strategies used by counsel can vary based on the situation. The question remains — Which […]
Five Indicators that Can Help IP Counsels do Better in Prosecutions
Someone not so famous once said — If something helps you get better, leverage it. The “it” varies from person to person, based on needs and priorities. One such “it” could be insights derived from the data for IP counsel. Yes, you read that right. Insights from data can help you get better at what […]
