IP Benchmarking: How Well Do You Know Your IP Portfolio?

IP benchmarking gives you a detailed understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, competitive positioning, and risks related to your patent portfolio. It can help you identify areas vulnerable to competition as well as competitive advantage. IP benchmarking should be conducted periodically (e.g. annually) to guarantee that the IP strategy is in line with the business strategy. Subject matter experts, senior management, and IP professionals should participate in this exercise.

The figure given below demonstrates the process for IP benchmarking:



Additionally, IP benchmarking activities can be categorized into 2 types: externally focused benchmarking and internally focused benchmarking. 

1.      Internally focused IP benchmarking

This kind of benchmarking assesses the level of protection given by your IP portfolio. Map your patents against your current technologies and products to ascertain if their unique characteristics are adequately protected. For example, you must protect the main inventive step for any unique technology. Ideally, derivative technologies that are associated with it should also be protected. This helps ascertain if there is a strong IP fence for the inventions. You may find that certain patents aren’t related to your current focus areas or products, because of M & A or technology acquisition. Hence, you must ask subject matter experts to review these non-core patents before you choose to sell/license or abandon them. By doing so, you will be able to maintain a high-quality portfolio and reduce maintenance costs.

To know more about how you can evaluate the competitive standing of your company, read the full article on - IP Benchmarking: How Well Do You Know Your IP Portfolio?

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