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Portfolio managers have different strategies for managing their patent portfolios. At a high level, most strategies pivot on a balance of quantity versus quality to achieve the desired business outcomes. These outcomes include: improving your brand; freedom to operate; providing a healthy return on patent investment; minimizing exposure to attack; and keeping costs and risk reasonable. It is interesting that portfolio quantity makes good headlines, as it is easy to count patents, however, portfolio quality rarely does, as quality is subjective—perhaps this is why many companies focus on quantity. In order to address both quantity and quality, IP teams undertake a range of activities, which can be done simultaneously.
What Have You Got?—Portfolio Assessment
There is an ongoing need to understand what you have in your portfolio—it changes constantly. New patents are granted, some expire, some are acquired, sold or abandoned. In negotiation, some are successfully licensed, and some are weakened with prior art. Alignment shifts between your portfolio and the success of your products; new technologies arrive on the market, consumers follow trends, and competitors change. Also, the knowledge and perception of your portfolio within your IP team evolve as team members come and go.
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