Posts Tagged: "portfolio management"

There is no question that artificial intelligence (AI) has led to a monumental shift in intellectual property law and strategy. Most companies and attorneys are familiar with the current unsettled legal landscape as it relates to inventorship laws for intellectual property—namely, that inventions and works that are created through AI may or may not be eligible for patent or copyright protection, depending on the circumstances. But quietly in the background, AI has already been changing—and continues to change—how IP portfolios are created and managed. Below are five key ways that AI is changing how companies handle their IP portfolios. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic shift in how IP professionals manage their patent and trademark portfolios. Fortunately, many IP law firms and corporate IP departments have survived and managed well in this new environment. They are even showing great optimism as the industry trends toward greater consolidation and tighter global integration. Nonetheless, major concerns remain, challenging both IP owners and their advisers to find more effective ways to solve their portfolio management challenges while focusing on the long-term strategic value of IP.

A patent portfolio can be one of the greatest assets that a company owns. A patent portfolio may boost a company’s valuation for a stock offering or a sale, may be licensed for recurring revenue, may be sold to raise cash, or may be enforced to seek monetary damages or to exclude competitors from the market. However, growing a patent portfolio can be expensive. For this reason, many companies hire a portfolio manager to balance the value and expense of growing and maintaining the patent portfolio. A portfolio manager may be responsible for making decisions including a total target number of patent filings, target numbers of patent filings for different technology areas of the company, patent firms to use for filing and prosecuting patent applications, or how to manage costs per issued patent. The portfolio manager can improve the decision-making process by using data-driven decision making. This article shows some examples of data-driven decision making.