If you think your disclosure-to-filing IP workflow is smooth, you’re lying to yourself.
Even if you’ve got patent committees, outside counsel, invention disclosure portals, and fancy IP management tools, chances are your disclosure-to-filing workflow is full of silent killers.
You know the kind of problems that don’t scream until you realize you lost a multimillion-dollar idea or a competitor quietly slipped past you in the patent race.
Here’s the brutal part: you’ve likely already lost more than you know.
Why are we sure about it?
Because even the best companies out there are leaking value left and right.
Think about it! When companies grow, the volume of inventions increases (if they are innovation-focused.
This creates bottleneck; strained resources and delayed key decisions, leading to missed opportunities in filing patents for valuable inventions.
An IP audit uncovers pending ideas/inventions that may very well lead to commercially successful patent filings post-audit.
First, What Does an IP Audit Actually Mean?
An IP audit is basically a structured, brutal check on your company’s intellectual property assets.
What you own, what you’re developing, and where you might be leaking value.
It includes patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, design rights, basically, the whole lot.
But what most guides won’t tell you: you don’t need to audit everything at once.
You can (and should) tailor it based on purpose.
There are usually three audit types:
- General audit: routine check of your IP portfolio.
- Limited audit: focused on a product, business unit, or technology.
- Due diligence audit: prepping for transactions like acquisitions.
Your IP Audit Checklist
When you hear “IP audit framework includes…” think of four big buckets:
- Inventory: What ideas, invention disclosures, patents, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, and copyrights do you actually have? What’s their current position? Are they moving ahead in the innovation pipeline? Where is the IP filed? Are they active or expired?
- Ownership: Are they assigned correctly? Any co-ownership, license, or third-party obligations?
- Value: Which assets generate revenue? Which block competitors? Which are just sitting there costing maintenance fees?
- Risk: Are you at risk of infringement claims? Are there gaps where you should have protection but don’t?
Sample IP Audit Report: What Should It Deliver?
By the end of your audit, you should have a report (even an internal one) that covers:
- Asset inventory
- Ownership map
- Valuation summary (which assets matter)
- Risk exposure
- Process bottlenecks (especially disclosure-to-filing delays)
- Priority action list
Let’s Talk About Your Disclosure-to-Filing IP Workflow
Now, how do you conduct an IP audit specifically on your patent pipeline? Does it begin right away from disclosure or after filing?
Here’s a good starting point:
- Map your disclosure intake. How do inventors submit ideas? (If you just realized you don’t even know, that’s problem #1.)
- Check your screening process. Who decides what moves forward? Is it strategic or political?
- Review timelines. How long does it take to go from disclosure to filed patent application?
- Audit novelty checks. Are you relying solely on inventor opinion, or are you running solid prior art searches?
- Confirm outside counsel involvement. Are you overpaying or double-handling tasks?
What is Novelty in Patent?
Allow us a quick detour.
One of the most misunderstood concepts we see in patent audits is novelty.
In simple terms, novelty means the invention is new and that it hasn’t been publicly disclosed anywhere in the world before your filing date.
During an IP audit, you want to check:
- Did the inventor accidentally disclose too early (say, in a paper or conference)?
- Did you file too late because of internal delays?
- Are you wasting time on ideas that aren’t actually novel?
Related Read: PQAI: Our Prior Art Search Partner for Inventors
IP Portfolio Meaning: It’s Not Just a Fancy Word
Your IP portfolio isn’t just a list of patents and trademarks. It’s the strategic backbone of your company’s innovation.
A strong IP portfolio:
- Supports key revenue streams.
- Deters competitors.
- Enables licensing or partnerships.
- Aligns with your future product roadmap.
If your audit finds lots of deadweight (old patents that cover no products, trademarks you’re not using), it’s time to clean house.
Let’s get back to your disclosure-to-filing IP workflow.
It Starts With the Wrong Intake
Look, if you’re only capturing disclosures from your top inventors, you’re missing 70% of the room.
And the next part is you are treating all your inventors too equally.
There is a subtle difference here that we need you to focus upon.
If you treat all your staff the same, you are missing a key aspect — different inventors need different education.
Someone from the IP department or R&D might have some knowledge about the importance of invention disclosures, but not someone from Marketing or Product.
So, establishing a process and the right system right from the beginning is key.
A survey by Chien and Grennan found that only one-third of engineers submit ideas for patenting, and 51% cited being too busy as a reason for not submitting invention disclosures.
Additionally, only 16% had attended an IP training within the last 12 months, and 40% were aware of the process and tools for submitting ideas.
Real story: we spoke to an engineer at a top-tier MedTech company who told us, “Why bother? It takes me three hours to fill out that monster form, and I’ve never heard back once.” Brutal.
You want a practical fix? Slash that form in half. Better, digitize the entire process. Cut the legalese. Add a quick feedback loop. Show inventors they aren’t tossing ideas into a black hole.
Start by asking yourself:
- Are you capturing enough disclosures? Or only hearing from the same five “usual inventors”?
- Is your disclosure process simple? Or does it feel like filling out a tax form?
- Are employees motivated to disclose? Or do they feel it goes into a black hole?
Your Inventors Are Quiet (And That’s Dangerous)
Let us tell you about Henry, a brilliant product manager we know at a major consumer tech firm.
They had three killer ideas for patentable features but never submitted a disclosure.
Why? “It feels like extra work no one appreciates. And honestly, I’m not sure how to explain it in legal language.”
Similar to the engineer’s POV we discussed above, right?
The real issue here isn’t just about forms or portals. It’s about culture.
If inventors feel like IP is bureaucratic, they won’t engage.
You can have the best tools in the world, but if people think submitting an idea only creates headaches or piles more meetings onto their already packed week, they’ll go silent.
Action step? Stop hiding behind hierarchies.
Make the process human. Get inventors onto integrated chat to talk about their ideas, not just fill forms.
Ensure they understand that disclosure is part of innovation, not a side chore. Want something concrete? Have your legal team run quick, informal “IP office hours” once a month.
Screening? Or Screaming?
Now, let’s talk about how you sort disclosures.
Be honest. Do you have a real triage system, or is it just whoever shouts loudest in the meeting?
A huge number of companies waste time evaluating disclosures that have no commercial or patentability potential. That’s hundreds of hours burned.
A better approach?
Make your screening transparent and criteria-driven. Have a clear, simple rubric: Does this align with the company’s strategic priorities? Is there real novelty? Do we have budget to push it forward?
And an even better, concrete step: use an AI tool or even just a lightweight scoring system (think: novelty, market fit, strategic alignment) to rank disclosures fast.
To audit how you screen disclosures, review:
- Do you have clear evaluation criteria?
- Are you prioritizing ideas with real commercial or strategic value?
- Are you wasting time on low-value submissions just to be “fair”?
Do You Know Where The Bottlenecks Are
How can you solve a problem, when you don’t even know what the problem is.
It’s like running your IP process blind.
You track how many patents get filed but not where things slow down. Is it inventor submissions? Screening? Budget approvals? Outside counsel delays?
You can’t fix what you don’t measure.
Want to really audit your workflow? Map every step.
Literally draw it out on a whiteboard if you don’t have a system in place.
Who touches what, when, and why? Where are the handoffs? Where do decisions sit idle?
One of our clients did this and found something shocking: half of their delays weren’t legal at all but tied to internal business unit reviews.
By cleaning up the non-legal side, they freed up massive capacity without hiring a single extra IP lawyer.
You’re Celebrating The Wrong Metrics
Stop focusing on patent counts. Stop focusing on disclosure counts. Start focusing on value.
Ask yourself:
- Which patents actually support core revenue streams?
- Which filings deter competitors in key markets?
- Which disclosures represent future platform plays?
An IP portfolio bloated with low-impact filings isn’t a win; it’s a drag.
Here’s where it gets even trickier. Filing isn’t the finish line either.
Are you actually tracking your pending applications? IP leaders with poor visibility over office actions, deadlines, and competitor activity on their active filings are walking with huge liabilities over their head.
You can get slapped with hundreds of dollars of reinstatement bill because someone missed an office action deadline buried in an outside counsel email.
Want to avoid that nightmare? Centralize your docketing system. Set automated alerts. Give leadership dashboard access so they can track portfolio health in real time.
Ending Note
If you’re not ruthlessly auditing your disclosure-to-filing workflow, you’re not managing innovation. You’re just babysitting paperwork.
This isn’t about adding more tech or more meetings.
It’s about clarity, speed, and purpose.
If you want, we can help draft a simple internal audit guide or lead a workshop with your team to pressure-test your current system.
Just say the word, and we’ll ensure you’re not one of the companies leaving millions in untapped innovation on the floor.
And if this audit hurt, good.
‘Cause it means you’re ready to fix the leaks.
Companies we’ve worked with have gone from chaotic disclosure-to-filing messes to streamlined, AI-powered IP pipelines that boost filing rates, cut deadweight, and maximize innovation ROI.
So, don’t wait until next quarter to fix this. The ideas you lose today might be your competitor’s patents tomorrow.
