Your team has just developed a groundbreaking idea – one that could disrupt the market. But due to delayed patent filings or missing documentation, a competitor beats you to it and your innovation is no longer yours.
In 2022 alone, over 3,800 patent litigation cases were filed, with non-practicing entities (NPEs) accounting for 63% of these cases. However, cases involving Litigation Investment Entities (LIEs) reduced to 150 cases in Q1 2024 and further to a record low of 99 in Q2 2024.
However, there’s a way to protect every valuable idea – intellectual property (IP) management systems!
A robust IP management system protects your innovations and ensures your competitive edge. Read on to learn how these systems can drive innovation protection and foster growth.
How IP drives innovation
Innovation drives company growth, but without proper IP protection, you lose the opportunity to:
- Turn valuable ideas into tangible results.
- Commercialize your innovations and maximize their market potential.
- Attract investors and partners by showcasing protected, market-ready technologies.
For example, in the tech sector, patents safeguard advancements in software and hardware. Similarly, in the pharmaceutical industry, patents for life-saving drugs protect innovation and allow companies to recover R&D investments while driving progress in global healthcare.
You can achieve a similar impact by leveraging IP to turn ideas into marketable assets and drive revenue. For instance, protecting proprietary software solutions and AI-driven tools can enable you to license your technology to other businesses.
According to the Ocean Tomo 2020 report, intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, and customer data account for 90% of the S&P 500 market value.
Intangible assets are the foundation of modern business value, and they require robust systems to manage and protect them effectively.
What is an IP Management System
An Intellectual Property (IP) management system is a centralized platform to oversee and protect an organization’s IP assets. By consolidating all IP-related information, it streamlines processes, and enhances collaboration among stakeholders, ensuring timely filings.
Key functions:
- Generating Ideas: Facilitate structured ideation processes with AI tools to uncover new innovations with ease.
- Prioritizing Ideas: Rank and score ideas based on impact and feasibility. Align ideas with your goals to focus resources on the best innovations.
- Streamlining Invention Disclosures: Capture, evaluate, and manage invention disclosures efficiently.
- Launching Innovation Challenges: Organize targeted challenges to crowdsource solutions for specific problems.
- Collaborating with Legal Teams for Filings: Coordinate with inventors and legal teams to prepare and file IP applications accurately.
InspireIP’s IP Assist helps manage the early stages of IP, from idea generation and invention disclosures to early IP evaluation and prior art searches with PQAI, while streamlining collaboration with internal IP teams and external counsels.
In 2022, the global IP management software market was valued at approximately USD 8.15 billion and is projected to reach USD 33.66 billion by 2031. This reflects the need for safeguarding innovations and the demand for efficient IP management systems like InspireIP’s IP Assist.
Adopting advanced technologies like AI in IP management accelerates innovation across industries.
And the Responsible AI approach enables you to improve almost every phase in your innovation journey. How?
- By reducing the time spent on brainstorming and concept refinement
- By making idea evaluation quick yet effective
- By providing prior art search capabilities before you invest heavily in your ideas
- By enabling you to make data-driven decisions, leveraging advanced reporting
What Happens Without a Reliable IP Management System
During the pandemic, Moderna filed a patent lawsuit against Pfizer/BioNTech in 2022, accusing them of unlawfully copying foundational mRNA technology elements. These disputes delayed collaboration and stifled the potential for more efficient vaccine production during a global health crisis.
Without a reliable IP management system, organizations are exposed to risks like:
- Increased Risk of Infringement: Failing to track patent rights can lead to unintentional infringements. Without an organized system, there’s a higher risk of overlapping patents, missing competitor patents and violating existing rights.
- Difficulty in Patent Valuation: Assessing the patent value is challenging without an IP management system. Without proper tracking and insights, you cannot leverage your IP effectively to generate revenue.
- Complicated Global Patent Filings: Managing patents across multiple countries can be complex. Inconsistent systems for international filings can cause confusion, leading to inaccurate translations and failure to comply with local regulations.
In 2023, Corteva Agriscience filed a lawsuit against Inari Agriculture, accusing the startup of violating its seed patents. Inari unlawfully obtained Corteva’s patented seed samples from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a nonprofit repository for biological materials.
Corteva claimed Inari smuggled these seeds to Europe, made minor modifications to their biotech traits, and then attempted to commercialize them by applying for a U.S. patent.
Corteva sought monetary damages and a court injunction to prevent Inari from commercializing products derived from its stolen intellectual property.
This case underscores the need for robust IP management systems to protect innovation.
Solving Innovation Barriers with an IP Management System
During the COVID-19 pandemic, licensing agreements between pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and MSD and the Medicines Patent Pool allowed for the large-scale production and distribution of life-saving treatments.
However, Moderna and Pfizer faced criticism for withholding know-how critical to mRNA vaccine production, delaying the development of local manufacturing in low-income regions.
Delayed disclosures and inadequate prior art searches exacerbate such disputes, highlighting the need for tools like IP Assist to mitigate conflicts.
Here’s how an IP management system can address common innovation barriers:
Centralized Process
An effective IP management system serves as a unified platform for all IP-related activities, ensuring seamless collaboration among stakeholders.
For example, InspireIP’s IP Assist offers invention disclosure forms and direct collaboration with patent attorneys, facilitating a cohesive workflow.
Automation & Efficiency
Reduce manual tasks and minimize errors. Receive automatic notifications for deadlines and ensure thorough patent filings with PQAI.
Enhanced Collaboration
Enable direct communication between all stakeholders, making it easier to work together and quickly develop high-value patents.
Audit Trail
Maintaining a complete audit trail with timeline tracking ensures compliance and transparency. Decide which innovations to protect at every stage of the IP lifecycle.
Benefits of an IP Management System
IP management systems help manage high volumes of patent filings and reduce back-and-forth communication with law firms. Here are a few key benefits:
For Enterprises
For enterprises aiming to bring innovations to market quickly, IP management systems streamline invention disclosures and speed up the patent filing process.
GreyB, an innovation consulting firm, leveraged InspireIP’s IP assist to transform their innovation management, achieving a 70% acceleration in research time.
With InspireIP, GreyB can track implemented ideas, monitor innovation challenges, and foster team collaboration.
For Startups
Fast-growth startups can effectively build patent portfolios with an affordable and scalable IP management system, which is essential to secure funding.
48% of European biotech startups filed for patents. These startups leverage IP portfolios to attract investors and sustain high-cost, high-risk R&D. Similarly, 38% of science and engineering startups filed for trademarks and benefited from IP rights.
Studies by the European Patent Office (EPO) and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 2023 revealed that startups with patents and trademarks are 10.2 times more likely to secure early-stage funding, particularly in deep-tech and biotech sectors.
InspireIP’s Idea Assist enables startups to manage internal innovation without the immediate need to pursue patents.
Ending Note
A robust IP management system is essential to safeguard innovations and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Without such tools, you risk missed deadlines, lost ideas, costly errors, and exposure to infringement disputes.
With a centralized IP management system, you can effectively document, protect, and manage intellectual assets, maintaining a competitive edge.
Ready to secure your innovations? Explore how InspireIP’s IP Assist can help you simplify patent management and enhance collaboration. Schedule a demo today.
