As the holiday season sets in and the new year approaches, many take the time off to reflect on the year that has been and look ahead to what is in store. It’s important that you also reflect on the state of your intellectual property (IP) portfolio and establish an effective strategy for your patents, designs and trade marks for 2022.
The Chinese zodiac tells us that 2022 is the year of the tiger and one that promises a year of positive changes. The following will help you ensure 2022 is the year of positive changes for your IP portfolio.
Reassess your key commercial areas and take note of competitors
Ensuring you are focused on the right markets while keeping one eye on the competition is a recipe for success.
Take a few moments to consider the following: Does your current IP protect you in your most important markets? Are you looking to expand into new markets? Perhaps the markets you currently cater to have changed? What markets are your primary and emerging competitors focusing on and what IP do they have?
Being up to date on the intellectual property portfolios of your competitors will help you stay current but can also help you manage and avoid infringement risks. We can help you seek out your competitors IP and make sure you know as soon as they make a move on something new.
IP Health Check
It is crucial that you check in regularly with your patent and trade mark attorney whenever you make changes to the inventory in your IP portfolio as this may give rise to an opportunity to extend and expand your portfolio to new regions and across new markets, as well as ensuring your competition can’t capitalise on your hard work and ingenuity.
It is important to ensure your IP protects the products you are currently selling.
IP protection and portfolio management is an ongoing process. You should regularly take stock of your recent research and development efforts to consider whether you have developed an improvement to your best-selling product or tweaked your logo as this may present an opportunity to file a new patent, trade mark or design.
It is also important to assess whether the patents, trade marks and designs in your portfolio are still relevant and worth keeping. There are fees payable to keep IP maintained so if a particular piece of IP is no longer valuable to you, it might be time to let it go.
Keeping a well-managed IP portfolio is integral to the success of your business. Taking a few minutes to review your portfolio and get it in the best shape possible will ensure you are set for success in 2022 and beyond. Contact us at MBIP for assistance with your IP portfolio today.