Verispire's IP Audit service involves in depth analysis of client's IP assets and subsequent strategic planning.
A Patent portfolio audit is a systematic review of company’s patents by analysing and validating the patents. Patent portfolio audit starts with checking a variety of information associated with the patents such as ownership, filing dates, due date for annuities, patent family information, etc. As an example, there is a continual obligation for an applicant of a patent to disclose all the relevant prior art known to him, which includes disclosing all the patents cited across all the family members of the patent across the world, failing which, the patent may be revoked after grant. Patent portfolio audit unearths all such instances, which might prove detrimental to the patent eventually.
However, a good Patent portfolio audit rarely stops at ensuring the health and wellness of the patents. In the recent times, the companies have started to go way beyond the simple tasks such as validation of dates of the patents and identifying the ownership of the Patents. Patent portfolio audit, nowadays, is performed to answer a variety of questions – such as, Which assets provide core strength to a company’s business? Which assets are of no value, maybe due to a paradigm shift in the technology, or for other reasons?
A strategically performed Patent portfolio audit helps the company to assess the strength of the portfolio, identify risk associated with their products or services that can infringe another company’s patents, and to make informed decisions related to IP protection, development, licensing, and exploitation. Mentioned below are some of the specific needs that can trigger a Patent portfolio audit: