• start ups or companies in a growth phase
• does not need or does not have the budget to hire a full time IP counsel 
• need to train employee on how to manage its IP or patents internally
• need help with setting up an innovation management system and/or portfolio management system

• on call advice on IP strategy or general IP advice
• budgeting certainty and lower hourly fee
• Good understanding of your registered IP assets, their inter-relationships and how they can be managed strategically for growth
• harvests your innovation within the company
• maintain a sustained competitive advantage over competitors
• Focused innovation initiatives across the company that are aligned with business strategy
• Improved IP education and awareness amongst employees
• promote collaborative engagement among employees to develop higher quality patents
• Cost effective management of IP budgeting and spending

AN IP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FRAMEWORK

• enable employees to easily submit ideas to grow the promising innovations
• harvest innovation from all areas of the organization, not just from R&D department
• align innovation initiatives to business strategy or long term key product lines
• consolidate and identify IP assets by considering alternative forms of IP protection for non-patented inventions
• measure progress, setting innovation targets for the technology areas of greatest importance
• improve quality of patents in the medium to long term

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Portfolio management becomes an important function in the IP strategy of the company as innovations, disclosures, patents, trade secrets, and other assets are added to the IP portfolio over time.

IP portfolios become more valuable as they grow but also becomes more complex and expensive to maintain. Companies can spend a lot of money maintaining patents they do not use or they underestimate the defensive value of their patents and fail to protect the market.

How a good portfolio management system will benefit you 

• provide better understanding of the inventory of IP assets
• match IP assets with company's business strategy and product or market mix 
• identify gaps in the portfolio, for example, whether it has enough IP in key technology areas
• help you effectively manage and control costs through cost reduction strategies
• mitigate risk from infringement of third party IP

VALUE CAPTURE

This process is a natural step following the preceding step of determining relevance of the IP assets. The following lists some of the most common ways that companies capture value from their IP assets: 

• Productize the patent : Use the patent to protect new features
• Monetize the patent : Obtain revenue directly from the use of the patent in a license or other value-generating use
• Litigate the patent : Use the patent defensively as a deterrent to companies seeking to litigate or use the patent offensively in litigation
• Positioning : Use the patent for competitive blocking to create barriers to entry

HOW CAN AURIGA IP HELP ME?

We will work with you closely to understand your business and help you identify your business' critical IP and intellectual assets. Depending on the nature of your business and your requirements, we will help you develop a robust innovation management system and portfolio management system in stages. Using a proprietary 9 step methodology, we can help you implement an innovation management system and a portfolio management system that will create and extract value from your IP assets.  

This service does not include the following:

• prior art/novelty/trademark searches
• patent drafting, filing and prosecution  
• registered design filing and prosecution
• trademark filing and prosecution
• drafting or reviewing of agreements
• infringement opinions, freedom to operate or clearance searches