IP Watch or Patent Watch

Purpose & Use

IP Watch/ Patent Watch

In today’s competitive landscape keeping a close eye on your competitors, or a certain technology has become imperative to gain that extra edge as well as avoid possible infringement lawsuits worth enormous amounts of money. Regardless of the industry in which an organization works, tracking the technological development or intellectual property is one of the best ways of acting upon any products or patents that could infringe upon what you are inventing, manufacturing, or selling. IP watch (Intellectual property watch) often termed as competitor watch, patent watch, or patent monitoring, encapsulates keeping track of the latest technologies, products, or Intellectual Property (in the form of patents, trademarks, or copyrights) protected by a competitor over time. Not only does it make you aware of the latest technological developments but also shows the most recently claimed inventions.

A patent watch is a tool to analyze old technology as well as the latest. Additions and changes to existing patent families, the legal status of the patents, pending applications, and expired patents are some relevant parts of the information an IP watch can give you. The frequency of reporting varies as per the technology of interest. For instance, an IP watch/ patent watch in the field of cameras for mobile phones will require consistent monitoring which can also vary with the geography in which a company operates as well as the core competencies of the company, on the other hand, an IP watch for treating wood products by the use of a certain chemical might require a relatively longer frequency of monitoring. A Drug patent monitoring for example can help plan R&D strategies and risks because of dynamic and evolving nature.

Our Technology Software – PatView is world renowned BI Dashboard for tracking and keeping technology watch.

Why do I need an IP watch/patent watch?

An IP watch/Patent watch gives you a bird’s eye view of the competitor’s IP activity or product portfolio development. Besides, monitoring of technology can be done for various reasons:

  • – Drive Research & Development activities through awareness of technological developments.
  • – Latest information on relevant acquisitions. This also helps in making licensing decisions.
  • – Transfer of technology through IP.
  • – Have a fair idea of the latest Intellectual property landscape.
  • – Knowing updated Patent Litigations and legal status of relevant records.
  • – Examination, re-analysis of patents to check validity or invalidity is made easier with patent monitoring.
  • – Exclusive monitoring of just-issued patents and published patent applications that have not yet been granted. This allows you to take timely action if the patent to be granted can harm your business.
  • – Make product modifications if a product/technology that you may be infringing turns up in an IP watch.
  • – Surveillance of competitors’ technology and IP allows you to safely produce and continue manufacturing depending on the legal status, whether the IP is active, abandoned, or expired.

Reporting & Deliverables

Signicent – Technology, IP & Market Research provides IP watch/Patent watch services with many types of watch included depending on client requirements and budgeting. Competitor watch, technical/utility patent watch, trademark watch, design patent watch, infringement watch are some types of Watch included in our searches varying on a case-to-case basis.

Comprehensive Searching

The IP watch/patent watch process at Signicent includes running searches at a set frequency in paid patent databases. This can include restricting the search to a particular competitor (competitor watch), particular technology (technology watch), particular patents to track legal proceedings and legal status (legal watch), and particular market (market watch). The results are presented in a well documented professional report from where one can get insights about both, present and previous updates. If required, the IP watch can be extended to non patent literature as well.

Flexible reporting

Reporting of searches can be done on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly basis or at a frequency of your interest. If the technology is a fast-evolving bi-weekly or monthly IP watch report may be more useful however if the technology is niche and developing slowly, quarterly or half-yearly reports may hold more meaning.

Get in touch with us today to augment your technology. Also see other services provided by Signicent that may be helpful to you Patent Landscape, Competitive Intelligence, Patent Valuation, Market Research, and many more.