Strategic Tools for Successful Innovation Management

Amherst, NY, September 30, 2007 - IP.com today announces the release of InnovationQ version 3.0, the enterprise software solution for intellectual property and innovation management. InnovationQ solves complex document and process management problems associated with managing intellectual property assets. With InnovationQ, companies can routinely safeguard their intellectual property while deriving the maximum value from their portfolios. 

Intellectual property management is of critical importance to all businesses hoping to compete efficiently in the global economy. The most stunning IP failures occur before an idea even enters the intellectual property management arena. Every day, businesses hemorrhage innovative ideas that could lead to useful patents, defensive publications, trademarks copyrights simply because the innovative ideas never reach the decision body. In many cases, valuable trade secrets are inadvertently revealed destroying their value as intellectual property.

InnovationQ 3.0 introduces a process workflow engine which, when combined with the secure document repository and client agent, provides a comprehensive intellectual property management solution. By automating human processes and providing a secure, easy-to-use environment, InnovationQ enables organizations to become more efficient in protecting their intellectual property. This, in turn, enables them to make better decisions regarding their innovation.

"IP.com is the global leader in enabling companies to effectively manage their intellectual property," says Steven Lai, Managing Director of the Asia Pacific Intellectual Property Association in Taiwan, Republic of China. "IP.com's InnovationQ 3.0 continues their commitment to legally safeguard intellectual property, improve decision-making, and allow companies to get the most value form their portfolios."

“InnovationQ 3.0 takes intellectual property asset management to a new level,” says Tom Petrocelli, IP.com’s Senior Vice President, Enterprise Software. “Without a strong innovation management infrastructure, intellectual property management and processes are often little more than a shadow of what they could and should be.  InnovationQ provides the tools that help facilitate better innovation work product, improved allocation of resources, and higher product and service margins. InnovationQ leads to increased licensing revenue and market dominance, stability in litigation, and higher shareholder and client value.”

In addition to the Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, InnovationQ is also available as an onsite, enterprise solution.  IP.com is committed to working with customers to develop a successful innovation management program.

Patent Search Services

Before investing in a new technology, product, or company, have you thoroughly investigated all relevant patents, patent applications, and technical publications that might inhibit your growth or be worthy of in-licensing or acquisition?

Types of searches

Patentability/Novelty Search

Patentability searches are typically performed before a patent application is prepared in order to determine whether or not the invention will be patentable, as well as how broad the invention protection may be. Patentability searches typically include U.S. and international patents, published patent applications, and non-patent literature (e.g. proceedings and technical publications). We also offer USPTO accelerated patentability searches.

Freedom to Operate Search

Freedom to operate searches identify potential patent barriers to the commercialization of products or technologies. A freedom to operate search involves identifying whether there are any relevant, unexpired patents, and then analyzing the claims of those patents to determine whether they could prevent the manufacture and sale of a proposed product or technology.

Validity Search

Validity searches can be useful as a defensive tool when a company is concerned about infringing a particular patent. A validity search attempts to uncover issued patents or other published prior art that may render a patent partially or completely invalid. In contrast, validity searches can also be used to invalidate an in-force patent thereby allowing a company to practice that technology without paying royalties to the firm that holds the rights to the patent in question.

State of the Art Search

The state of the art search is a broad search on everything that has been done in a given art. State of the art searches are useful if your company is considering entry into a particular domain of art. State of the art search results can provide a basis for making critical market decisions. These results can also be used as a navigation framework for product and process design.

Technology Environment Analysis (Competitive Intelligence)

IP.com leverages techniques such as concept clustering and text analytics to quantify patent portfolios relative to activity in the marketplace. The tools and techniques present a set of actionable intelligence by illustrating patent activity in the market relative to a corporation's patent portfolio and R&D activities. Patents are "clustered" on the basis of similarities derived from predeter- mined patent metrics. Our specialized analysis software coupled with our many years of experience in the IP space allows us to provide you with the highest quality results available.

What Is IP.com, and why read our blog?

IP.com is a global leader in providing strategic and reliable intellectual property solutions. Some of the world's largest and most innovative companies trust IP.com for their enterprise-wide intellectual property asset management, defensive publishing, and patent search services.

The company was founded to fill a growing void in the tools available to the intellectual property community. Our initial product, the IP.com Prior Art Database, was created to provide companies with a fast and effective, centralized outlet for publishing and searching technical disclosures. Since its inception, the IP.com Prior Art Database has continued to grow, attracting high profile clients such as IBM, General Electric, Motorola, Abbott Laboratories, and Eastman Kodak (to name a few).

In our process of developing the Intellectual Property Prior Art Database, we have built a rock-solid, easy-to-use, legally-defensible method for providing verifiable date-stamps and ensuring the integrity (proving they haven't been altered) of electronic files. This technology has become the cornerstone of IP.com's service offerings. We have extended our product line to allow corporations to utilize our innovative file protection (safeguarding) methods on their own private (internal) data using the IP.com InnovationQ or the online IP.com Creative Registry.

The IP.com InnovationQ product combines the legal safeguarding processes along with secured-access search and retrieval to provide a complete solution for safeguarding, searching, and archiving your sensitive data (such as R&D lab notebooks).

Companies can effectively manage and strengthen their intellectual property portfolio with IP.com's comprehensive suite of products and services.

InnovationQ

InnovationQ is an enterprise software solution for intellectual property and innovation management. InnovationQ solves complex document and process management problems associated with managing intellectual property assets. With InnovationQ, companies can routinely safeguard their intellectual property while deriving the maximum value from their portfolios.

Prior Art Database

The IP.com Prior Art Database is a unique repository of defensive publications.  Each day, hundreds of the world’s most innovative companies publish their technical disclosures with IP.com.  The database serves as a critical source of prior art in the technical community.  The unique and rare content covers a wide variety of technology areas and is searched and cited by patent examiners worldwide.  Additionally, the IP.com Journal is published twice each month and distributed to libraries and patent offices around the world.

Patent Search Services

IP.com has a proven track record in delivering the highest quality patent searches. Our multilingual and multidisciplinary search team ensures that we have specialized agents covering all technical domains. Unlike other search and law firms, IP.com employs a proven process for managing each search project which delivers timely, accurate, and concise results. Whether you need in depth invalidity research, freedom to operate, or simply a routine novelty search, IP.com delivers reports which save you time and money.

IP.com is a Manning & Napier Information Services (MNIS) company, based in Buffalo, NY.  With global Fortune 500 customers and international resellers, IP.com has been a trusted name for intellectual property services since 1994.

We hope you'll read our corporate blog, Securing Innovation, and join with us discussing patents, trademarks, trade secrets, law and policy, and the latest and greatest tools to strengthen your intellectual property assets and manage your IP portfolios more effectively. Before reading this blog, and joining in the discussions here, it's a good idea to read this.

This publication and the articles and opinions on this blog are not legal advice, even if the author of any article published on this blog may have a legal education or be qualified to practice law in some jurisdictions. Writing articles in this publication is expressly not practicing law, and a legal relationship between attorney and client is not established by reading or commenting on this blog, or by sending an email to the author of anything posted on this blog.

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