A company’s most vital assets are those that are created by mind. They must protect these intangible assets which are often in the form of inventions, literature, artistic work, and even brand name. However, effective management of these assets or the intellectual property rights (IPR) often takes a toll on a company’s time and budget.

There are a variety of IP creation and management-related services that can be considered for outsourcing to a trusted third-party vendor. These tasks may include patent searching, patent illustration, and many other services. Outsourcing may help companies to save resources and utilize budgets in the right direction.

What is Patent Search Outsourcing?

Patent search outsourcing is a process where companies generally assign patent prior art services-related workload to a trusted third party vendor – in this case, an IP service provider. The importance of outsourcing patent searches is considered to be significant in terms of effort reduction and value creation.

In the current competitive environment, a research and development department of a business organization works under tremendous pressure to innovate in a variety of multidisciplinary technical domains. There is a constant need to generate, protect and manage a variety of technology domains at the same time. One needs to understand the benefits of patent outsourcing in such situations.

Here are seven ways in which outsourcing patent search may help companies:

1. Experts – Best Suited for the Job

Day-in and day-out, patent search providers bring excellence in the art of patent searching and can be considered better for the job of patent searching as they specialise in this area. When a company outsources a patent search, it gets an opportunity to work with the experts for the requirement. These experts use prior experience of patent searching formed with a variety of search methodologies to share results. The work project goes through layers of internal quality checks that ensure almost no scope of error or chances of missing anything important. The final output is shared with a company’s internal team in easy to understand formats.

2. Saves Time to Focus on Output & Plan Expansion

An organization with a large number of clients has a variety of intellectual property portfolios to focus on. Therefore, it would require companies to maintain a dedicated workforce for patent-related purposes. This can steer the company’s focus away from core business. Outsourcing patent search allows an organization to solely focus on the output of work. The patent search partner handles all patenting needs of the company, giving it time to engage its workforce in innovation.

3. Saves Hiring and Training Efforts

Handling client-based intellectual property portfolios can strain the financial and human resources of an organization. Outsourcing patent search can help businesses save resources as search partners have a fluid working mechanism. A search partner manages a pool of multi-disciplinary experts in a variety of technology domains. It enables companies to deliver faster results and engage resources efficiently. The organization can spend more time on its core interest areas by not hiring and training multiple resources for non-core technology areas. This also helps the organization to avoid unnecessary capital expenditures.

4. Builds Expansive IP Portfolio

A patent search partner not only focuses on patenting a single idea but protecting all intellectual property assets of an organization. When a firm outsources patent search, the partner strengthens every angle of the intellectual property to help the client stay ahead in the competition. When a unique feature of an organization is protected, it helps a company to secure more clients. With a forte in managing multi-disciplinary IP portfolios, the search partner provides a better/alternative strategic view on portfolio management strategy. The search partner could assist in making informed decisions – whether to dump or to retain the unprofitable IP assets.

5. Managing Uneven Surges in Patent Search Volume

Patent search is an extensive subject that requires attention with strong knowledge and resource base. There are times when patent search volumes may see an unprecedented increase. This can delay the process of innovation as it may become difficult to process such surges at once. Outsourcing patent searches may help a company focus on reducing time to conduct patent searches for these increased volumes and help in innovating more!

6. Dedicated Management Team for Intellectual Property

Just like certain organizations are innovators in their field of expertise, a patent search partner carries extensive knowledge of intellectual property. Patent outsourcing firms allow all client-related intellectual property portfolios of an organization to be managed under one roof, eliminating the need to invest in a separate intellectual property team. The concept of a dedicated offshore team assists the organization to get the benefits of hiring its own team at a reduced cost. The dedicated team allocated by the search partner takes care of all the IP-related aspects of the organization and works directly with the R&D stakeholders, leading to a faster pace of innovation.

7. Use the Experience of an Outsource Partner to Your Benefit

An experienced outsourcing partner can help an organization find solutions similar to other clients that the outsource partner has serviced. Their experience may make it easier for an organization to find patent search solutions to service their client. Experienced outsource partners generally have multiple patent and non-patent databases which can be accessed by a firm. Furthermore, access to native language searching and local patent agent network for local filing can be of immense benefit to any organization, for providing faster and efficient service to clients. The experience of a patent search partner can guide the organization with data on patents, helping them to make informed business decisions and quickly service clients with a well-directed approach to meet their needs.

Final Thoughts

A company should be able to maintain a larger client portfolio without having to worry about intellectual property. These seven tips may help organizations to serve their clients better along with marinating a strong intellectual property portfolio.

Sagacious IP offers credible patent search services to help companies identify pertinent prior art in a cost-effective and time-bound manner. Our team of highly-qualified patent professionals deploys state-of-the-art IP tools to discover patent documents during the filing process.

-Rajat Gulati (Engineering) and the Editorial Team

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