Extending key coverage for future platforms and technologies

Enabling licensing revenue and design freedom

Taxonomy Mapping Process:  a way of organizing the portfolio according to technology, product line, world-wide coverage, and expiration date, to name a few criteria. A good taxonomy facilitates an analysis of the portfolio value at meeting certain objectives such as product protection and licensing.

Reviewing Objectives: is necessary before looking for gaps. Is the objective to cover a key product? Is it to cover future technology platforms? Is it to provide licensing revenue or more favorable licensing terms? Or is it all of these? For more on objectives see Meeting Patent Portfolio Objectives.

Identifying Portfolio Value:  includes identifying core products and technology coverage of the patent portfolio. Valuation of the portfolio can be done based upon revenue protection, market value of patents, and/or cost.

Identifying Portfolio Gaps:  the sufficiency of the portfolio to meet each objective is ascertained. For protecting revenue streams associated with core products, potential risks are identified along with action that can be taken to reduce the risks. For forward looking licensing purposes, opportunities are evaluated.

Proposing Action Plans:  for each portfolio objective, proposed action plans are provided for the client including the cost of the option and what the option provides. For example, if a core product has narrow patent coverage, one solution might be to patent design alternatives (assuming that this can be shown to be effective). The cost would be patent preparation and filing costs.

Carrying Out Actions:  WDC Patents can execute on much of the action plan such as filing the patent applications.

Tracking the Portfolio:  the taxonomy produced earlier can be used to track the growth the of portfolio and enable ongoing estimation of the effectiveness in meeting objectives.