Patent Portfolio Development: About More than Just Utility Patents *

Patent Portfolio Development: About More than Just Utility Patents *

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There are numerous misconceptions that swirl around the concept of building a patent portfolio. Chief among them perhaps is the truth that adequate intellectual property protection for almost any innovation must go well beyond utility patents in order to provide the protection that is really necessary for the client company. Indeed, building a patent portfolio is much more than just blindly filing for utility patents in the United States and around the world. Adequate protection of innovation rights requires thoughtful consideration of invention disclosures, trade secrets, employment agreements, exit interviews, border enforcement, design patents and more. And, in addition to these various accoutrements to a patent portfolio that all play a role in protecting innovation, most in-house legal teams would do well to eliminate the term “invention” from their vocabulary and replace it with more readily understood business terms like “value” and described in terms of minimizing risk, which are concepts far more approachable for CFOs and CEOs alike.

This panel will discuss how and why portfolio development must be about more than utility patents.

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Materials

From Foundation to Fortress: Developing an IP Strategy for Success

Where Trade Secrets and Data Privacy Strategies Overlap

Four Factors to Consider When Deciding Whether to Use Trade Secrets

Impact of Full Federal Circuit’s Design Patent Decision is Far from Obvious

Why and When Design Patents are Useful