Add Value To Product Development Process With These 5 Tips

In order to succeed in the highly competitive patent landscape, organizations need to continually evolve and embrace change. A solid idea is the building block of the entire process and helps identify the first stage of the product development process.  Building a mechanism where employee ideas are encouraged and promoted helps create a reliable pool of ideas within the company. By harnessing employee ideation an organization can generate fresh and substantive ideas that are unique and exclusive to the company.  

Since they are born within the organization., protecting these ideas at the initiation stage is possible and increases the IP security.  

As the lines between IP and Business strategies blur, aligning the two is becoming common practice for organizations. IP Rights may be protected in the form of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Selecting the right type of protection will depend on the business’s present and future business objectives for the company.  

When patenting an invention, companies have two options, i.e., the trade secret route and the patent route. Choosing between the two will depend on what shape the final product takes. Therefore, it is best to wait till the later stages when all patent filing requirements for the product are ready. Nature of the invention, competition analysis, likelihood of similar creations by other companies/independent creators etc. are a few factors that need to be looked into when making this important decision.  

With businesses clamoring for patents and churning out inventions at breakneck speeds, staying updated at every stage is a necessity. In order to secure a truly competitive and enhanced R&D wing, is imperative to use IP information during the product development stage. Patent documents can reveal significant information on the latest available tech thereby averting any resource wastage at the time of developing the product. It also provides ideas that can improve product design or help in reducing the costs of manufacturing it. Ultimately, this will help not just in reducing expenses but also in expediting product release.  

Any existing IP that does not contribute to the product development cycle must be evaluated at this time. Either at the initial or review stages, it is important to consider the feasibility of existing IPs and sort them into core and non-core. Once the non-core IP has been identified, an expert valuation must be conducted to take the final decision on out-licensing them. The importance of this step lies in its ability to bring down the overall costs involved in the product development stage.  

A Cross-licensing agreement grants one party to use the patented tech of another. This serves as an excellent means to access the latest technology without the burden of spending additional time and resources required to create it. In some cases, the agreement may also be royalty-free thereby giving additional monetary benefits to the licensee. Such arrangements are also referred to as patent pools and offer a win-win scenario to both parties. When taking the route of cross-licensing it is important to consult with attorneys to decide the type of contract to enter into for smooth functioning.