Patent portfolio

The patent portfolio is the set of patents and patent applications held by a company, organised by families, by territories and by technologies. It is an intangible asset that protects products, supports negotiations and can generate revenue through licensing or assignment. A patent portfolio is managed like an investment: each title must justify its cost by its strategic utility.

Building the patent portfolio

First, the portfolio is organised around families, that is, the set of titles derived from the same initial filing in different countries. Second, the territorial coverage is chosen according to the places of production, the markets and the competitors. The European patent, the unitary patent and the international PCT route allow protection to be extended at controlled cost. Third, the portfolio often combines basic patents and improvement patents, which prolong the protection of a technology.

Managing the patent portfolio

Management requires a periodic review of each title: usefulness for current products, defensive value against competitors, licensing potential, cost of the annuities. Titles that have become useless are abandoned in order to concentrate resources. The review also verifies ownership, in particular for employee inventions and the results of collaborations, as well as the entries in the register. Accounting and tax questions, notably the amortisation of patents, are handled with the company’s financial advisers.

Valorisation and preparation for litigation

The patent portfolio is valorised through the patent licence, assignment, contribution to a company, pledge or participation in a patent pool. It is also a negotiating instrument against a competitor invoking its own titles, through the cross licence. In practice, a useful portfolio is one whose claims are legible, whose validity has been tested and whose infringement can be proven. The firm assists companies in this enforcement-oriented review, as presented on the page patent commercialisation.