Strategic patent portfolio management : an expert-based framework for IP value assessment

Abstract

Effective patent portfolio management is essential for preserving competitive advantage and promoting innovation in the fast-evolving high-tech industry. This thesis focuses on providing a decision-making framework for assessing the value of IP assets (patents) that integrates expert elicitation techniques with a quantitative monovariate patent evaluation method. By leveraging the expertise of internal experts to assess the inventions, it is possible to generate a qualitative evaluation of their value to the company, their monetization potential, and their role in a defensive patent strategy, to guarantee that the company remains at the forefront of the market.

Through an extensive literature review and insights from semi-structured interviews with internal stakeholders of the IP value assessment (IPVA), this research identified different criteria currently in use to estimate the value of inventions and patents at the case company. Additionally, it proposes ideas to integrate this evaluation into a defensive patent strategy.

The research presented a tripartite proposal to generate an expert-based framework for IP value assessment, consisting of: (1) strategies for the development of an expert community who actively participates in the invention examination, (2) a quantitative method for evaluation that assess the invention into five value categories and helps to determine its monetization purpose (licensing, cross-licensing, selling), and (3) strategies to use the value assessment to leverage a defensive patent strategy that benefits the company’s market position.

The findings provide IP managers with valuable insights, enabling them to optimize their patent portfolios and align them with broader business objectives.