Patent Landscaping & IP

Patent Landscaping & IP

Using IP to Create Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Context

Our client has developed a truly breakthrough product that will revolutionise a whole category. Innovia’s mission: strengthen the IP protection by acting as a competitor whose spoiling tactics could include actions that, unintentionally or by design, reduce the opportunity for all future players.

Approach

We attacked our client’s IP fortress with an armoury of our favourite weapons: (1) loopholes for copycat products, (2) disruption of the supply chain to block manufacture, (3) consumer look-alikes, (4) weak substitutes that provide a part of the benefit, and (5) capture of development IP – an approach often taken by patent trolls. We then distilled our assessment down to 10 offensive strategies that a competitor could pursue and approaches our client should take to mitigate the associated risks.

Impact

Innovia’s recommendations ranged from fine-tuning existing claims to adding new claims that describe alternative routes to the target benefits. Our client was delighted and can foresee a strong and enduring business.

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