nir-vana innovation network

The French SME specializes in Intellectual Property (IP). Its multidisciplinary team of legal, technical and business fields offers a customized support in order to develop, protect and value technologies and know-how. The company allows any innovation stakeholders (project leaders, ceo, cfo, cso, coo…) and structures (start-ups, SMEs, clusters, venture capitals, European consortiums, …) to improve and consolidate business strategies with IP.

As Intellectual Property can be a rather complex topic, the French SME has developed a solution for stakeholders to get more involved in the IP management and having a greater autonomy to make strategic decisions. This innovative turnkey dashboard solution for patent portfolio management is a way to centralize main information about several current portfolios that client/competitor/target may have. It is designed to clearly overview IP processes from request to grant such as file submission, status, payment of annuities, etc.

The company operates as an in-house partner that summarizes complex information into these dashboards and remains aware of relevant news to alert users. Dashboards relay essential information from at least 3 main IP data sources : patent databases, attorneys, and clients.

These documents are optimized to deliver the clearest information and to facilitate its reading and understanding. They can be used for :

- Company assets reports
- In-house strategic decisions
- Valuation operations (partnerships, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, agreements, etc.).

It includes : summary status, schedule, inventory, expert memo and more.

Deliverables generated are fully flexible according to users' purpose and able to suit any project. They can be requested for occasional study cases whenever needed or regularly sent for long-term support (every month, trimester…).

As a complete patent portfolio management solution, it features at least 2 different ways to deal with: (A)Audit and (B)Monitoring that both pertain to whether holders, competitors or targets.

A – Audits rely on patent portfolios examination; they turn out to be useful for many operations such as fundraising, contract negotiation (licensing, merger/acquisition), Free To Operate ( FTO) preface (claims study and strategic position), legal status reviews, etc.

B- Monitoring is an active continuous control/tracking of a whole IP environment and technological watch; it includes reports, upcoming actions agenda, experts' feedback, legal status revising alerts, analysis of evolution of patent claims, etc.

The company is interested mainly in Commercial agreement with technical assistance or Joint venture agreement to better adapt the platform to local regulations or habits.
A license agreement is possible where the platform can be used as is.

Advantages & innovations

The main goal of the solution is to enhance the use of IP, making it more actionable for stakeholders. IP has to be a strong growth lever rather than a time-consuming process: solution's features introduced TO enable saving time, forecasting costs and making earlier strategic decisions. EASE OF USE - It doesn't require any special IP skills to handle it. The documents are optimized to be understood by everyone through a clear and readable information; also, only one patent number is required to create a whole patent family and to get started the monitoring with the experts ON REQUEST DELIVERY - Support provided closely meets needs, goals and resources of the client; the solution operates as well as an occasional or regular report with the same accuracy. Dashboard's settings are fully flexible and optimized to deliver the most targeted information for internal and external distribution. BROAD OVERVIEW - The solution can provide a first exploratory report of a specific IP environment; it can back up the IP attorney's assessment or be necessary to influence a decision. Benefit from a very complete review of any relevant IP items of yours and competitors'/targets at any operational and/or strategic stage. Dashboards relieved stakeholders from most of preventable constraints: TIME - Prioritized event and deadlines are highlighted in a calendar regularly updated DATA AVAILABILITY - The solution references at least 3 information sources to ensure reliable and latest news from public and non-public databases and even legal operations that are not released yet; PROCESS - IP specialists remain anytime aware of relevant news to alert users. Dashboards are delivered with a shortened explanation memo about next steps and actions validation. BUDGET - IP costs and cash management are better overcome with annual planning submitted with a full transparency about expenses.

Stage of development

Already on the market

Partner sought

- IP management services companies to adapt the platform to their needs or regulations - Universities, large companies and investors to use the platform to manage their IP - Innovation agencies and clusters to help start-ups to manage their IP