Adopt a Product Lifecycle Approach for Better Management of the IP Asset and Its Lifecycle
Patents, trademarks, designs, and trade secrets form the bedrock of a company’s products and services. Increasingly, IP departments are adopting IP management practices based on the products that the IP supports.
Using the AQX® IP Management platform, you can adopt a Product-centered approach that benefits the entire business, reduces risk, and enhances the visibility of IP assets. Easily link patents, trademarks, domains, agreements, and more to the specific products/services they support. This capability empowers individuals across your organization to track and report on these assets and relationships effectively, aiding in lifecycle planning, business decisions, and IP justification.
While particularly valuable for pharmaceutical and life science companies, this Product-driven IP approach applies to various industries, especially those utilizing Product Lifecycle Management techniques.
Provide the Full View of Asset Relationships: Products, IP, Agreements, and More
The Product tracking capability on AQX is accomplished by treating a Product as a record (as is done for Patents and Trademarks), rather than by the simple tagging or classifications found on other IP platforms.
Product records on AQX link to all related IP assets and any other matter types, such as conflicts or license agreements. A single IP matter can also be related to one or more products such as a family of products or related to a component of a product that could be used in multiple products. This gives you the power to:
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Keep better track of the “Magic Triangle” of Product, IP, and Agreements for product planning, renewal decisions, and payments. This capability helps reduce risk by uncovering hidden product relationships. AQX also gives you the ability to view Product-Patent relationships in relation to competing patents, so you can also more easily identify potential infringement risks or licensing opportunities.
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Structure “Product tree” views in the way that best suits your business to account for components, BOM relationships, aggregations, country variations and more – linking to the IP for each
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Get a better view of Product and Patent relationships for line extensions or new features that extend the IP-protected life of products
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Track counterfeit products as they relate to your own products, trademarks, and patents to spot trends and other activity that may require litigation or other protective actions
Inform Product and IP Lifecycle Decisions
Many companies use Product Lifecycle Management to drive decisions. With Product-IP tracking capabilities on AQX, you can keep better track of all IP assets at each lifecycle stage to ensure protection at the right times, make renewal or patent sale decisions, and more.
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Improve coordination with product stakeholders to meet IP deadlines that align with planning and protection in each country
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Access proof of use on an IP matter at time of renewal
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Easily run a Patent/Trademark Virtual Marking Report for effortless updates
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Improve IP cost forecasting with access to IP revenue contribution data based on product(s) supported and product lifecycle stage
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Life Sciences Companies: Reduce the risk of missing statutory deadlines and take action to extend exclusivity in specific countries as long as possible
Use Case 1: Streamline Accurate Virtual Patent Marking
The task of patent marking can be extremely manual and tedious, leading to possible errors. However, It’s one of those crucial business processes to stay on top of – since improper patent marking can result in liability or the inability to recover infringement damages.
With AQX Product record and IP linking capabilities, virtual patent marking is simplified and automated so your team can easily produce an accurate and up-to-date listing:
- When creating a Product record, simply check-off the patent marking option for those products with patents you want to declare publicly
- Use an out-of-the-box report or create your own to generate a list of all patents linked to a specific product and their numbers
- Set up workflows to kick-off task reminders to update the virtual patent listing (such as when a new patent is linked to an existing product)
Use Case 2: Pharma - Optimizing Market Exclusivity
AQX Pharma provides flexible ways to track and view market exclusivity by drug (product), patent, and country. The platform enables you to focus on statutory deadlines in each country and get a visual view of key points in the drug (product) lifecycle.
- Armed with Product-IP-country relationship information, your attorneys can make time-critical decisions faster
- Also related to products and country data, AQX tools and workflows provide a clear view of Patent Term Extensions and Supplemental Protection Certificates (SPC) on a worldwide basis
- The Orange Book Analytics report in AQX enables pharmaceutical teams to validate the public information against internal data to minimize risk of error