30 Years of Anaqua Services: The Secret to Keeping IP Assets Safe
Services PI
avril 23, 2025
Christine Jennings, President of Anaqua Services, has been leading Anaqua Services since 2016. We sat down with Christine to learn about the current challenges in the IP industry that she hears clients are facing. She also shared her thoughts on Anaqua's journey over the past thirty years, and how Anaqua’s Services continually evolve to meet client needs and expectations
Christine Jennings began her IP career working in the trademark department of an IP law firm with a strong presence in Africa and the Caribbean. Laurence Hart, one of the founders of the Jersey branch of Spoor & Fisher, became her mentor. He bridged the complexities of IP law and case law, making it accessible and engaging. This sparked her passion for IP as it touches on so many areas of creativity, innovation and law. Her interest continued and she discovered a passion for working with diverse IP portfolios and IP law.
Today, with nearly 30 years of experience in the IP industry, Christine and her team support over 1.2 million payments worldwide.
Why Are IP Payment Services So Important to IP Professionals and Their Organizations
Keeping your IP assets in good standing is one of the most important responsibilities of an IP professional. Yet, the administrative tasks can be daunting and time-consuming. Missing an annuity payment or trademark renewal can result in a loss of protection, disrupt product sales, and have a significant financial impact on your organization. As the volume of IP data continues to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage this information and ensure that IP rights do not lapse.
Do You See Any New Trends and Pressures in Managing Services for Organizations Today
There are many different pressures that we hear clients are facing. Technology is continuing to rapidly evolve, and we're seeing advances in blockchain and artificial intelligence. One of the major challenges for clients in these areas is protecting their innovations.
Patent offices are struggling to keep up with changing technology and there are concerns about patenting in some of the new technology areas. Historically, your IP rights would fall neatly into the categories of patents, trademarks or designs. This is no longer the case. While the major patent offices are actively engaged, the adoption varies widely depending on the resources, priorities and technical readiness of each office.
For example, AI-driven innovation will transform the IP landscape. The possibilities are far-reaching, from tools to streamline and simplify IP processes, to supporting patent searches and creating new inventions. This is a game changer and is an exciting yet complex challenge for the entire community.
The introduction of the Unitary Patent in Europe has attracted considerable interest from IP owners. It has seen a promising start but not universally adopted across Europe. This means the full potential of the system is not yet realized and may continue to increase at a slow rate. There are many factors influencing the low adoption rate, including geographic coverage and centralized revocation. Many organizations are taking a cautious approach.
Anaqua Has Just Celebrated 30 years of Leadership in Providing Annuity Payment Services to Clients. Why is This Milestone Important to You:
It's incredible to reflect on our journey over the past thirty years. If you look back at the competitors in the market when Anaqua was founded, there were many established players. If you look at the landscape now it has shifted significantly. Anaqua’s client collaboration and relentless focus on continuous improvement has enabled us to be a leader for over thirty years in IP management solutions.
Over the Years, Anaqua Has Grown Exponentially. What’s the Secret to This Success:
Anaqua has a unique way of partnering with clients to understand their short and long-term needs up front. By understanding our clients' business needs, we can work with them to ensure they have what they need to be successful. This could include supporting resource bandwidth challenges, processes or technology that's holding them back.
Our business model has evolved through our partnership with our clients, and recent acquisitions have enabled us to stay ahead of trends in the IP industry and expand into new service offerings for our clients.
If our clients are resource constrained, they can extend their reach with the expertise of the Anaqua Services team, who have in-depth IP knowledge. Clients can talk with anyone on our team and have peer-to-peer interaction. They know we will try to help them simplify complex challenges and streamline their payment renewal process.
We also provide robust data verification processes that are critical for risk mitigation. As part of that, we're working with teams in different territories to leverage artificial intelligence to help clients with the accuracy of their data. Clients benefit from our ever-expanding services and integrated IP management platforms – AQX®, AQX Law Firm, and PATTSY WAVE® - which grow more comprehensive and powerful with each release.
What Gives Anaqua Clients Peace of Mind that Their IP Assets Are Safe
Clients of Anaqua trust us with their most important assets, and know they are in safe hands. We have a client-centric approach, understanding client needs and industry challenges. We communicate proactively, providing regular updates and reports. The centralized operations team results in high-quality execution, risk management, and scalability.
Further, our technology, automation, and continuous improvement culture is underpinned by our ISO 9001 certification. This ensures our services are delivered with quality, consistency and efficiency, ultimately enhancing client satisfaction and operational excellence.
We take great care and are diligent in ensuring we have a fully vetted agent network who must meet strict quality, compliance and performance benchmarks before implementation. This is highly important given current global economic sanctions.
What Can Clients Expect When Working with Anaqua Regarding Their Fees
Transparency – it's our DNA, which gives our clients confidence that we are offering them competitive fees. Each year, we work closely with our agent network to maintain the best rates for our clients.
What Does Success Look Like to You as President of Anaqua Services
Success for me is delighting our clients with the quality of our services. Clients know that we care and that we listen, we are constantly evolving to improve, and the result is our impressive client retention rate. I am proud of our customer-focused team of over ninety people. Our ability to respond quickly to changing client needs and global conditions sets Anaqua apart.
