Category: General IP Management
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Country-by-Country Annuity Traps—and How to Avoid Them
If you think filing a patent is the hard part, think again. The real danger often shows up years later, quietly, in the form of annuity payments. Miss one. Misread one. Pay the wrong amount in the wrong country at the wrong time—and your patent can disappear. No warning. No second chance. In this guide,…
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Post-Launch Portfolios: Keep What Matches Current Roadmaps
You shipped the product. You raised the round. You pushed code that real users now touch every day. That feels great. But here is the part most founders miss: your patent portfolio must grow and shift with your roadmap. What you planned two years ago is not what you are building now. If your patents…
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Startups vs. Enterprise: Different Pruning Rules That Work
Startups and big companies both need to cut things. They cut features. They cut projects. They cut ideas. They cut even people. But the rules they use to decide what stays and what goes are not the same. If you use enterprise rules inside a startup, you can quietly kill your own growth. If a…
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AI Assist for Pruning: Rank by Citations, Markets, and Risk
You are building fast. New features. New models. New code. But your patent list keeps growing—and you are not sure which ideas matter most. Some filings look strong. Some feel weak. Some might never turn into real value. This is where smart founders win or lose. You do not just need more patents. You need…
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M&A Readiness: Prune Noise, Showcase Strategic Patents
When buyers look at your startup, they are not just buying code. They are buying control. They are buying leverage. They are buying protection. And if your patent story is messy, noisy, or unclear, your valuation drops fast. M&A readiness is not about having the most patents. It is about having the right patents, clearly…
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Litigation Readiness Check: Drop Weak Assets Before They Cost You
If someone copies your product tomorrow, are you truly ready to fight back? Most founders think they are. Most are not. They assume their patents will protect them. They assume their paperwork is strong. They assume their IP is clean. But assumptions are expensive. In court, weak assets do not just sit quietly in the…
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Use Examiner Analytics to Predict Low-Value Prosecution
You do not win patents by guessing. You win by seeing patterns early and acting before you waste time and money. Examiner analytics lets you see how a patent examiner behaves before you ever respond to an office action. It shows you where cases stall, where claims shrink, and where founders burn cash for very…
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Claim Scope Heatmap: Where to Narrow, Where to Hold
You do not win a patent by writing more words. You win by drawing the right line. That line is your claim scope. Too wide, and it gets rejected. Too narrow, and competitors walk right around you. The real skill is knowing where to narrow and where to hold strong. In this article, I will…
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KPI Set for Pruning: Cost per Protected Dollar of Revenue
Most startups track growth, burn, and runway. Almost no one tracks how much revenue each patent dollar actually protects. That is a mistake. If you are building real tech, your code, models, and systems will one day drive serious revenue. The question is simple: how much are you spending to protect each dollar that revenue…
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Global Agent Spend: Consolidate Vendors and Trim Fees
Every fast-growing company hits this wall at some point: global patent costs start to feel messy, slow, and out of control. You are paying agents in different countries. You are answering the same questions again and again. You are wiring money across borders. And somehow, the bills keep growing while clarity keeps shrinking. It does…