An Overview of Patent Cost Management

"In "Managing Patent Costs: An Overview," the World Intellectual Property Organization's Guriqbal Singh Jaiya and Christopher M. Kalanje discuss the different types of patent costs and how to manage them, including:

• Information Search Costs, as a Part of Due Diligence
• Cost Issues Relating to Patent Versus Trade Secret8 Versus "Defensive Publication
• Cost of Drafting a Patent Application
• Subsidies, Grants or Other Free or Less Costly Sources
• Managing Patent Office Fees
• Role of IP Audit in Managing Costs
• International Patenting Costs
• Managing Translation Costs
• Costs of Managing a Patent Portfolio
• Finding Partners to Share Costs, Risks and Improve Profits

The authors conclude that managing acquisition and maintenance costs of patents "has to be done without unduly increasing risks or lowering the quality of patent grants or monitoring the granted patents to manage costs during the life of a patent. . . . Patents assets are just one part of an overall IP management process aimed at leveraging and profiting from IP assets."

They also provide numerous links to other materials on these topics, including

• “Cost of patenting” at http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/webnotes/licensing/0306.cfm
• Report of the study entitled, “Study on the Cost of Patenting” carried out by the Roland Berger Market Research for the EPO at http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/new/cost_anaylsis_2005_study_en.pdf
• “Seven Ways to Control the Cost and Quality of Your Patent Docket” at http://www.maineandasmus.com/publications/misc-articles/CostcontainIPprog.htm
• “Strategies to Defer Costs of Patenting—Use Provisional, 'PCT' Applications” by R. Lewis Gable and Mark Montague at http://www.cll.com/articles/article.cfm?articleid=79
• “Culling Your Patent Portfolio” on pages 16 to 18 at http://www.aplf.org/ThePatentLawyer/ThePatentLawyer-02.pdf
• “Practical IP Issues in Developing a Business Plan” at http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/ip_business/managing_ip/business_planning.htm
• “Integrating the intellectual property value chain” by Bill Barrett & Dave Crawford at http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v20/n6s/pdf/nbt0602supp-BE43.pdf