Hello and welcome to my new blog.
After blogging exclusively about substantive patent law for more than five years, I’m launching this new site as a home for my thoughts and writings that relate to a completely different side of my practice – helping organizations build inventive cultures and effective idea management systems that produce fully aligned patent portfolios.
What the heck is that, you ask?
Let me use a little background to explain.
Ever since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in KSR v. Teleflex, I’ve been helping clients as they struggle with the new realities of patent law. Many inventions that were patentable under old law no longer are, and, as a result, many traditional portfolio strategies are no longer effective. The new regime has introduced a level of confusion not seen before as all patent stakeholders – attorneys, patent examiners, and business decision makers alike – attempt to discern the new boundaries of patentability. As a result, patent prosecution costs are increasing rapidly while the patent allowance rate continues to seek a bottom.
Dissatisfied with the prospect of selling clients on “spend more, get less,” I went to the drawing board to brainstorm ways in which I could help organizations thrive in this strange new environment. I scratched out several ideas, marked up a whiteboard or two, and wrote a series of articles that I thought would define “the new patent strategy.”
Then, through a mix of luck and more luck, it happened. An early stage organization asked me to help them develop “the ideal idea environment.” After hearing my “pitch” on patent prosecution and portfolio development strategies, the entrepreneurs told me flatly: “you’re missing the point…we need you to help us encourage, capture and manage ideas, not patents.”
That cold, hard slap in the face hit me like, well, like a cold, hard slap in the face. I realized immediately that my approach was all wrong. Organizations need to focus on ideas, not patents. Encourage creative thinking. Capture ideas. Manage ideas. Put patents in their proper place – one part of an inventive culture and idea friendly environment.
I promptly threw “the new patent strategy” in the can and started working on a manifesto – But ours go to eleven: Abandoning volume-based patent strategies in favor of fully aligned portfolios that make sense. I’ve written on whiteboards and moleskines, scratched ideas on napkins and bounced things off of anyone willing to listen. I’ve written a lot, and read even more. I’ve developed several slide decks and presented talks to several organizations.
Now it’s time to blog.
I hope to offer value to entrepreneurs, business leaders, attorneys and inventors interested in learning the practical side of building an organizational culture and environment that encourages thinking and inventing. I’ll explore the concept of the “fully aligned portfolio” and provide practical tips and strategies for getting there. There will be the occasional bit of theory, too, along with some patent law posts from time to time – patent prosecution, after all, still represents the majority of my practice and patent law is a critical component of the culture and environment variables. True to that cold, hard slap in the face, though, patents will be discussed in proper context – as one component of the larger system.
Sound like an interesting journey? If so, please follow by RSS or email (see the top of the page). You can also follow me on Twitter (@jmattbuchanan).
Thanks,
J. Matt Buchanan
