Study: Managing the IP Process : IP management in practice and the support of IT solutions

This study analyzes how intellectual property (IP) is managed in practice, which as-pects influence IP managers and especially how IP software can support IP manage-ment. By investigating 114 industrial firms and law firms worldwide, we found that the overall economic situation impacts IP management and that the IP budget often de-pends on performance indicators like total revenues. Furthermore, the study confirms the result of earlier research that the external commercialization of IP is becoming in-creasingly important. The analysis of software support for IP processes indicates a decreasing use of IP software along the IP value chain. Firms use software mainly in the early IP generation phase, e.g. for search processes for absorbing technological developments. Further-more, patents are the form of IP rights which are supported most by software. Regard-ing software solutions there is a strong trend towards integrative systems which sup-port different functions and towards customized solutions. The findings reveal improvement potential on both firm level and software provider lev-el. While firms should take into account the use of software to optimize their IP man-agement processes, software providers should adapt their tools better to the user re-quirements, especially by developing integrative software systems.