At your service
Earlier this year WIPR, in association with Brandstock, undertook a survey to delve into the IP service provider industry and try to find out how the dynamics of the sector are changing.
Here’s an executive summary of what we found out. A full report will be available at www.worldipreview.com.
The majority (71%) of respondents to our survey work at law/trademark firms, while 15% who answered are part of a company that owns trademarks (but not a law firm). Other respondents included investors, IP consultants and blockchain providers.
The current picture
Trademark searching was by far the most popular activity being outsourced by respondents (either themselves or on behalf of their clients), with nearly 50% of respondents doing this. Its popularity is perhaps a reflection of the vital importance of searching to trademark ownership (and the dire consequences of a failure to search), but also an acknowledgment that service providers have the capabilities to conduct comprehensive searches quickly and efficiently.
Searching was followed by trademark renewals (34%) and trademark filings (36%) as the next two most popular elements to outsource.
On the other side of the spectrum, licensing, payments and competitive analysis were least likely to be aourced to providers—less than 14% of respondents undertake these options.
Despite this, when asked what services respondents would like to see available in the market which are not currently provided satisfactorily, none mentioned licensing, payments or competitive analysis as areas to improve.
While this may suggest respondents are happy with their in-house operations in these areas, it might also mean that service providers are perhaps not doing enough to push these options to clients.
One quarter of respondents outsource their anti-counterfeiting efforts, and one in five outsource their docketing and workflow management, while analytics and records averaged 17%.
Respondents raised anti-counterfeiting and docketing and workflow management as areas that could be improved, with one recommending that IP service providers offer an anti-counterfeiting news exchange, and another noting that improved infringement analysis tools could be developed.
An eye on the future
Analytics is the most popular choice of work that respondents are considering for future outsourcing, perhaps reflecting the advances made in this area and the capabilities of service providers. However, trademark searching comes a close second with 29% of respondents stating that they would consider outsourcing it in the future. Add that to the nearly 50% who are already outsourcing, and searching proves a very popular option.
