Empowering IP professionals
A BBC report from March 2018 highlighted the potential of quantum computing—a breakthrough in technology that is expected to completely transform the capability of computers to solve challenging science and engineering problems. Disruption in the digital age continues to gather pace, and every business and industry will be impacted.
Having worked in R&D and product strategy, I have seen how technology has transformed other industries and I see no signs that the pace of innovation is decreasing.
CPA Global was founded in 1969 as Computer Patent Annuities; technology and IP are our core DNA. By applying 50 years of technology expertise to The IP Platform, we bring together accurate IP data and simplify common tasks through apps and software that support our customers across the entire idea lifecycle. Tasks such as filing, renewals and docketing are automated within The IP Platform, providing users with an instant overview of global progress across their IP network.
More innovation, more filing, more work
Innovation is speeding up and this has resulted in an unprecedented number of filings—international patent applications rose 4.5% in 2017, the eighth consecutive year of growth, according to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) statistics.
With companies globalising at breakneck pace, the only way to manage IP growth is through connected technology. The next global revolution is happening through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate manual processes and extract relevant decision support data from huge sets of data in real time. This has the potential to identify significant trends by analysing petabytes of IP data, quickly and simply. What will this mean? Will IP professionals be replaced by machines?
I believe over the next decade the industry will experience huge levels of change and disruption, much of it driven by technology. Anxiety over the role technology will play in the future is entirely understandable, but history has repeatedly shown that innovation drives liberation. Technology enables humans to achieve greater things.
What the industry really needs
A new study from CPA Global (“Global research study into law firms and corporate IP departments”) canvassed the views of law firms and corporates regarding the future of the IP industry and the role technology can play. Our survey asked what law firms perceived as the top challenges they would be facing over the next three years. The responses highlighted the challenges of delivering higher service levels and keeping pace with rapidly transforming technology.
Corporates had similar issues. Corporate IP professionals are heavily prioritising the need to align IP strategy with business strategy to make good decisions in selecting, protecting, maintaining and commercialising IP.
Technology has a huge role to play in addressing the needs of law firms to increase efficiency and those of corporate IP professionals to generate improved insight for better business decision-making.
The role of technology in the IP industry
IP is a complex industry driven by a community of connected people. It has challenges and issues that mean almost every individual case of protection, renewal or prosecution is unique. Jeopardy is extremely high: mistakes could cost millions. The industry involves considerable risk unless specific expertise is constantly applied.
Innovators have relied on an ecosystem of trusted partners, built up over many years, with specific expertise in industries, geographies or both. These relationships deliver the most effective protection for ideas at the lowest possible risk. This is not to say that technology does not have a role. The challenge is how to apply technology that drives improved automation, but not at the expense of the specialist knowledge and years of expertise that are contained within the ecosystem.
Creating a new model for the IP ecosystem
After spending more than 15 years in IP management, and developing my own IP technology company, Ipendo, I have spent much of the last two years addressing this challenge. The IP Platform from CPA Global is the first step towards bringing together technology, services and tools that will help innovators and IP professionals drive efficiencies and make better-informed decisions. Our mission is to ensure that the expertise central to the IP ecosystem continues to exist and is enhanced by technology.
Many of our customers have asked why we created an IP platform to support the ecosystem when we already have market-leading solutions. It would have been simple for CPA Global, as the market leader in IP management, to have continued to deliver our suite of software and services unconnected. Instead we have decided to disrupt our own market with a connected suite of services and software that can generate enhanced value for a new generation of innovators.
