An Example for Management Strategies & TechAssess

Continuing on the subject of using both TechAssess and Management Strategies, I will provide an example of the benefit for managing portfolios. When we plotted TechAssess scores on the horizontal axis and management strategies on the vertical axis, we obtained a scatter plot of all cases by licensing manager. In the upper half of the plot, shown below, you can see that each person is marked in a different color. Mine are red.

Top portion of the Management Stretegy v TechAssess Score

The management strategy, Protect & Market, is one that consumes the most time. It involves a launching a patent strategy and aggressively marketing the technology. The second strategy, Market First, foregoes patenting and enters the case in a Customer Discovery marketing effort just to see if the technology is viable. It doesn't consume as much time.

The third, Hold, consumes very little time and basically places the technology on hold, waiting for some trigger event. I remember when my director asked me about the circled case. It has a high score (it looks like a 73 or 74), but is in the third tier management strategy and placed on hold. "Why?" he asked.

Hovering over the point in the excel spreadsheet identified the case. "Oh, well," I said, "that is the third disclosure in a set for a fairly nice technology. But, the technology is unlicensed, and rather than increasing the amount we have already invested in it, I'd rather see if I can get interest in the first two." He agreed that "Hold" was a valid strategy in this case, but it shows you how the chart can empowers the Director to have the answers to later questions from inventors and administrators.