The Point of Novelty Report, or PON Report as I call it, is our best “magic trick” and it provides a ton of value to our client.
Clients who have tried it keep coming back and asking for additional PON Reports because they recognize the value.
The Point of Novelty determines every ensuing action we take in the 7 Step Strategic Patent Assessment.
The PON is at the center of everything we do in the claims, it is at the center of everything we do during prosecution, and it is going to determine whether or not we can survive litigation if the patent were ever enforced.
Portfolio clients—those who have from tens to thousands of patents under management—are getting our PON reports over and over again.
For most patent-sophisticated companies, the completion of Steps 1—3 is often all they need from us, concluding with the Point of Novelty Report.
Without giving away the details of our unique and proprietary report, I want to make the case for how this report creates substantial financial value.
One particular Fortune 100 patent portfolio manager is responsible for a couple of thousand patents. This individual works with many law firms every day and says that no other firm has figured out how to do this step that we do.
That is a powerful indication that we are on to something here. What I want to talk about is the financial benefits to our clients.
Step 3 of the 7 Step Strategic Patent Assessment—the Point of Novelty Report—allows us to answer the most valuable question at this stage: what inventions our clients should not spend their money on.
Step 3: Articulate A Clear Point Of Novelty In A Single Sentence
For purposes of discussion, let’s assume a typical lifetime cost of a U.S. patent is $30,000 on the low end, and can easily range up to over $100,000 for international patent families.
Let’s just say conservatively that $30,000 is what a client will spend on a patent over the 20-year life of a patent.
That includes drafting it, getting the patent filed, paying all the government fees, doing all the patent prosecution through the Patent Office procedures, and then paying maintenance fees every four years after the patent issues.
We routinely find bad patents that should never have been pursued in the first place—we find them early on in the process.
By weeding out bad ideas early we can easily save our client that $30,000. Based upon our track record, our experience of refining our seven step process and the work we do for our current clients, we are knocking out about three out of ten ideas.
For every ten patents a client would have filed, they are now only filing seven, so they are saving three times $30,000. That’s $90,000 of savings right there!
If a company is filing ten patents a month, or even ten patents a year, $90,000 is a good chunk of change.
That is good money. It is enough money to hire a good engineer and pay benefits for a year!
For additional clarification of financial data, please consider these graphs and cost savings analysis, further described in Craige Thompson’s #1 Amazon Best seller, Patent Offense.
