Aiming For More Patents Can Hurt IP Portfolio Value

Every year, executives at major companies showcase the number of patents they have filed and/or have been granted. They often use these statistics as a proxy for their level of innovation and to justify their legal spend. The resulting race to get the highest number of patents can result in the unintended consequence of a weak (and expensive) IP portfolio.

If a primary metric for business success is the number of patents, ambitious managers who want to get their year-end bonuses may push to proliferate patent filings for lower value technology. Another way to boost year end numbers is to make multiple filings where a single filing would be more appropriate (and cheaper). Similarly, patent claims may be unduly narrowed, significantly depreciating the value of the issued patent, to get speedy allowances to increase the number of issued patents. This is simply rational behaviour driven by arbitrary metrics.