Practical Suggestions For Successfully Developing A Patent Portfolio In A Software Company

Originally published on 27 February, 2001

The development of an effective patent portfolio strategy for a software company, whether large or small requires a coordinated set of processes which address training, motivation and reward, and efficient application development. Each of these areas will be discussed in terms of today’s cultural environment as perceived by the author. This perception is based upon experiences gained in managing programmers/software engineers for 20 years in the development of scientific and commercial applications and systems, and over six years of software patent prosecution and helping to build a patent portfolio at Sun Microsystems, Inc. The thoughts and suggestions are those of the author and are not necessarily the views of nor endorsed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.