[January 26, 2016]

New Research from Lecorpio - Patent Program Benchmarking Survey Results Reveal How IP-Focused Companies Reward and Engage Inventors

Lecorpio, the leader in intellectual property (IP) management and analytics software solutions, recently conducted a Patent Program Benchmarking Survey to measure how companies are actively engaging with inventors, how they are communicating with them, and how they are rewarding them.

Elisa (News - Alert) Cooper, VP of Marketing at Lecorpio, explains, "As expected, the survey shows that most IP-focused companies are financially rewarding their inventors at patent milestones including invention disclosure, patent filing, and issuance. However, we were surprised to learn that only 58% of respondents are tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge quality, quantity and efficiency since corporate executives are often keenly interested in accountability derived by objective metrics."

Survey highlights include:

• 80% of responding companies provide financial incentives for their inventors. Most incentivize upon patent filing or issuance rather than invention disclosure. Incentive amounts varied widely from <$100 to $5000 paid upon patent filing, and between <$100 to $3000 paid at invention disclosure submission and patent issuance benchmarks.
• Non-financial awards for inventors include plaques (91%) recognition at company meetings (66%), formal awards dinners (61%), and tiered awards for inventor achievement levels depending on number of patent applications filed (32%).
• Only 28% of respondents track top inventors and provide them with additional assistance.
• IP departments engage with inventors frequently, particularly engineering/R&D with 77% communicating on a weekly basis. However, only 33% had weekly contact with product management.
• 42% of respondents are not tracking any KPIs to measure the success of their patent program. However, of the 58% that are tracking KPIs, most focus on Quantity KPIs with half as many tracking Quality and Efficiency KPIs.
• The America Invents Act (AIA) which awards patents to the entity first-to-file, not first-to-invent, has had an impact, with 64% of firms saying AIA has either significantly or somewhat impacted its patent program. Because of AIA, these companies say they are taking some steps to speed the time between invention disclosure identification/submission and filing.

Respondents to the survey were primarily IP lawyers at corporate legal departments in the United States. The largest contingent came from the technology industry (68%) followed by manufacturing (18%), consumer products (6%), and healthcare, non-profit and energy/utilities (each 3%).

Survey report is available upon request to [email protected].

About Lecorpio, LLC

Lecorpio, the leader in IP management and analytics software solutions, helps innovative companies quickly turn ideas into assets. The company's enterprise-class suite of applications spans the entire IP supply chain, including invention disclosure management, patent and trademark management, e-billing, licensing management and general matters management. The Lecorpio solution includes powerful workflow capabilities that easily configure to a company's business process and includes an IP dashboard with over 160 KPIs.

Primarily marketed to corporate law departments specializing in IP matters, Lecorpio's adaptable IP management software-as-a-service creates one central repository for IP information. Lecorpio's powerful solution simplifies data management processes for attorneys and paralegals through the entire IP lifecycle, from invention disclosure to patent management to billing, monetization and litigation. Also, Lecorpio helps clients to control costs by automating processes and increasing efficiency.

Lecorpio is used by 5 of the top 20 most active US patent filers, in addition to well-known innovators such as Adobe, T-Mobile, Analog Devices, Rockwell Automation, NEC, NetApp and Red Hat (News - Alert). Visit www.lecorpio.com for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160126005574/en/

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