By employing patent and trademark surveillance or “watch” services, your company can quickly identify emerging competitive threats, including potentially infringing activities, before those competitors can firmly establish themselves in your hard-won markets.
These watch services can report, at any desired frequency, all patent publications that meet specific criteria. For example, they can monitor publications that:
- Include specific keywords;
- Are linked to particular competitors; and/or
- Relate to defined subject matter classifications of interest.
Tracking the concepts described in a competitor’s patent publications allows your company to understand their strategic initiatives, including those that pose the greatest threat. This insight is often gained long before these strategies become apparent in the marketplace. Such timely awareness enables your company to take appropriate countermeasures, such as developing new innovations and filing patent applications that create a substantial barrier, potentially deterring competitors from pursuing their threatening research and development efforts.
Similarly, if a mark watch service alerts your company becomes to a newly published registration application that appears to infringe on one or more of your company’s marks, you can take proactive measures. For example, your company might be able to successfully “oppose” the registration of that mark, thereby preventing its owner from federally registering it.
By leveraging watch services, your company can gain a competitive advantage through:
- Rapid detection of potential threats;
- Informed strategic planning based on competitor activities; and/or
- Protection of intellectual property through timely opposition to infringing applications.
Overall, these surveillance services can be crucial in maintaining and defending your company’s market position by staying ahead of competitors, thwarting their innovation efforts, and protecting your intellectual property.