Using the technology subdomain segmentation first conducted on the company’s portfolio, those supporting and stranded portfolios are quickly evaluated for probability that the licensing-out activities might produce a positive return to the company. Key overall factors evaluated for this purpose are shown in the “Portfolios For Licensing-Out” figure. If the portfolio possesses a sufficient number of promising patents by this analysis, a detailed licensing transaction study is performed.

Although newspaper headlines tell a different story, with litigation in the forefront, the fact remains that most IP is created with the idea of keeping competitors out of the market while the inventor or employer builds a business around the inventors’ inventions. For most corporations, patents act as a deterrent against honorable competition, not against patent trolls or non-practicing entities (NPEs). When this is the case, a high value activity when managing the company’s portfolio is to remove or prune art that does not serve the primary business need.