As shown in the “Agile/Lean Integration” figure, the goal of the IP supporting personnel should be to integrate their activities into the agile development methodology. This means the project development team should be IP-educated before entering into the planning phase where initial IP priorities are identified. In the sprint phase, inventions can be mined and in the user review phase, provisional patent filings are made. During the retrospective phase, IP protection strategies can be reviewed, confirmed and finalized. Using this rhythm, each iteration of the agile project provides a subsequent opportunity to further refine the IP capture/protection strategy. The resulting product can then be reviewed prior to release to identify further opportunities for (domestic and international) patent filings and other protection mechanisms (e.g., trademark and copyright registrations, end-user license agreements, etc.).