According to McKinsey 84% of CEOs believe innovation is essential for businesses to thrive in today’s fast-paced market. But managing innovation can be complex and challenging, especially without the right tools and resources. 

Many companies have turned to HYPE Innovation, a popular software tool for idea and innovation management, to help them navigate these challenges.

However HYPE Innovation may not be the best fit for every business due to its pricing, lack of customization, and ease of use or other factors.

Fortunately, plenty of HYPE Innovation alternatives & competitors are available that businesses can use to manage innovation more effectively. We evaluated and compiled a list of the top 5 HYPE Innovation alternatives to pick the best option to assist you in the patent mining process.

But first, we’ll start with a brief introduction of HYPE Innovation, followed by essential features to look for in an alternative and a comprehensive review of alternatives.

Overview of HYPE Innovation

HYPE Innovation is a cloud-based solution for managing the entire innovation life cycle, from trend identification to implementation. The platform provides various tools for facilitating ideation, collaboration, project tracking, front-end portfolio administration, evaluation, and implementation.

Downside of Using HYPE Innovation:

• HYPE Innovation might be expensive if you are a small business or startup with limited budgets.
• Some users find HYPE Innovation too complex to use and understand, leading to a steep learning curve and inefficiencies in their innovation process.
• Certain users were dissatisfied with HYPE Innovation due to its limited internal reporting options for the metrics customers desired to monitor.
• According to some users, HYPE Innovation may not provide sufficient customization options to meet specific customers’ requirements.

Pricing: 

Pricing is currently not provided – please inquire with HYPE.

Who Is It For:

Mid-size businesses and large enterprises

What to Look For in a HYPE Innovation Alternative?

There are several reliable HYPE Innovation alternatives worth exploring, but the initial step is determining the criteria for evaluating a replacement for HYPE Innovation.

Outlined below are five points to consider when replacing HYPE Innovation:

• Allows users to include custom fields in the Invention Disclosure Form to meet the specific needs of their enterprise
• Helps users to capture and vet the best idea electronically
• Helps users determine the likelihood of getting a patent for their idea at the patent office
• Keeps users informed about status changes in their published or unpublished patent applications at the USPTO.
• Enables users to try the software for free before committing to using it

Hype Innovation: Alternatives to Checkout in 2023

We’re here to assist you in exploring and choosing the best innovative solution that not only enables efficient employee ideation through crowdsourcing but also reduces your dependence on external intellectual property advisors for patent-related issues, resulting in decreased expenditures on legal services from outside sources. 

Hype Innovation Alternatives #1: The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP is a drag-and-drop tool that simplifies complex IP management and patenting processes by providing smart data and analytics. The tool makes patent mining open and accessible to all stakeholders.

Key Benefits Offered by the TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP

#1 – Elevate the Quantity and Quality of Invention Disclosures

The TIP Tool^TM provides an easy-to-use invention disclosure form that appeals to innovators across your company. The idea submission portal is accessible to all, making it more straightforward to collect various creative ideas.

Organizations can customize the invention disclosure form to meet their unique requirements by adding, editing, deleting, or hiding fields. The TIP Tool^TM allows users to display only relevant fields for a specific stage, such as removing prosecutor information during the innovation capture stage.

The TIP Tool^TM allows for enterprise-wide participation in innovation management while safeguarding the confidentiality of IP-related data.

Users can tag patentable ideas with specific technology-related keywords, product categories, or business functions, facilitating easy idea filtering. Furthermore, innovators can attach supplementary materials, such as documents or slide decks, to better illustrate their innovations.

#2 – Visualize Various Stages of Your Patent Pipeline  

The TIP Tool^TM lets users keep track of the progress of their ideas as they move through the different stages of the IP lifecycle: idea capture, internal vetting, patent drafting, and filing. 

The tool makes sure that users always know what is going on with their ideas, whether they are being reviewed or are on their way to a patent attorney for drafting or filing.

The drag-and-drop feature of the TIP Tool^TM also makes it easy for users to move their ideas through the different stages of development.

#3 – Collaborate With Stakeholders in Real-Time to Brainstorm Ideas

The TIP Tool^TM enables real-time collaboration and brainstorming among inventors, prosecutors, and managers in remote locations. The tool facilitates a comprehensive vetting process that guarantees the selection of the most innovative concepts for patenting.

To capture the finest ideas within the company, collaborators can utilize the TIP Tool^TM during online meetings to brainstorm patentable ideas, revise idea summaries, add tags, and examine comments. Using the tool is as simple as working with Google Docs.

Furthermore, the TIP Tool^TM tracks all changes made to the idea summary, including who made them.

#4 – Optimize Your IP Budget Allocation

The TIP Tool^TM offers patent analytics to help users with budget allocation for patenting. With the tool, you can calculate the likelihood that a patent will be approved and the related expenses, such as filing, legal, and maintenance fees. 

Such insights help you to allocate your IP budget based on anticipated patent expenses and only use patents to protect your most important inventions.

Moreover, the TIP Tool^TM analyzes millions of applications. It uses actionable intelligence to ascertain the possibilities of success at the patent office, allowing you to concentrate on concepts more likely to be accepted.

#5 – Receive Automatic USPTO Status Updates

The TIP Tool^TM automatically lets users track published and unpublished patent application status at the USPTO. So you are no longer required to consult outside legal counsel to stay current with the USPTO.

The TIP Tool^TM instantly notifies users of any required action from the USPTO. Additionally, the Private PAIR scraping feature allows you to obtain patent applications submitted to the USPTO that still need to be made public. But don’t worry – all your data and Private keys are secure and confidential and no one at Triangle IP has access to it.

#6 – Accelerate Your Patent Prosecution

The TIP Tool^TM offers statistics on the patent attorney and examiner working on your case. The USPTO assigns an examiner when you file a patent application to determine if your claimed invention satisfies legal requirements. 

With the help of the TIP Tool^TM, you may follow and keep an eye on your patent counsel’s progress through this process.

You can use the tool to estimate the expense and complexity of the prosecution procedure by using statistics like allowance rates and the typical number of argument rounds. 

The TIP Tool^TM also offers patent analytics that compare your case to others in the same art unit, under the same examiner, or represented by the same law firm. Such insights from the tip tool help you to have a more productive conversation with your patent attorney.

#7 – Visualize Your Idea and Patent Pipeline with a Holistic View

The TIP Tool^TM‘s user-friendly dashboard enables you to monitor the development of your team and keep up with all submitted ideas and patent applications. 

The dashboard offers a summary of your innovation pipeline, emphasizing manager and inventor participation and any potential bottlenecks.

This summary makes it simple to see where your team can benefit from additional assistance. 

For instance, you can instantly identify the bottleneck and take appropriate action if an idea spends too much time in the brainstorming and vetting stages.

Inventors and managers can also benefit from role-specific access, which enables them to properly monitor their IP activities and keep them in line with their key performance indicators. 

Who Is This For?

The TIP Tool^TM is helpful for startups, individual creators, small to medium-sized businesses, and patent attorneys.

Pricing

The TIP Tool^TM provides a free tier (forever, up to 10 users). Its premium tier costs $50 per month and $495 per year. The TIP ToolTM has a custom tier as well. To learn more, visit its 

pricing page.

Customer Review

According to a review, the TIP Tool^TM is a wonderful innovation capture tool.

Website: 

To explore further, check the TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP

Demo

Sign up for an interactive product demo to experience the TIP Tool^TM‘s features.

Hype Innovation Alternatives #2: IdeaBridge

Plus Innovations’ IdeaBridge is a leading software that enables businesses to effectively manage costs, innovate new products or services, and enhance employee engagement levels throughout the organization. 

Additionally, IdeaBridge assists users in utilizing Hackathons to promote collaboration among employees and diverse teams.

Key Benefits Offered by IdeaBridge 

#1 – Enhance Savings

Ideabridge predicts ROI for their customers by assessing the revenue, cost, and timeline of ideas.

#2 – Adapt with Ideabridge

Ideabridge enables users to adapt more easily to changing markets and consumer behavior.

Who Is This For?

Large businesses, MSMEs, the government, the pharmaceutical and medical industries, education, finance, creative design and digital agencies, etc.

Pricing

Pricing is unavailable-contact Ideabridge for more details.

Customer Review

Here’s a screenshot of a Capterra review, and to explore more reviews, click here.

Website

To learn more about Ideabridge, click here 

Demo

Click here to book your demo

Hype Innovation Alternatives #3: ITONICS Innovation OS

ITONICS is a comprehensive innovation management SaaS platform that operates on a distinctive AI-based infrastructure, which promotes teamwork and delivers a single source of reliable information to establish and execute successful strategies. 

Key Benefits Offered by ITONICS Innovation OS

#1 – Customize Software Modules Easily

The software modules are adaptable and help users to customize it to suit their organization’s requirements and established best practices.

#2 – Connect Strategy and Innovation

The ITONICS methodology and tools, which can also be managed by a small team, connect strategy, innovation, and execution.

Who Is This For?

Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer Goods, Defense, Energy, Engineering & Manufacturing, Finance & Insurance, High-tech & Electronics, IT & Telecommunication, Life Science & Healthcare, Oil & Gas, Pharma

Pricing

Pricing is currently not provided -please inquire with ITONICS.

Customer Review

Here’s a screenshot of a Capterra review, and to explore more reviews, click here.

Website

To explore further click here

Demo

Click here to get started with a free demo

Hype Innovation Alternatives #4: Planview IdeaPlace

Planview IdeaPlace lets users crowdsource ideas for new markets or products, streamline operations, increase employee engagement, and improve consumer experiences. 

Key Benefits Offered by Planview IdeaPlace

#1 – Planview IdeaPlace Dashboard: Forecast Outcomes and Gauge Success

Forecast potential outcomes, costs, and the worth of crowdsourced ideas with Planview’s dashboards, which also enable enterprises to gauge the success of their challenges by comparing performance to industry benchmarks.

#2 – Eliminate Bias in Concept Selection with Planview’s Algorithms

Planview offers unique algorithms that remove bias and subjectivity from selecting concepts. This is achieved by leveraging user estimations related to idea implementation costs, time, and potential revenue.

Who Is This For?

Built to scale for every enterprise. (Large Enterprises, Mid Size Businesses, and Small Businesses)

Pricing

Price is unavailable-contact Planview IdeaPlace for more details.

Customer Review: Customer Review: You can find a G2 review screenshot below, and to access additional reviews, please click here.

Website

To explore further about Planview IdeaPlace, click here.

Demo

Request a demo through this form

Hype Innovation Alternatives #5: InnovationCast

InnovationCast is a platform for collaborative innovation management that assists users in creating and implementing ideas. The platform’s cloud-based capabilities include an innovation radar, engagement and recognition, analytics, opportunities, and projects.

Key Benefits Offered by InnovationCast

#1 – Monitor Metrics in Real-Time

Innovation Cast offers an analytics module that provides real-time insights on various metrics, including adoption, engagement, collaboration, reactions to content, active demographics, projected vs actual performance, and more

#2 – Analyze Competitive Environment

InnovationCast makes it possible to monitor and analyze the environment – this provides valuable insights on various topics, including competitor behavior, industry trends, and other relevant factors. 

Who Is This For?

Large Enterprises, Mid Size Businesses, Non-Profit, Public Administrations, Small Businesses

Pricing

Price starts at $2499.00/ per month and goes up to $5999/per month

Customer Review

A screenshot of a Capterra review is shown below; if you want to read additional reviews, follow this link and scroll down.

Website

Click here to learn more about InnovationCast. 

Demo

To schedule a demo, fill up this form.

Quick Wrap Up

A patent mining process is broken without software that streamlines the journey of ideas to patents. Selecting the best patent management software isn’t simple. However, a suitable software solution must:

• Provides an invention disclosure form that offers a streamlined process for innovators to submit their ideas, minimizing potential friction.
• Enables seamless collaboration among subject matter experts to improve an idea by facilitating simultaneous editing of the idea summary, adding comments to the summary, and tracking modifications made to ideas.
• Provides dashboards tailored to the needs of your inventors, managers, and patent practitioners – giving them a comprehensive view of ideas, inventor activity, management activity, filed applications, and patents. 
• Offers patent analytics to make informed IP decisions.
• Encourage innovation by rewarding staff for coming up with new ideas.

About Us

The TIP Tool^TM from Triangle IP is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop tool that helps you manage the whole IP process, from ideas to patents. The tool uses algorithms for deep learning to assist you in fine-tuning your patent prosecution strategy for the best results – taking patent mining in your business to the next level. 

There are several dummy sets of pre-existing patents and ideas that come with the tool. These patents and ideas are made up to show how the tool works and give people a chance to see what the tool has to offer.

Additionally, with the TIP Tool^TM, you can quickly and effectively check the statuses of your published and unpublished patent applications thanks to its automatic syncs with the USPTO.

The tool puts you in charge of your IP cycle by giving you a kanban view of the whole process.

Register for TIP Tool^TM today to make patent handling easier, more transparent, and more efficient.

Brightidea is a top idea management platform with 2.5 million users that connects and manages innovation initiatives, facilitates collaboration over ideas, and allows tracking progress. 

Despite its popularity, Brightidea reviews show many customers have complained about its reporting capabilities, outdated interface, and slow performance.

Looking for Brightidea alternatives to crowdsource ideas from your entire workforce to fuel your innovation and patent pipelines? This post introduces three options with similar features and insightful reviews.

What to Look For in Brightidea Alternatives

When considering alternatives to Brightidea, it is important to make sure you know the key features of an idea management tool that’s valuable to you. 

• Helps in capturing enterprise-wide innovation 
• Offers an inventor-friendly idea capture form
• Tracks idea progress across various stages of the patent pipeline – idea capture, internal vetting, patent drafting, patent filing
• Allows subject matter experts to collaborate to refine an idea electronically
• Offers intuitive dashboard to track key performance indicators of innovators

• Offers a holistic view of the idea and patent pipelines to identify bottlenecks
• Provides role-specific dashboards enabling inventors and managers to stay aligned with their KPIs. 

Your reasons for considering a Brightidea alternative will vary based on your required level of sophistication. 

However, the need to protect your ideas by obtaining a patent, preventing others from stealing your concept, and bringing your product to the market will likely remain constant.

Check out what Thomas Franklin, founder of Triangle IP, has to say about the right time to patent an idea.

Source: LinkedIn

Top 3 Brightidea Alternatives to Try in 2023

We’re here to assist you in exploring and selecting the most appropriate idea management software to help you crowdsource ideas from employees more effectively, starting with the TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP.

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP makes managing the entire intellectual property lifecycle from ideation to patenting hassle-free. This tool provides a user-friendly solution that enables anyone in the organization to submit and track innovative ideas effortlessly.

Key Benefits Offered by the TIP Tool^TM 

#1 – Capture Ideas Enterprise-Wide

The root cause of empty innovation funnels is typically not a lack of ideas. Instead, organizations often need help to ensure that good ideas are acknowledged and acted upon. 

Since valuable ideas can emerge from anyone in the organization, be it front-line employees or the R&D department, the idea submission platform by the TIP Tool^TM can be made available to all employees across the enterprise.

The TIP Tool™ enables the entire organization to participate in patent mining while keeping IP-related data confidential. This safeguarding feature ensures that patentable ideas can be shared without the risk of unintentional public disclosure.

#2 – Optimize Employee Engagement in the Patent Process 

The TIP Tool^TM facilitates active engagement with innovators by providing a user-friendly idea capture form. 

The TIP Tool^TM‘s versatility is apparent in its ability to download idea capture forms in both Word and Excel formats, which can be imported back into the tool after filling it. The tool also allows users to customize the forms to meet their enterprise-specific requirements.

The tool allows users to track their ideas’ progress, whether they are undergoing evaluation or awaiting drafting or filing by a patent attorney.

#3 – Categorize Ideas Related to a Product, Technology, or Campaign Using Tags

The TIP Tool^TM provides a seamless way to engage with innovators through tags and comments. With tags, users can organize and filter ideas by criteria like technology, product, or function.

The TIP Tool^TM also allows users to filter ideas based on information such as inventor, manager, serial number, examiner, prosecutor, firm, and others. 

The TIP Tool^TM‘s tagging system is a game changer when searching for ideas belonging to a particular group. 

#4 – Drag-And-Drop Ideas with Ease Across Different Stages

The TIP Tool^TM simplifies idea management throughout the IP lifecycle, from idea capture to patent filing. The tool’s drag-and-drop feature enables users to seamlessly move ideas from one stage to the next, instantly informing all stakeholders of any updates or changes.

The TIP Tool^TM gives users full control of their innovation management process, promoting employee participation in the patent process and encouraging inventors to keep their innovation funnel full.

#5 – Collaborate in Real-Time for Thorough Vetting of Ideas

The TIP Tool^TM lets subject matter experts collaborate and communicate in real-time, just like they would do in person. 

During online brainstorming meetings, collaborators can use the tool to update idea summaries, add tags, and read comments to capture the best ideas from your company. It’s a lot like working with Google Docs.

The TIP Tool^TM also tracks who made changes to the idea summary and when they were made. By giving your team the right tools for working together, you can encourage a thorough review of ideas and select the most promising ones to patent.

#6 – Keep a Tab on Idea and Patent Pipelines

The TIP Tool^TM provides you with a holistic view of ideas, inventor activity, manager activity, filed patent applications, and patents through informative and customized dashboards.

Stay on top of the innovations at your enterprise – Access a comprehensive list of ideas and patents submitted by your team in one central platform. Easily track which innovators are working on which projects with just a few clicks. 

Identify Promising Inventors & Managers – With the TIP ToolTM, you can monitor the IP-related activity of your inventors and managers. This includes identifying which innovator has submitted the highest number of ideas or filed the most patents. 

Give Role-Specific Access – To ensure that inventors and managers stay aligned with their KPIs, and the TIP ToolTM offers role-specific dashboards that enable them to track their IP-related activity.

Identify Bottlenecks – If an idea remains in the ideation and vetting stages for an extended period beyond expectation, it signals that it requires your attention.

Key Differentiators

The TIP Tool^TM adopts a comprehensive strategy beyond merely gathering and analyzing ideas. The tool covers every step, from managing ideas to patent portfolios. It also strengthens your IP decision-making by providing patent analytics. 

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP was started to address the basic problems with managing a patent portfolio.  

With the help of the TIP Tool^TM, innovation managers with non-IP backgrounds can also easily manage the enterprise’s innovation funnel and patent pipeline.

User’s Perspective

According to a review, the TIP Tool^TM is very user-friendly and has a useful drag-and-drop capability that makes it simple to move ideas between stages. The idea form is simple and intuitive, making it easy for innovators to complete.

Who Is This For?

Startups, individual inventors, small-to-medium-sized enterprises, and patent practitioners greatly benefit from using the TIP Tool^TM.

Pricing

The TIP Tool^TM provides a free tier (forever, up to 10 users). Its premium tier costs $50 per month and $495 per year. The TIP ToolTM has a custom tier as well. To learn more, visit its pricing page.

Website: To explore further, check Triangle IP

Demo: Sign up for an interactive product demo to experience the TIP Tool^TM‘s features.

Wazoku

Wazoku is collaborative idea management software that allows organizations to collect, evaluate, rank, and choose the best ideas from users in a structured way.

Key Differentiators & Benefits

#1 – Collaborate and Innovate

Wazoku helps you create private groups and forums within Wazoku’s platform to collect ideas from internal contributors and external audiences. The platform also allows commenting, voting, and adding suggestions to collected ideas.

#2 – Review Ideas and Execute

Wazoku’s review boards enable stakeholders to evaluate and discuss the shortlisted ideas, then decide which ones to pursue and execute.

#3 – Track and Analyze Performance

Users can visualize and assess innovators’ activities using dashboard and reports. Moreover, they can export this data for further analysis.

User’s Perspective

The latest G2 review reports that Wazoku streamlines the process of gathering ideas, making it simple and structured for anyone with a company email to participate flexibly and intuitively.

Who is this For?

Mostly large enterprises

Pricing: Users need to submit this form to know the pricing details.

Website: You can explore further by visiting Wazoku

Demo: Click here to book a demo with them

Miro

Miro enables teams of all kinds to accelerate innovation and unlock creativity by providing an online visual collaborative whiteboard platform.

Key Differentiators & Benefits

#1 – Real-Time Collaboration with Miro

Miro helps users to collaborate in real-time with its powerful visual tools. Users can communicate and discuss projects and ideas using board chats, tagged comments, and voice and video calls, perfect for remote teams.

#2 – Gain a better understanding

Gain a better understanding of the big picture with Miro. Instead of emails and text chats, users can see projects as a whole and quickly zoom in for more details, saving time on unnecessary communication.

#3 – Streamline Creative Workflows

Miro enables users to organize creative workflows with ease. The tool is perfect for design thinking and creative concepts, allowing individuals and teams to collect ideas, use post-it notes and wireframes, and share them with team members and clients.

User’s Perspective

As per the recent review on G2, Miro provides a user-friendly set of wireframing tools suitable for individuals who wish to quickly sketch their ideas without using complex design tools such as Figma or InVision.

Who is this For?

Large Enterprises, Mid Size Businesses, and Small Businesses

Pricing: Free to use. Premium price starts at $8 per user/month.

Website: You can explore further by visiting Miro

Demo: Users need to contact the sales team at Miro to book a demo.

A Quick Wrap Up

In this article, we have provided thorough information to help you choose an alternative to Brightidea tailored to your business needs. Whether you’re a startup, a Fortune 500 company, a corporate IP team, or an individual inventor without an IP background or patent expertise, there is a suitable tool available for you.

If you are a medium-sized enterprise and innovation manager without an IP background, it’s essential to look for tools that provide the following:

• An easy-to-use, customizable idea capture form
• Collaborative features to work with stakeholders and track idea modifications asynchronously
• Dashboards to visualize the idea-to-protection journey and monitor IP activity within your company
• Estimations of end-to-end patenting costs to better manage IP budgets 
• Patent analytics to make informed patenting decisions and calibrate patent prosecution strategy

About Us

Triangle IP’s TIP Tool^TM is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop tool that assists you in managing the whole IP lifecycle, from concepts to patents. The technology was developed with the intention of democratizing patents. The patenting process is often opaque, and many businesses need enterprise-wide invention capture methods and procedures. 

With the TIP tool, anyone in the company can submit and follow the development of their creative ideas. The TIP Tool^TM also helps manage your patent portfolios using deep learning to calibrate your patent prosecution strategy for better results.

Take patent mining at your enterprise to the next level with the TIP Tool^TM. To explore further, register on the tool now. The tool comes with a pre-loaded dummy patent portfolio to make it easy for you to explore its capabilities.

Employers who turn to enterprise innovation software often do so because they struggle to manage patentable ideas using generic tools like Jira, Salesforce, and Asana.

Although you can configure these tools to meet the specific needs of any business, they are not built to handle patentable ideas.

So enterprises need a tool that offers the following features:

• Enterprise-wide innovation capture
• An inventor-friendly and customizable idea capture form to improve the quantity and quality of invention disclosures
• Idea tracking across various stages of the patent pipeline – idea capture, internal vetting, patent drafting, patent filing
• Real-time collaboration for thorough vetting of ideas to select only the promising ones for patenting
• Prediction on likelihood of getting a patent
• Automatic USPTO status updates
• Access to patent counsel, examiner, and art unit analytics to make informed decisions while prosecuting patents
• A holistic view of the idea and patent pipelines to identify and eliminate bottlenecks
• Informative dashboards to track KPIs of innovators
• One-click view of complete patent portfolio

The biggest advantage of using enterprise innovation software is that it helps you manage innovation in a way that aligns with your company’s broader strategic goals and objectives.

In this post, we run through the key benefits of using the TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP for startups, individual inventors, small-to-medium-sized enterprises, and patent practitioners, then discuss some alternative enterprise innovation software solutions. 

You can register for free to see exactly what you can do with Triangle IP.

5 Top Enterprise Innovation Software (2023): Introduction, Reviews & Pricing

The path from ideation to obtaining a patent is a multifaceted process that comprises distinct stages, such as capturing the initial idea, conducting internal evaluations, drafting the patent, and filing for it. At each stage, there are specific obstacles that you need to overcome to identify the most promising ideas and secure your patents successfully. Accessing information such as the probability of obtaining a patent, predicting the end-to-end patenting expenses, and assessing case health can significantly enhance your patent prosecution strategy.

In this post, we’ll list the 5 top enterprise innovation software solutions that help you to manage your IP lifecycle more effectively, starting with the TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP.

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP

The TIP Tool^TM by Triangle IP is an intuitive drag-and-drop tool that helps you capture enterprise-wide innovation & manage the entire patent lifecycle. The tool also assists your IP decision-making with insightful patent data analytics.

Key Benefits Offered by the TIP Tool^TM:

#1 – Improve Quantity and Quality of Invention Disclosures

The TIP Tool^TM provides a user-friendly invention disclosure form to actively involve innovators. With its role-based access feature, the idea submission portal is open to everyone across the enterprise, facilitating the capture of more ideas. Valuable ideas can also emerge from front-line workers, not just the R&D department. 

The invention disclosure form can be tailored to suit the organization’s unique requirements by incorporating modified fields that can be added, edited, deleted, or hidden.

The TIP Tool^TM further enables users to display only relevant fields to a particular stage. For example, prosecutor information may not be necessary during the innovation capture stage.

The tool also allows users to tag patentable ideas using specific keywords around a particular technology, product category, or business function, enabling quick filtering of ideas. 

Additionally, innovators can attach supplementary materials such as documents, slide decks, or other information that better illustrates their innovations.

#2 – Gain Visibility Into Different Stages of Your Patent Pipeline  

The TIP Tool^TM allows users to effectively monitor the progress of their ideas as they move through different stages of the IP lifecycle – idea capture, internal vetting, patent drafting, and filing. 

The tool ensures that users are always informed about the status of their ideas, whether they are being evaluated or in the process of being passed on to a patent counsel for drafting or filing.

Moreover, the TIP Tool^TM enables users to effortlessly move their ideas through various stages of development using their drag-and-drop feature.

#3 – Brainstorm Ideas With Stakeholders on Real-Time Basis

The TIP Tool^TM allows users to brainstorm and discuss ideas with inventors, prosecutors, and managers working in remote locations and collaborate in real-time. 

The tool facilitates a comprehensive vetting process to ensure that the most promising ideas are selected for patenting.

In an online meeting for brainstorming over patentable ideas, collaborators can pull up the TIP Tool^TM. They can edit idea summaries, add tags and review comments to capture the best thinking within your enterprise. It’s as easy as working with Google docs. 

Not to mention the TIP Tool^TM keeps track of all the changes made to the idea summary and the details of the person who made the changes. 

#4 – Allocate Your IP Budget Wisely

The TIP Tool^TM offers patent analytics that can help you make informed decisions while allocating a budget for patenting. 

With the TIP Tool^TM you can know the probability of getting your idea patented and predict the costs associated with obtaining a patent over the years, including filing fees, attorney fees, and maintenance fees. 

Such actionable intelligence allows you to allocate your IP budget based on predicted patent costs and protect only your greatest inventions with patents.

Additionally, the TIP Tool^TM can help you determine the likelihood of success at the patent office by studying millions of applications. Such data helps you make informed decisions about which inventions to patent, enabling you to focus on ideas with a higher chance of approval.

#5 – Get Automatic USPTO Status Updates

The TIP Tool^TM tool automatically lets users stay updated with the status of their published and unpublished patent applications at the USPTO. So they no longer have to rely on external legal counsel to stay in sync with USPTO.

With the TIP Tool^TM, users will receive instant notifications of any required action from the USPTO.

Moreover, users can also access the patent applications that have been filed at the USPTO but not yet published by initiating the Private PAIR scrape feature. 

#6 – Speed Up Your Patent Prosecution

The TIP Tool^TM offers statistics on the patent counsel and the examiner handling your case. After filling out the application, the USPTO assigns an examiner to determine whether the invention as claimed complies with all statutory requirements.

During this process, the TIP Tool^TM tracks and displays the patent counsel’s relative performance in managing your case. The statistics revolve around allowance rate, an average number of rounds of argument to help estimate the cost and the difficulty of the prosecution process.

The tool also offers patent analytics indicating how your patent case scores against other applications in the same art unit, with the same patent examiner, handled by the same patent counsel, etc.

Such insights from the TIP Tool^TM help you discuss your patent applications better with your patent counsel.

#7 – Get a Holistic View of Your Idea and Patent Pipeline at a Glance

The TIP Tool^TM user-friendly dashboard provides an overview of your idea and patent pipeline enabling you to monitor your team’s activity, including inventor and manager involvement, filed applications, and patents.

You can view a list of all your team’s submitted ideas and filed patents and see which innovators are leading the way. Moreover, the TIP tool provides role-specific access, allowing inventors and managers to monitor their IP activity and stay aligned with their KPIs.

With the TIP Tool^TM, you can easily identify bottlenecks in your innovation pipeline. For example, if an idea remains in the ideation and vetting stage longer than expected, it needs your attention.

Pricing

The TIP Tool^TM provides a free tier (forever, up to 10 users). Its premium tier costs $50 per month and $495 per year. The TIP Tool^TM has a custom tier as well. To know more, visit its pricing page.

Customer Review

The TIP Tool^TM has secured a 4.5 rating in G2. Here’s a review from their database.

Click here to read the full review.

QMarkets

Qmarkets is an enterprise innovation software solution that offers a scalable ecosystem of solutions covering every aspect of innovation management.

Key Benefits Offered by Qmarkets

#1 – Prioritize Customer Success

Qmarkets supercharges your project success through various supplementary services like kick-start workshops, innovation leadership workshops, organizational workshops, and data & analysis services.

#2 – Leverage Gamification 

Qmarkets allows companies to leverage gamification techniques – such as ‘token voting’ and idea tournaments – to help increase user engagement.

#3 – Improve Employee Engagement 

Qmarkets customized idea submission form encourages the submission of creative ideas.

Pros

Qmarkets product has a wide array of features and flexibility for all your innovation and idea management needs.

Cons

Sometimes it can be challenging to track the history of an idea, particularly when multiple people are responsible for evaluating it.

Pricing

Qmarkets requires you to submit the contact us form to know the pricing details.

Customer Review

You can explore the Qmarkets review on G2.

Hype Ideation

Hype ideation is an idea management software that attempts to accelerate the success of innovation with its evaluation wizard that helps businesses analyze projects based on predefined custom parameters. 

Key Benefits Offered by Hype Ideation 

#1 – Take Advantage of Insights & Trends

HYPE offers insights management and integrates with a trend database, allowing you to tie trends into your innovation process to derive strategic innovation areas from them.

#2 – Collaborate With Your Stakeholders

With HYPE, you can bring together your organization’s brightest minds to work on high-quality concepts.

#3 – Leverage HYPE’s Expertise 

HYPE’s consulting team helps organizations meet these challenges by providing the necessary tools and frameworks to succeed in the ever-changing innovation world.

Pros

HYPE’s knowledge and consultancy around the best ways to engage with the people in all areas of the organization are excellent.

Cons

The lack of clarity in the backend makes it difficult for users to find what they need.

Pricing

Pricing is currently not provided -please inquire with HYPE.

Customer Review

You can check out HYPE’s review on G2.

Planview Spigit

Planview Spigit is an online idea management platform. It accelerates the success of innovation driving employee engagement, creating a culture of innovation, and providing analytics-driven insights. 

Key Benefits Offered by Planview Spigit

#1 – Utilize the Informative Dashboard

The platform provides dashboards that allow organizations to predict potential outcomes, costs, and the value of crowdsourced ideas. Planview also helps you measure how well a project performs compared to industry benchmarks.

#2 – Maximize Employee Participation

Planview Spigit’s game mechanics, virtual currency, idea trading, and customizable incentives encourage participation and engagement from participants.

#3 – Prioritize Idea Evaluation With Built-in Algorithms 

Planview Spigit’s built-in algorithms prioritize ideas with the most potential and scalability above those submitted first or most popular in idea selection.

Pros

Planview Spigit’s team provides good training to all users to manage any innovation challenge.

Cons

It’s challenging to leverage the capabilities of the back end without specialized training and experience.

Pricing

Pricing is unavailable-contact Planview Spigit (now IdeaPlace) for more details.

Customer Review

You can explore Planview Spigit reviews here on G2.

edison365

Edison365 is an innovation and project delivery platform built on Microsoft 365. 

The software integrates with Microsoft’s ecosystem and can be used with Delve, Dynamics, Microsoft Projects, Power BI, Project Online, SharePoint Online, and Teams. 

Key Benefits Offered by edison365

#1 – Use Intuitive Innovation Management Platform Built on Microsoft 365

edison365 is built with Microsoft 365-utilizing the same tools and resources that users already know. So users can start using the platform and do not require extensive training.

#2 – Enhance Employee Engagement & Innovation

edison365 helps organizations capture, evaluate, and manage ideas while engaging the workforce through gamification features.

#3 – Access Transparent Cost-Benefit Analysis for Portfolio

edison365 helps you to evaluate and justify the value of ideas by providing a transparent view of costs, benefits, resource requirements, and ROI across the portfolio.

Pros

edison365 is easy to customize according to different business requirements, along with its capacity to integrate with Power Platform, Azure, and other Microsoft 365 services.

Cons

There are some limitations with Microsoft’s architecture, such as Yammer being the default collaboration tool and PowerBI analytics being incompatible with MacOS users.

Pricing

Pricing is unavailable-contact edison365 for more details.

Customer Review

You can check the review here in G2. 

Parting Thoughts

Innovation is an essential aspect of any business, no matter which industry you belong to. But it’s not easy to encourage employees to share their ideas as they often feel too shy to express new ideas.

So rewarding innovative thinking provides an excellent incentive for idea sharing. 

Leigh Buchanan, a writer for Inc.com, shares a funny story about how SurePayroll offers a periodic award for “Best New Mistake.” It’s a way to reward innovative thinking, even if the result is less desirable.

Getting ideas from your employees helps you capture innovative ideas to take action on. Check out this step-by-step guide to launching a patent incentive program to promote innovation.

The TIP Tool^TM – A Promising Enterprise Innovation Software

In this piece, we have provided in-depth information on the top 5 enterprise innovative software solutions. 

So whether you run a startup, a Fortune 500 enterprise, a corporate IP team, or whether you’re an individual inventor from non-IP background or a patent practitioner, there’s a suitable tool for everyone.

We’ve built the TIP Tool^TM that provides the following benefits that can significantly contribute to the success of your enterprise’s employee innovation program:

• Utilize the TIP Tool to increase the number of invention disclosures received by using its straightforward and user-friendly idea capture form, which is easily accessible to innovators.
• Track the progress of your patent pipeline, including whether an idea requires approval or drafting and filing by counsel, by gaining visibility into different stages.
• Encourage real-time idea brainstorming amongst stakeholders, similar to collaborating over Google Docs, to identify the most promising ideas for patenting.
• Evaluate the potential success of your patent application at the patent office by utilizing the TIP Tool’s patentability score.
• Tailor your patent prosecution strategy based on analytics provided by the TIP Tool for examiners, patent counsel, and art units.
• Effortlessly create patent family trees with a single click.
• Make informed decisions about your IP budget by leveraging the TIP Tool’s end-to-end patenting cost predictions.
• Automatically stay updated on the status of patents and applications with the USPTO to ensure you remain in sync.
• Provide personalized and limited access to ideas and patent-related information with role-based dashboards.
• Gain a comprehensive overview of your ideas and patent pipelines to identify and resolve bottlenecks, thereby accelerating the patent mining process.
• Reduce your outside legal services fee.

The Tool offers many more capabilities to mine patents and stays on top of the patent portfolio.

To explore further, register on the tool now.

A manager instills the innovation culture in a company by saying “Thank you.” 

In a company in Japan, whenever an employee came up to the manager with an idea – whether it’s brilliant or ridiculous – he would say ‘thank you.’ The manager understood that whoever brought the innovative idea was taking a considerable risk. What if the idea fails? What if the idea gets ignored? 

By saying ‘thank you,’ the manager provides psychological safety to employees. As a result, they believe that their innovative ideas are welcomed in the company. It was the manager’s way of instilling a culture of innovation in his organization. 

To innovate, you must instill a culture that drives innovation. It includes giving your employees the freedom to share innovative ideas and empowering them with resources to execute them. 

Everyone has their ways of building an innovation culture within the company. You can also use various methods to motivate your employees to build innovation. In this blog, I will bring you tried and tested ways to enhance your company’s innovation spirit.  

5 Employee Innovation Programs from World’s Most Innovative Companies

Launching a new product may come from one big idea, but sustaining the growth is possible only with innovation. The following companies proved it:

1. Bayers: Bayers launched a platform called ‘WeSolve.’ They hired coaches and ambassadors under the program who educated and supported employees in innovation. Bayers also launched a Catalyst fund and added 50,000 euros to support the innovation program financially. Today, Bayers have got 80 ambassadors and 700 coaches across 70 countries.  

2. Ritz-Carlton: Ritz Carlton hosts Innovation Olympics every year, where employees compete for the best innovative idea. They implement winning ideas across the company.

3. HCL Innovation Program: HCL has created an employee knowledge exchange portal where anybody can provide ideas to solve a complex problem. HCL has also launched a chatbot called EDNA to power the employee innovation program. An employee sitting in the US can ask a question, and EDNA connects it with anyone worldwide who knows the solution. 

4. Adobe: Adobe has an employee innovation program called ‘Adobe Kickbox’ that provides its employees with a toolkit that helps them pitch new business ideas to the stakeholders. It’s also connected with the Adobe community, where “kickboxers” can share ideas with their peers.

5. Nestle: The program ‘Ingenius’ by Nestle provides opportunities for its employees to bring in new challenges. Employees propose ideas, and subject matter experts evaluate them. The experts co-innovate with high-potential ideas. Six hundred prototypes are currently functioning under Nestle’s innovation program.  

9 Best Practices To Kickstart Employee Innovation Program

Many people think innovation always needs to be new and disruptive. They think they must build new products, hire genius leaders, and build brand-new startups to foster innovation. 

But you can innovate by making small changes in your regular procedures. 

It creates a Domino effect of innovation. Innovation is a habit that you need to incorporate into your organization. Below are the ways you can do that:

• Build your execution and innovation engines
• Master the innovation perspective
• Launch the three processes of innovation
• Empower coaches
• Generate ideas from the frontline
• Create a culture of Innovation
• Catalyze the innovation process
• Engage everyone in the process of innovation
• Keep the ideas flowing

Build Your Execution and Innovation Engines

Companies run on two engines – execution and innovation. Most companies believe that execution is what they’re supposed to do. So day in and day out, they execute tasks in the pipeline. 

Now, there’s a need for innovation. Humans innovated themselves through evolution to fit the changing world. Similarly, organizations need to innovate to survive ever-changing markets and customer demands. 

Through innovation, you create an end-product that creates value for your customers. 

For example, innovation-led Apple from failed products such as Newton PDA to globally successful iPads and Macbooks. This happened when Apple shifted its efforts to customer experiences, intuitive user interface, sleek design, and iconic branding. 

An organization must balance both execution and innovation to succeed and sustain that success in the long term. 

Master the Innovation Perspective

The innovation perspective is about solving problems. Adopt a mindset that encourages creativity, experimentation, and continuous learning. You need to:

• Stick to the culture of experimentation even when ideas fail.
• Create a customer-centric approach to finding solutions.
• Be willing to pivot quickly if circumstances change.
• Invest in continuous learning.

Impossible Foods is an example of a company that has mastered the innovation perspective. The company has created vegetarian food products that taste like meat. Impossible food is sustainable, and it works to reduce the market demand for meat-based products.

Imagine the level of innovation that went into creating the product. The scientists spent years studying the molecular properties of meat and plant-based ingredients that mimic the taste. 

Its flagship product, the Impossible Burger, is very popular in the US. Due to its innovative products and strategies, Impossible Foods have built a business worth $4 billion. 

Launch the Three Processes of Innovation

The three processes of innovation are creation, integration, and reframing. Following these processes step-by-step leads to innovative ideas:  

• Creation is a process of continuously generating new ideas that create value for customers. These ideas are the raw material for innovation. For example, ‘how can we create a new product for the market’ or ‘how can we solve an existing problem.’ 
• Integration refers to ‘connecting the dots.’ The organization glues the ideas of the front-line workers, middle managers, and senior executives. The ideas take a proper shape and then move to the execution engine. 
• The reframing process is by which the organization challenges its key strategies to find gaps. Reframing helps you break standard procedures and create new benchmarks to measure performance.

Here’s a representation of the three processes of innovation from the popular book ‘Built to Innovate by Ben M Bensaou.’

Source: Build to Innovate

Empower Coaches: 

To instill innovation into the minds of your employees, you need an agile organizational structure. Here’s how you can appoint and empower innovation coaches:

• Select employees from different divisions to take up specific challenges within their department. Call them ‘Innovation Coaches’.

• Train these coaches to believe that a successful product or service begins with a good idea and then you must commercialize that idea to generate profit. 

• Appoint multiple innovation coaches and spread them across the organization. At this point, you have built an innovation network that fosters innovation within your company. 

• Provide them with all necessary resources, tools, and R&D budget to come up with new ideas.

Innovation coaches dedicate some of their work time to educating their subordinates about the given challenge. They conduct innovation sessions where everybody discusses the challenge and shares ideas for improvement.

Generate Ideas From The Front Lines

Ideas come from challenges. To identify the challenges in your industry, interact with your front-line workers. They are customer support executives and sales and marketing people who interact with customers daily. 

They’re aware of day-to-day challenges within the workflow. But their managers often overlook their ideas and focus only on completing tasks. Their suggestions can become a gold mine if someone works on them. 

A great example is Toyota. Toyota encourages all employees, including those on the front line, to identify and suggest improvements to the production process. 

In the early 2000s, Toyota’s assembly line workers noticed that installing a particular part on the car’s dashboard was difficult. So they came up with the idea of attaching the part using magnets instead of screws. It made the installation process faster and more efficient. This idea was implemented across Toyota’s production line, resulting in significant time and cost savings.

It’s imperative to permit the front-line people to innovate. So put some incentives to motivate them to come up with innovative ideas. 

Create a Culture of Innovation

Instill an innovation culture within your company. Only then you’ll leverage the capability of everyone in the organization. 

• Implement a non-hierarchical work culture 

Hierarchy is the killer of innovation. Flatten the hierarchy to promote the cross-pollination of ideas within your company. 

Take Elon Musk, for example. At Tesla, he worked to shorten the hierarchy by removing multiple officials. Instead, he wants employees to work with the leaders with only a few managers in between. 

• Train middle managers to innovate 

Senior executives and front-line workers understand innovation as they deal with customers and see how competitors progress. But middle managers don’t. Their responsibility is to finish tasks. So, naturally, they don’t think about innovation during their day-to-day activities. 

Educate middle managers about innovation and explain how it benefits the company. Only then they’ll fully allow the front-line workers to innovate. 

• Create a safety net for employees

Employees shouldn’t be afraid of giving ideas. Instead, senior management and executives should clarify that innovative ideas are “allowed” in the company. Doing this provides psychological safety in case some of their ideas fail. 

• Include the term’ innovation’ in your training programs

Innovation should be a key element in your company’s training materials so everybody embraces it. Include it in all leadership and onboarding training to achieve long-term and sustainable effects.

Catalyze the Innovation Process

Speed of innovation can be a big challenge, especially in industries with high-security risks, such as medicines, where it takes years to approve an idea. Implement the HR lean startup methodology within the organization to catalyze the process. 

With this methodology, you find the nearest problem and create a minimum viable product to solve it. But R&D happens within the office – far from customers. They research first and develop later, which delays the process. So create a space where you narrow the distance between innovators and customers. 

For example, Fiskar, a tool-making company, conducted an experiment called “Fiskars Xperiment.” It invited 20 surgeons and 20 chefs to try their product. They gathered first-hand feedback on design and functionality and used it to improve their products. 

Engage Everyone in the Process of Innovation

Engaging everyone brings diverse perspectives and creative solutions to a project. To achieve this, allot designated roles throughout the company to involve everyone in the innovation project. 

For example, Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical company, decided to create an innovative engine to leverage the capabilities of their 100k employees. So they made everyone responsible for innovation. 

They appointed 80 employees as ‘innovation ambassadors’ who’d supervise and sponsor innovation. Under these ambassadors, Bayer appointed 1000′ innovation coaches’ who’d strategize and implement innovation through the company. 

They launched a digital platform called ‘We solve’ where anybody from the company can provide inputs and ideas. 

The result? At any given time, the platform has over 800 suggestions, questions, and ideas – all by employees. Moreover, ⅔ of the ideas are generally from a different department than the employee works in.

The key is understanding that everyone has a way of being involved in the process. While some participate actively, some like to stay in the outskirts. Find a way to get everyone involved, and the process will run smoothly.  

Keep The Ideas Flowing

Innovation is not a one-time task. Innovation should keep flowing within your organization. Leaders must emphasize innovation by celebrating successes and failures alike. Here are some ways to keep the ideas flowing in an organization:

• Give employees the tools they need to innovate

Provide resources, training, and tools to innovate. This includes innovation labs, an R&D budget, digital innovation platforms, and brainstorming sessions. 

• Embrace collaboration

A collaborative environment allows employees to share ideas and learn from each other. They work together to solve complex problems. 

• Listen to customer feedback

Innovation must come outside. This means you first interact with the customers outside, understand their problems, and then innovate to solve them. 

Microsoft has embraced collaboration across teams and departments, and the company’s employees are encouraged to experiment and take risks. As a result, it has invested heavily in its R&D department. The company has launched several new products and services recently, including Azure, Teams, and Dynamics 365. 

Tips To Ensure the Success of the Employee Innovation Program

Motivating your employees to innovate is one part of the program. It’s time to learn how to capture and manage their ideas so you can make the best of them. 

● Select the Right Innovation Capture Tool 

The patent management process is complex, so many patents get lost, and the process lacks engagement. The right innovation capture tool, like the TIP Tool^TM by TriangleIP, helps you stay on top of all your patents. 

It has a simple and intuitive Invention Disclosure Form(IDF) to capture ideas. In addition, the Idea Management dashboard provides an overview of the complete patenting process so everyone, including innovators and patent attorneys, get a bird’s eye view of the project. 

All stakeholders, including inventors, managers, patent attorneys, and business teams, can collaborate on the inventions in real time with comments and tags just as they would do over Google docs. The tool also predicts the possibility of getting a patent and associated end-to-end patenting costs, including attorney fees, government fees, annuities, etc. 

You get a holistic view of all your ideas and patent pipelines. You also always stay on top of updates from the USPTO. With the TIP Tool^TM, you manage ideas and patents with ease. 

● Look for a Customizable Idea Capture Form 

Design Invention Disclosure Forms (IDFs) in a way that innovators feel comfortable engaging with them. To ensure full details, engage with innovators constantly and assist them with forms. Make them understand that the forms are crucial to the innovation process. 

An IDF can be of three different lengths:

Short: It includes the only essential details of the innovators, including the title of the innovation, email, and the innovation summary. 

Medium: It includes everything from the short form along with the problem statement, competing products, innovation alternatives, and upcoming public disclosures that can impact the innovation. 

Long: It consists of everything from short and medium forms along with the innovator’s written academic articles, future research efforts, commercial uses of the innovation, and resources used to come up with the invention. 

Customize the form depending on your organizational needs with the TIP Tool^TM.

● Increase engagement with innovators 

Educate the innovators about invention disclosures. Conduct regular training to explain the patent policies. For example, inform them how an Innovation Disclosure Form works. The training increases engagement with the innovators and makes them more aware of the procedure. 

Innovators must understand that engagement and disclosure are crucial for their idea’s success. Ensure timely assistance whenever innovators get stuck. For example, provide them with sample IDFs so they better understand the process. 

The TIP Tool^TM allows you to engage seamlessly with innovators through tags and comments. The forms are simple and easy to fill. Once innovators fill out the form, they can monitor the whole patenting process, including idea capture, vetting, patent drafting, and filing, and share their views inside the dashboard.

● Launch a Patent Incentive Program 

A patent incentive program motivates all employees to participate in the innovation. Create a three phase program that allows you to capture and manage ideas easily while rewarding employees for their participation in the entire patent process. 

• Phase One – Submission of Invention Idea: Encourage employees to submit their ideas using simple idea capture forms and submit it to the company’s Patent Committee as well as other stakeholders. Set a small reward for participation.

• Phase Two – Filing of Patent Application: To qualify for an inventor incentive in this category, an employee/inventor may need to fulfill certain requirements such as submitting a non-provisional US Patent application and completing the necessary paperwork requested by the Committee. You may slightly increase the inventor incentive for this step. 

• Phase Three – Issuance of Patent: If an invention successfully bags a patent, you may reward employees with more significant incentives such as formal recognition or cash rewards. 

Kickstart Your Employee Innovation Program with the TIP Tool^TM

With the following key benefits, the TIP Tool^TM can be instrumental in the success of your employee innovation program:

#1 Get more invention disclosures using the TIP Tool’s simple & intuitive invention disclosure form that innovators easily engage with.

#2 Gain visibility into the different stages of your patent pipeline, whether the idea needs to be approved at your end or passed to your counsel for drafting and filing.

#3 Select only the most promising ideas for patenting by facilitating brainstorming of ideas amongst stakeholders in real-time just as they would have done it over Google docs.

#4 Gauge how your patent application shall perform at the patent office based on the patentability score provided by the TIP Tool^TM.

#5 Calibrate your patent prosecution strategy based on examiner, patent counsel, and art unit analytics provided by the TIP Tool^TM.

#6 Generate patent family trees with the click of a button 

#7 Manage IP budget wisely based on end-to-end patenting cost predictions.

#8 Stay in sync with USPTO automatically, as the tool gives you all the status updates for patents and applications.

#9 Provide customized and restricted access to ideas and patents-related information based on the persona with role-based dashboards..

#10 Get a holistic view of ideas and patent pipelines to identify bottlenecks and speed up the process of mining patents.

Get started with the TIP Tool^TM to kickstart your employee innovation program today! 

Innovation is anything but business as usual. Here’s a step-by-step guide to launching a patent incentive program to promote innovation. 

We’ve converted this entire guide in PDF form that you can download and save for later reading (or sharing with your friends). You can download it using the form below:

Here’s an effective 4 point blueprint:

1. Capture Ideas

Patents have become an increasingly vital aspect of business. In a competitive and fast-moving industry, protecting a company’s intellectual capital and encouraging innovation is crucial to the unimpeded growth of your business.  For strategic reasons, your company should carefully document innovative business-related ideas that your employees create and consider converting those ideas into patents.

2. Evaluate Ideas

Set up a company patent committee that evaluates ideas submitted by employees, directs the filing of patent applications and manages your patent program.  Seek help in setting one up, if you do not have an in-house patent committee. Ensure that ideas are evaluated with an objective criteria to find the ideas most likely to protect the intellectual capital of the company within budgetary confines.

3. Ensure Company Wide Participation

Invite all employees to submit ideas, using Invention Disclosure Forms.  Set up this infrastructure to ensure all employees across the board have access to these resources. Educate your personnel about the existence, availability and instructions of use of these tools. 

4. Create a Reward Structure

Design an incentive policy or inventor bonus to encourage ideation among employees in your company. Although every idea submitted will not result in the writing of a patent; documenting and developing these ideas helps your company focus on our innovation and competitive advantage.

Here are some suggestions on how you can go about doing this. 

Divide the patent process into phases with a different reward structure for each phase, for example:

Phase One : Submission of Invention Idea

Set out criteria and requirements for submission of an idea to the Patent Committee or equivalent. Later the committee can pick the most promising innovation for protection. An important requirement is that the inventor provides enough technical detail to allow a proper understanding of the invention. You can choose a suitable Invention Disclosure Form template to record invention details.

Phase Two : Filing of Patent Application

Criteria for an inventor incentive under this category could include filing of a non-provisional US Patent application along with the signing of the requisite documents requested by the Committee by the employee/inventor. 

Phase Three : Issuance of Patent

If a patent application is successful you can give larger incentives. Criteria could include the event in which the Patent Office grants a patent without the Company abandoning the application.

The company can decide the type of incentives. Incentives can include cash reward, formal recognition or other benefits, proportionately set out for each phase. Presented below is a sample table that lays out the patent incentive program. 

^[1] All COMPANY employees are eligible to participate in the COMPANY Patent Incentive Program.

^[2] Patents may only be applied for by actual inventors, and patent laws heavily penalize patent holders where actual inventorship is misrepresented during the process of applying for the patent.

^[3] Where COMPANY determines to file a provisional patent application, the Phase B reward would be payable at such later time, if any, as COMPANY converts the provisional patent application to a non-provisional patent application.

^[4] Phase B reward applies solely to filing of patent applications in the United States, and not filings in any other countries.  Continuation and Divisional applications are not eligible for an incentive.

^[5] Employee inventor(s) must cooperate in prosecuting the patent in the United States and abroad as requested by the Committee to remain eligible for a Phase C incentive.

^[6] Only one Phase C monetary award is possible per employee inventor per patent application filed such that any continuation or divisional of the original patent application could not result in further awards.

On a side note: Would you want to know how your patent application is progressing at the USPTO compared to other applications in the same domain? 

The TIP tool offers statistics of the law firm and the examiner handling your case. Once the application is filed at the USPTO, and an examiner is allotted to your case, the tool indicates the relative performance of the law firm handling your case. The statistics revolve around the number of arguments, grant rate, and grant time. The tool also indicates the case health, for instance, it can tell you if a case needs your attention. There is a whole bunch of insights that you can gather from the TIP tool for strategic patent prosecution.

Request insights for any of your cases at the patent office using the form below.

Let’s Sum it Up

When creating a patent incentive program, you must make all terms and conditions of the program clear to the employees. Inventors will scrutinize the rules so leave no room for confusion.

Let the company retain the sole right to delete, suspend, discontinue or revise any of all provisions in the company ‘Patent Incentive Program’ at any time, for any reason, with or without notice.  Consider posting the latest policy on the company intranet.  The company patent committee must have the sole discretion to choose the ideas for filing as patents, choose which countries to file into, and to abandon patent applications when deemed warranted.

Remind your employees about the existence of the company patent program with an orientation at hiring and follow-up training.  Patentable ideas are among the company’s most sensitive information, and everyone must treat them with the utmost confidentiality.

At TriangleIP we have designed an intuitive drag and drop innovation management software to take care of your patent mining process. Definitely give it a try!

Note: The preceding is general business advice and not to be construed as legal advice. IP laws vary by country and retaining licensed legal counsel is advised to confirm this information. Any expressed or implied opinions are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Triangle IP or any other entity who might be associated with the presenter. We hope this content is helpful to you, but should not be relied upon without confirming the advice and accuracy with local legal counsel. Any comments or inquiries are not confidential so please discuss your issues directly with counsel.