What’s your IP score?
27/08/2009

How much is a patent worth? In most cases, it is almost impossible to answer such a question. The European Patent Office (EPO) has released a new software tool for evaluating the prospects of patents or even ideas which have not yet become the subject matter of a patent application. The software, called IPscore, uses 40 assessment criteria as input to evaluate a patent or idea. IPscore is freely available on the EPO website and can provide a forecast of the monetary value of a patent or give guidance regarding possible opportunities and risks involved. By evaluating patents and patent portfolios, the EPO aims to help companies and universities effectively manage their intellectual property portfolios, thus enabling companies to eliminate so called “weak” patents, having high risk and low opportunity and to make more informed decisions on how to proceed with stronger patents based on generated forecasts. A downloadable user manual is available from the EPO website and the EPO offers training courses for users. So, what’s your IP score?

To find out, visit the EPO website at: www.epo.org/patents/patent-information/business/valuation/ipscore.html
Danie Pienaar
Candidate Attorney
Adams & Adams danie-p@adamsadams.co.za