uRDRaRhtVpPJnXY7b9kNKLrySf5iQ

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Your IP Legal Services Prospects Are Talking to Themselves Again - Do You Know What They Are Saying?

If you have lost potential customers because someone else appeared to understand their requirements better, then read what I have to say as there is one activity that will change the fortunes of your Intellectual Property (IP) legal services business.

You need to know the conversation going on in your prospect's mind in order to attract his or her attention.

Imagine if we all thought out loud, held nothing back and did not care if anyone heard what we were saying. We'd be pretty clued up about everyone's desires, fears and frustrations (and perhaps have a few more clack eyes as a result mind you).

If you are an IP legal services professional, you have a major problem...

No-one will buy any of your services if the result of what you provide does not match or exceed desired outcomes.

On top of that, not many people will tell you why they don't want to buy from you. They'll simply respond to someone else they think will take away their fears and frustrations, ask around or go on Google to look for someone else.

What do you need to do then?

First of all, stop talking about yourself and find out what your prospects are specifically looking for. The key questions they will ask and which you need to answer are:

1. Do you know what my main fears and frustrations are regarding IP law?

2. Do you know what my desired outcome is for any service I buy?

3. Why should I select you, above all other options available, to help me achieve my desired outcome?

4. What additional benefits will I get if I buy your IP legal services?

5. What evidence do you to have to show you can address my fears and frustrations?

6. What information can you provide to educate me on how to solve my problems?

As an exercise, get the names of 20 prospects and see if you can answer all those questions for each. If you can do so with total confidence, then well done.

If not, here are a few suggestions to help you:

1. Ask! Ask your current clients what their major fears and frustrations are, what they like or don't like about your profession and what their desired outcomes are.

2. Do surveys to give people a chance to let you know what type of information they really need.

3. Speak to former clients and ask why they left you. More importantly, do not argue back! Painful as it may seem, you will be surprised by the the small things you could have changed to keep their custom.

4. Create a forum for customers and prospects to share experiences and expectations, and to ask questions. This will need moderating but if you can do it, your business will benefit if you take action on issues raised by participants.

5. Provide free information - blogs, articles, newsletters, and allow your readers to comment or provide feedback.

Remember, work on your prospects' emotions and don't just provide facts.

Once you know the conversations going on in their heads, it is easier to build a roadmap to cultivate their trust. You can then stop having to do any hard selling right at the outset of any relationships.

If you do everything outlined above, you will be selling your Intellectual Property legal services...powerfully!

But you will be subtle and very different to many of your competitors who have the traditional hard sale approach. What you will find is that more prospects will ask for you services. The roadmap you put in place should have stages that not only builds your position of authority within a niche, but regularly informs prospects about solutions to their problems and which gets them closer to you over time.

Why the Systemisation of Client Attraction Activity is Important For IP Lawyers

Why is the systemisation of marketing and client attraction activity important for IP legal services professionals?

Well, IP lawyers have had to react to various economic, legislative and competitive pressures just like other legal services professionals. Key shifts, which many of you are well aware of, include:

Client demand for results-based, alternative fee structures to replace 'per-hour' pricing. The increasing need to combine fixed-price and subscription-based payments in some sort of 'hybrid' business model. The increased outsourcing of many back-office functions and roles to, primarily, emerging market-based organisations that can achieve cost-efficiencies many IP lawyers or full-service legal firms struggle to get. The realisation that many organisations now see IP lawyers as one of many service providers available, and increasingly use competitive bidding in the selection process.

The only way you can continue to compete and differentiate yourself within a tough IP legal services market is to take the pressure in your stride and figure out a way of making it work for you.

So why am I talking about the systemisation of marketing activity now?

The reason is simple...

It will be much more difficult to have the flexibility you need to make positive changes to your IP legal services practice if you use ad-hoc, inconsistent and ineffective marketing efforts. Think about it - what is the point of systemising your case work or interactions with legal process outsourcers without extending the same principles to your client attraction efforts?

Systemising your marketing campaigns, communications with prospects, collection of client feedback, management of referrals, etc, is great for one reason...

You streamline and reduce costs that you typically incur in your day-to-day IP legal services work. More importantly, your ability to increase your revenue and profits improves massively when your client attraction activities systematically support your core IP legal services work.

Here are just a few things that you need to systemise:

Client feedback - you simply can't make any assumptions about your clients, and need processes in place to collate feedback in a manner that is non-intrusive but shows you care. Campaign management - there is nothing worse than, for example, doing an email campaign once and giving up. Multi-step campaigns are crucial, but you also need to make sure the campaigns either point people towards information they are looking for or guide them to take specific action. You need to automate your campaigns to IP legal services prospects, and there are various tools available now that are good value and which can scale to match your desired activity. Communications with prospects and clients, making sure you have first understood the conversations going on in their minds so that you give them the information they need and are desperately looking for. Management of referrals - you need to encourage clients to give you referrals, and use customer evidence as the platform with which to enhance your word-of-mouth advertising to prospects that may be cynical about your ability to deliver great IP legal services.

When IP lawyers systemise client attraction activity, they find they can monitor and test their marketing efforts more effectively, have more time to focus on actual client-facing work and have better visibility on the number of prospects that are likely to convert to clients within a given time frame.

As an IP legal services professional, you need to develop a new, systemised business model for online client attraction. This will inevitably mean making some changes to the way you have traditionally worked, but which will get you in the perfect position to grow despite all the changes in the legal industry.

Do You Need a Lawyer to Respond to a UDRP? What Is the Protection of Business Names Under Intellectual Property Law? Hire Patent and Trademark Attorney to Accelerate the IPR Procedure Every Innovative Irish Idea Deserves to Be Protected Correctly in Law Intellectual Property Infringement and Patent Law

Start-Ups and the Role of Intellectual Property

Acknowledging the fact that there are several factors and ingredients involved in setting up a start-up venture, one prominent fact is that the key element in any start-up is the entrepreneur's Intellectual Property(IP). The IP is the key initiator for entrepreneur's access to financing and technology acknowledgment, which are instrumental in providing adequate thrust to start the venture. On the contrary some business strategists hold an opinion that start-ups should make an early entry into the markets focusing upon addressing new market segments rather than entangling themselves into the patent filings and procedures. Well, from my point of view, I certainly don't buy that argument. All technology based start-ups have one thing in common that is " The new technology" itself. What's the idea behind spending huge bucks in creating, distributing brands and targeting new customer bases when your technology itself stands unsecured from IP point of view.

How would an entrepreneur deal with the consequences of infringements and technology thefts by the ever growing competitive global market. The only way to ensure protection of your technology is by securing a "Patent right" on that. As early as an entrepreneur comes up with an idea to design a start- up around a new technology, the next immediate step should be to file a provisional patent application followed by the complete specification later. Understand the utmost need of filing a patent application and securing an early priority date nationally or internationally because it might be possible that many other ventures might be working on the similar technology and will be in the race of filing the patents themselves. Looking at the stiff global competition, entrepreneurs and inventors should aim for an early patent priority date to be in a profitable situation.

From business point of view, an early stage entrepreneur with an established patent portfolio will undoubtedly draw prominent attention for financing from the investors. Looking at the vast number opportunities which an entrepreneur enjoys after attaining IP rights on their respective technologies or inventions, I wouldn't mind spending an extra time to patent my technology. Start-up entrepreneurs can monetize heavily through their IP in the following forms: 1) Licensing their technologies with established companies, 2) Creating licensing Partnerships, 3) Selling their IP, 4) Reaping the benefits from royalties, 5) Damages awarded by infringements, 6) Using the IP itself. Thus, the right amount of money starts flowing in the venture, just by the value of your intangible assets like IP. Therefore, the next time you think of launching your start-up, give a comprehensive thought on the benefits of Intellectual Property which could boost your venture.

This article is an entry from my blog "Spectrum of Intellectual Property Rights". For global IPR updates and discussions refer to my blog and keep yourself updated.

The Management of Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property is increasingly being recognised within organisations of all shapes and sizes as a highly valuable and also unique asset. As the UK moves more and more towards a service based economy and away from its traditional heavy industry and manufacturing base the need to manage your intellectual property is paramount as this may become your organisation's primary asset in the future.

There are three main stages to ensuring the effective management of intellectual property within an organisation.

Stage 1 - Awareness

One of the biggest challenges facing many organisations is a lack of awareness and understanding about what their IP actually is. This is the base level skill in the management of IP and until everyone throughout the organisation is aware of what constitutes their unique intellectual property then it is impossible to move onto stage 2 - protection.

It is this lack of awareness of what constitutes an organisation's IP that leads to vital information being casually given away with no thought as to its value. This is admittedly more common at the junior level within organisations but can happen at the most senior levels too.

It is vitally important for all organisations to analyse what makes up their IP and then not to stop there but to take it to the next level which is ensuring that all staff are aware of this. Once this is achieved the management of IP within the organisation can move onto stage 2.

Stage 2 - Protection

Having ensured all staff are aware of what the organisation's intellectual property is it is then possible to concentrate on protecting this valuable asset at all costs.

The law relating to IP is in parts complex but overall is there to protect the owners of the IP. A simple training programme may be all it takes to get everyone thinking about how they can protect the intellectual property of the organisation. Alternatively the creation of a simple checklist to use upon receipt of any request for information can go a long way towards the protection of IP.

Stage 3 - Maximising the value

Once everyone is aware of what constitutes their IP and what can be done internally and / or legally to protect this you can then move onto stage 3 of the management of intellectual property.

This is the stage where opportunities can be sought out to maximize the value and return on IP rights. Take the example of a university that has done a great deal of research into a particular area that has commercial application. Should this simply be given away for free? Of course not, everything has a market value and intellectual property is no different.

Simply by brainstorming potential opportunities many organisations have come up with incredibly innovative ways to enhance the perceived value of their IP rights and ensure their own continued success.

Getting Intellectual Property Advice That Counts

In order to prevent your special idea or invention from being stolen by another or possibly devaluing it you need to know how to use intellectual property law properly. The legal frameworks contained within this area of law are complex but are there to help you.

However, this area of the law can be very complicated and it is important to have the right Intellectual Property advice from specialist solicitors with the necessary expertise and experience in this field and to get it at an early stage.

Choosing the right type of protection.

When it comes to protecting your work there are a number of variations of IP when to property protection that could be used, and specialist intellectual property solicitors will be able to tell you exactly which one you need to use in order to ensure that you have watertight cover for total peace of mind. You should remember that whilst there are four main types of IP protection, in some cases it may be appropriate to use more than one of these and even to use all of them to ensure that your work is safeguarded against IP infringement.

The four main types of IP protection are:

Design Rights: This form of protection is aimed at protecting the visual appearance of an object or creation, such as the shape and other aspects of its appearance.

Copyright: This type of protection covers a range of different areas/work, ranging from written creations and recordings to artwork and photographs, to name but a few.

Patents: The form of cover is designed to protect the processes that make something work as well as the methods that are used to make a creation work.

Trademarks: A trademark is a symbol, such as a brand name or logo that makes goods or services easily distinguishable from other similar goods and services.

Your intellectual property solicitors will not only determine which of these is the most appropriate for you but will also ensure that it is put into place as quickly as possible. The different variations of IP protection are all designed to safeguard against infringement and IP crime. This includes piracy, counterfeiting, plagiarism, using your work without your permission, etc. If anyone infringes your IP once this protection is in place your solicitors will then be able to provide appropriate intellectual property advice on the right action to take, which could include a simple letter asking infringes to desist, negotiation for sale or license of some or all of your rights to the infringer, dispute resolution out of court or going through the courts.

Intellectual Property Advice - Cooperative Patent Searching

A patentability search (also known as a prior art search) is an important first step before investing in intellectual property. When done properly, the search helps determine the patentability of an idea and the scope of the innovation. The search will also help to focus drafting of a patent and a search by a qualified professional and will help convince investors of the value of your patent.

Proper searching and interpretation of search results requires effort and understanding of intellectual property law. For this reason, it pays to use a qualified patent professional (a patent attorney or agent). If you are hiring a law firm to do the search, find out who actually does the searching. You may be paying a law firm a premium price to have a lay-searcher do the work. Individual attorneys or agents may do better and less expensive searches than a large firm. If you use lay-searchers, have them sign a non-disclosure agreement before you give them any material describing your invention. Before using a lawyer, get a detailed description of the work he is agreeing to do and a cost estimate.

Two heads are better than (and sometimes cheaper than) one. An important trick to making a good search is cooperating with your attorney. Before asking a lawyer to perform a prior art search, you should do some preliminary work yourself. Firstly, a conclusive patent search must be based on a well-defined idea. You need to give the searcher a clear, concise description of your invention. You should also supply your searcher with a list (preferably in writing) of close competitors and closely competing products and some idea of the significant difference between your idea and their products. Also supply the searcher with a glossary of specialized terms that you feel might be applicable to your invention (and definitions for terms which differ from their Standard English meaning). It is imperative that you listen to your attorney. Get your attorney to describe what she considers the substance of the invention and look over the preliminary search results. Do the results appear to be relevant to your patenting objectives? If not, clarify why. Did the attorney see some significance that was not apparent to you? Did he misunderstand the invention? Is he focused on marketable aspects of the invention? Did he misunderstand the prior art? Are the technologies compatible?

A detailed search generally needs to be an interactive process. If the preliminary search results are not on target, help your attorney focus her search to more relevant prior art and to more essential aspects of the invention. In the end you should clarify not only whether the idea is patentable, but exactly which aspects of the idea are patentable.

There is a second kind of search, a freedom to operate search. A freedom to operate search determines whether you may freely practice your invention without infringing on another patent. A freedom to operate search applies only to a very specific invention. If your invention isn't yet clearly defined and in final form, a freedom to operate search is probably a waste of time and money.