Many small and big firms outsource their patent searches to a patent search agency, this is common practice. However, hardly anyone thinks about the fact what are the good qualities of a search partner. Certain factors draw a line between bad, good, and great vendors. Most firms fail to realize that a vendor is more of a partner and plays a great role for you. One needs to make sure of the quality and other factors to extract the best value from a search partner.
Also Read: Patent Search Affects Your Business: Learn How?
Important factors before hiring Patent Search Agency
These factors play a huge role. Firms take business decisions based on the analysis provided by these vendors. Therefore, analyzing these factors will improve your decision making.
Quality
Firms must be sure of the quality before making decisions. They need to check that if a vendor can deliver quality results consistently. One must know about the vendor’s process. They should check the vendor’s quality assurance technique. Firms must make sure that the vendor has some checkpoint to assure quality. Only a strictly internal process can deliver work while maintaining standards.
A Dedicated Manager
Firms need to check that there is no communication gap at any stage of the process. Best firms have dedicated CRM for every client. The main job of the relationship manager is to respond to every query of the client with an insightful response. Firms must ask the vendors if their manager is aware of your domain, have good information about your business and goals. In that case, a patent search agency will add huge value to your work. A vendor must be comfortable in multiple languages and available at your working hours according to your location.
Data Security
This is a non-negotiable factor in the Intellectual property domain. Firms must check and ask about the measure taken by the search vendor to protect your data. What digital or physical infrastructure is in place to prevent any data breach. Also, do they have an insurance policy to cover your losses in such incidents?
Quality of Resources
Another factor is the quality of analysts. DO they have any training programs at their level or any certification that you can cross-check? Also, the quality of the tool is they are using is also a factor. The firm can also assess the patent search agency through third-party vendors. This will give you insights related to their working culture.
Workload and Employee Size
The general expectation is that the vendor must be able to handle multiple requests at a time For this, They need to have a good number of employees so that they can deliver the results on time. Timely delivery along with high quality demands more employees and some cross-functional experts. Also, Patent search agencies support multiple clients in multiple locations so more employees are necessary to ensure customer satisfaction.
Also Read: Patent Search Types: ‘The Major Eight’
Level of Engagement
Here we are focusing on how search vendor is more important than you thought and it is similar to a business partner. So, the search partner must align with your vision and mission. For example: Sometimes there are hidden gems in the portfolio but vendors miss them, their priority is to finish the given task efficiently. While a true search partner is driven to achieve success for clients don’t overlook such hidden gems. Their main aim is to find assets in the data and work to increase the overall value of the assets apart from finishing the task and deliver results.
Reporting Format
A one size fit for approach still works but there are new ways in the market. Search vendors must deliver reports as per the demands of the customer. They must be able to deliver reports in multiple formats and interactive manner. Search vendors must have an easy to access delivery platform. These dashboards can display real-time analysis.
Also, the Search vendor must be comfortable in a pictorial format report and it makes it easier for a non-expert to understand it. It also makes it easier for stakeholders to understand and take crucial business decisions.
Multiple types of Searches
Normally, the search vendor will search for patents and non-patent literature. But this what everyone can offer. Only a few support gene sequence search, design search, or chemical structure search. They must be comfortable with different languages in different jurisdictions. For example, You have to search for China because you planned a product launch there, You must not need another vendor for that. Your present patent search agency must be able to do it. In case you need some legal insights, the same vendor must be able to arrange such information.
Overall Expertise
There are different types of searches like patentability, Freedom to operate, Invalidity, etc. Not all vendors have expertise in all searches. However, a patent search agency having expertise in these can add more value than others. They have experience of working with different clients and different searches, This provides a wider perspective of the domain. This broad perspective can help to generate other services like IDF Preparation, Whitespace Analysis, Portfolio pruning, Competitive intelligence, etc.
Want all these qualities in your Vendor?- Hire us!
The Patent search firm has over a decade of experience in the IP field. Our team covers possibly every technical domain. Over 1200+ happy clients in 45+ countries. We go through every database to deliver precise results. Also, The clients can check the status of the work at any stage of the process. Moreover, 100 % customer satisfaction is our top priority. To know more, visit our service page: The Patent Search Firm.
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