Who carries out patent evaluations?

The skills needed to carry out an evaluation depend very much on the purpose of this evaluation. But a thorough evaluation requires expertise in many areas, including marketing, finance, R&D and strategy, so it is a good idea to use an interdisciplinary team.

To ensure a meaningful result, the team should therefore include experts in both the patent subject-matter and evaluation methods.

The methods used for monetary evaluation should be transparent, so that the results can be checked and verified.

Support from intermediaries, e.g. PATLIB centres or national patent offices, may help to improve the evaluation process. Such intermediaries can also give advice on how to interpret and profit from the evaluation results.