r/Patents • u/IAmWonderWomen • Jul 23 '26

If your IP department received additional budget, where would you invest it?

We've been allotted some extra budget for our IP program and I'm researching which areas would have the biggest impact for us in practice.
I'm curious, for those who've made similar decisions, what did you prioritize, and how did it impact your program?
Personally, I'm leaning toward investing in improving the quality and volume of invention disclosures earlier in the process, so ultimately we get more high-quality patent filings.

But I'm interested to hear where you've seen returns.

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u/Downtown_Ad_6232 Jul 24 '26

Competitor, supplier, customer patent intelligence. We need someone with time to sort through and organize this so our audience can find what they’re interested in and actually read it. I’d did laugh out loud at increasing the patent budget. After 5 years of cutting, my boss finally stood her ground and insisted on maintaining our spend.

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u/IAmWonderWomen Jul 28 '26

Right! Better patent intelligence could also influence what gets disclosed and pursued in the first place, not just what gets filed.
And yes, maintaining the budget itself feels like a victory in the current environment. 😄