2025 is predicted to be a year of geopolitical change. According to McKinsey, regional and international trade conflicts have intensified. At the same time, significant changes are underway in key patent and trademark offices around the world. As these external factors shape the intellectual property space in 2025, IP professionals may feel unsure about what the future holds, waiting to see the effects on IP legislation and how this impacts their IP strategy.
However, there are steps that you can take now to help prepare for the year to come. This article explores five strategies to improve IP operations and prepare your IP teams to succeed in 2025.
1. Narrow the focus: Understand what to prioritize for 2025
With so many technological advancements in the legal sphere, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of information. The challenge for many IP practitioners lies in figuring out which advancements best align with their 2025 strategies. Whether the focus is on the latest AI developments, cybersecurity threats or new regulations affecting intellectual property, it is crucial to find a starting point that accelerates your department’s goals.
Researching benchmarks can help narrow your focus. Knowing where your IP team excels and where it falls short will help you understand what to prioritize. The recent Clarivate report, Excellence in IP Operations: Benchmarks and strategies to elevate your IP practice, provides invaluable insights into industry benchmarks, enabling you to craft effective strategies for your legal team in 2025.
2. Establish strategic alignment: Clearly communicate KPIs
Establishing strategic alignment is a crucial step before building an action plan. Ensuring your IP team’s key performance indicators (KPIs) are aligned with the rest of the business is essential. Even the most advanced technologies or processes can fail to deliver the desired outcomes if your KPIs are not aligned.
Effective alignment empowers IP departments to significantly enhance business success. Data from the Clarivate report indicates that 65% of corporate IP teams who understood their department’s KPIs reported alignment with overall business strategies. This alignment not only drives efficiency but also fosters innovation and growth within the organization.
Moreover, well-aligned KPIs enable IP teams to better manage their resources and processes. This strategic coherence helps in identifying and capitalizing on opportunities, mitigating risks, and ensuring that the IP portfolio is robust and competitive. It also facilitates better communication and collaboration across departments, leading to a more cohesive and agile business environment.
By setting clear strategies and KPIs early in 2025, your team will have a better chance of delivering successful transformative value.
Data and analytics are shaping the future of the IP profession. Read the blog to discover how.
3. Prepare for the future norm: Confident AI exploration
Although AI adoption is still low in the IP space, its potential to transform the field is significant. AI can improve the efficiency of various IP tasks, from patent searches to drafting and portfolio management. It can even provide analytics to inform decisions about IP strategy.
Attorneys and administrative staff who continuously develop their AI skills and introduce new software to enhance workflows will reap the benefits of AI sooner, giving their teams a competitive edge. Even better, making this change does not have to be drastic. The software you use today may already have integrated AI tools. By using AI tools that work seamlessly with existing systems, you can quickly close the adoption gap and leverage these technologies to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
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4. Achieve peak efficiency: Integrate your IP technology stack
Beyond AI, advancements in legal technology continue to improve practitioners’ work. However, simply using modern technology is not enough to achieve peak efficiency . Among law firms and corporate legal teams, there is a strong correlation between satisfaction with IP technology and seamless integration with other systems. IP teams with integrated IP management systems report significantly higher efficiency and accuracy.
By integrating an IP management system with other IP software and establishing a centralized IP knowledge-sharing ecosystem, your IP team can unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive superior results.
Curious about integrating more tools into your IPMS? Learn more about our productivity solutions for IP management.
5. Be ready for staff changes: Prioritize process and knowledge management
In 2024, priorities among in-house counsel shifted significantly, with technology implementation overtaking knowledge management as the top priority for legal operations. This was likely due to the increased importance of AI in top-down strategies.
However, deprioritizing knowledge management may be a costly mistake. Amid the Great Retirement, 4.1 million Americans hit retirement age in 2024. Alarmingly, there were 2.8 retirees for each new entrant in the workforce. This is largely due to Generation Z being a far smaller cohort than the retiring generation.
As we progress to 2025, retirement is unlikely to slow. Prioritizing knowledge management processes can help your legal team get ahead of staff changes. Effective process management and knowledge transfer are incredibly powerful, directly impacting team efficiency. 90% of IP professionals who gave a top tier rating for their team’s operational process documentation, updates and communication also said their IP and business strategy were completely aligned.
Looking ahead to 2025
The advancements in legal technology and the rise of generative AI present unprecedented opportunities for your IP team. By staying ahead of these trends and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, you can help drive innovation, enhance efficiency and achieve operational excellence.
If you need help developing a strategy to prepare your legal team for success, request to speak to a member of our consulting team.
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