Frequently Asked Questions

Stoneleaf Consulting works with clients of all sizes, from small startups to large corporations.  The clients may research, develop, manufacture, and sell products and services in a wide variety of areas, including electrical, mechanical, electromechanical, software, data collection and analysis, chemical, alternative energy, consumer products, and more.

With a focus on intellectual property and helping each client align its intellectual property strategy with its commercial strategy, Stoneleaf Consulting helps each client maximize the return on the investments it is making to finance, research, develop, test, manufacture, market, sell and provide it's products and services.  This often will start with an initial questionnaire and request for information to help Stoneleaf Consulting learn more about the client, after which a customized and detailed set of information, interview, and document access requests will be prepared and provided to the client.  AS part of the more detailed effort, Stoneleaf Consulting may review software and other materials created or used by the client, conduct interviews with employees in different functions (e.g., management, marketing, R&D, product development, business development, sales, manufacturing, supply chain, legal) and at different levels within the client's business, identify potential issues resulting from use of open source software or other third party materials, understand the client's short term and long term commercial strategy and its competitive environment, conduct invention harvesting sessions and workshops, review internal policies, provide training, etc.  Stoneleaf Consulting will then provide a detailed set of recommendations for the client and work with the client to implement them on a going forward basis.  In addition, Stoneleaf Consulting will work with each client to help the client conduct similar efforts by itself on a going forward basis.

Scott Allison, Stoneleaf Consulting's founder has: (1) over 25 years experience developing and implementing intellectual property strategies and aligning them with commercial strategies; (2) worked in and for start-up companies, small companies, and multi-national companies; (3) has worked with people at many levels in many functions for companies creating and providing products and services in many technical areas; (4) significant experience working with clients to identify new intellectual property opportunities and risks, particularly in light of the many unknowns that the clients and their employees are dealing with; and (5) experience with the many different operation, product development, commercialization, and business models that clients may be using.

Essentially,  an intellectual property strategy is company's plan of action to recognize, manage and protect its intangible assets, and making sure that the plan of action supports  and aligns with the company's commercial strategy.  However, very often, individuals and companies do not fully identify all of the intellectual property they are creating.  As a result, the intellectual property strategy is not fully informed, which can result in losses in opportunities to monetize the intellectual property.  This further creates misalignment with the relevant commercial strategy and a failure to maximize the return on investment being made in R&D, product and service development, sales and marketing, and, more broadly, innovation initiatives.

Every person is creative and every person working for a company likely has access to, is using, or is creating the company's intellectual property just about every day.  Companies spend a lot of money in developing, maintaining, providing, and improving their products and services, and almost always are creating more intellectual property opportunities and risks than they identify, thus causing the companies to lose opportunities to better monetize this intellectual property and its return on investment in creating the intellectual property, create more more competitive advantages, avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others, and reduce the likelihood and harm that may result from theft or improper sharing of its intellectual property.  At all levels, there also may be biases that may  impact decision making, such as, groupthink, selective perception bias, zero risk bias, etc.  Also, developing and maintaining an intellectual property portfolio can be very expensive, so making strategic decisions regarding the portfolio (including what not to keep) so that it best aligns with the applicable business strategy, both of which may change and evolve over time.

A company might fail to recognize an potentially new intellectual property asset or risk for many reasons.  For example, an an organizational level, difficulties may be created by internal bureaucracy, poor cross-function communication, lack of support provided, lack of priority, and more..  At a team level, a failure to recognize an intellectual property asset may be due to poor collaboration and relationships between team members, a focus on only the best solutions to a problem, cultural aspects, etc.  An an individual level, a failure to recognize an intellectual property asset may be due to personal biases, introverted personalities, focus on deadlines, lack of incentive or time, lack of training, etc.

Yes, a company can lose or not take advantage of an intellectual property asset in many ways, such as by not recognizing a new innovation or idea soon enough, not fully exploring the scope of the new innovation or idea, and not taking adequate steps to maintain and protects its intellectual property.

Yes, Stoneleaf Consulting conducts single or multiple day workshops for clients in a number of areas, and each workshop can be tailored for each client's needs and priorities.  For example, a workshop may be focused on: (1) invention harvesting and identification; (2) working with a client's employees to teach them how to conduct invention harvesting sessions; (3) working with people in different functions at the client to streamline their information sharing process regarding potential intellectual opportunities and risks; (4) helping clients implement an invention/idea documentation and review process; (5) identifying intellectual property monetization opportunities; (6) improving internal operations for a client to improve its identification of new intellectual property; (6) reviewing internal client policies and identifying new policies that may be needed; (7) conducting a review of suppliers and supply chains regarding intellectual property risks; (8) exploring a competitors patent and trademark position; etc.  Workshops can be done in person or virtually.

Yes, Stoneleaf Consulting provides single or multiple day training related to intellectual property and intellectual property strategy, such as training regarding: (1) what people in marketing, sales, R&D, product development, packaging, data collection, algorithm development, etc., should know about intellectual property; (2) fundamentals of an intellectual property strategy; (3) idea and invention harvesting and assessment; (4) the roles of intellectual property for a company; (5) intellectual property portfolio management; (6) introduction to intellectual property risks and/or opportunities; (7) how to read a patent; (8) why non-disclosure agreements are important; (9) looking at intellectual property from different perspectives; etc.  Training can be done in person or virtually.

No, Stoneleaf Consulting does not provide legal advice or services, but can provide recommendations of law firms and other service providers if needed.