WHAT SERVICES DOES PEARSON STRATEGY PROVIDE?
Three complementary services:
• Providing and assessing Competitive Intelligence.
• Guiding innovation improvement.
• Helping you develop and maintain your strategic plan.
WHAT TOOLS DO YOU USE?
We often work with Intellectual Property, markets, and technology to keep your long-term profitability in mind. Our services page details several typical scenarios. Contact us to discuss your specific situation if your need isn’t apparent.
WHAT CAN PEARSON STRATEGY HELP MY COMPANY ACCOMPLISH?
We customize our approach based on your company’s products or services, internal capabilities, and preferred level of innovation. Some examples:
• Maintaining your awareness of competitor activities.
• Identifying disruptive technologies before your competitors implement them.
• Identifying previously unknown competitors with patents that could interfere with your business plans.
• Identifying opportunities for you to license or purchase patents.
• Monitoring your Intellectual Property, technology, or market space and quickly bringing vital information to your attention.
• Accelerating your R&D projects by understanding and interpreting problems, opportunities, and prior research.
• Quickly, cheaply, and effectively screen and prioritize innovative ideas when included in your innovation process pipeline.
• Guiding strategy on future technologies, IP, and/or markets.
THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADE OFFICE (USPTO) AND GOOGLE PATENTS ALLOW ME TO DO PATENT SEARCHES FOR FREE, WHY SHOULD I USE PEARSON STRATEGY?
If cost is a concern, isn’t your time better spent running your company and letting experts handle this tedious but necessary task?
Clients and IP attorneys frequently tell us that we’ve discovered publications they could not uncover on their own. We have years of experience working with a wide range of technologies and use specialized patent research tools to conduct simultaneous research of many of the world’s patenting offices. Our expertise means efficient, comprehensive searches that yield the most relevant results.
I CAN DO TECHNOLOGY OR MARKET RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET OR THROUGH MY PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY, WHY DO I NEED PEARSON STRATEGY?
Technology research can be time-consuming, frustrating, and an inefficient use of resources. We have trustworthy experience and dedicated resources to provide timely, relevant information.
I STILL NEED CONVINCING, WHAT ELSE CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT PEARSON STRATEGY?
• Our consultants have many years of consulting work experience, and most of us have worked together for many years.
• We provide comprehensive assessments in three realms: Intellectual Property, markets, and technology. This ensures that your profitability is always taken into account.
• We’re responsive to your urgent needs, phone calls, and emails.
• Our reach is global, and we are available when you need us.
• There’s no yearly retainer fee.
• We’re flexible because we’re not restricted to using specific software, databases, or consultants.
• We guarantee our work. How many other consulting firms can say that?
WHICH COMPANIES ARE USING PEARSON STRATEGY, AND HOW MANY CLIENTS DO YOU HAVE?
Our client numbers continue to grow, but we would not be in business if we publicized their names in a competitive climate; however, see https://pearsonstrategy.com/success-stories/ for some of the great recommendations we have received from specific companies and law firms.
We have worked with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small start-up ventures. Our typical clients are small to medium-sized technology companies, manufacturing businesses, energy companies, business incubators, business accelerators, and law firms.
Our clients are typically located in North America or Europe.
DO YOU WORK WITH LAW FIRMS?
Intellectual property law firms and corporate attorneys rely on us to provide comprehensive reports more quickly and at a lower cost than they can obtain internally.
WHAT INDUSTRIES DO YOU TYPICALLY SERVE?
In broad terms, we work with any industry interested in improving innovation. Typical industries served include those dealing with electrical/electronic or mechanical technologies. Some of our best-fit industries are:
• Agricultural equipment
• Amazon Resellers
• Automobiles
• Automobiles
• Aviation/Aerospace
• Building technologies (materials, HVAC, etc.)
• Business incubators
• Business accelerators
• Computer/Telecomm Products or Services
• Construction, Civil Engineering
• Construction equipment/tools
• Consumer products
• Electronics, Electrical
• Energy (Oil & Gas, Solar, Utilities, etc.)
• Financial (especially those dealing with M&A)
• Healthcare
• Legal (especially Intellectual property)
• Medical products and diagnostic equipment
• Military contractors
• Nanotechnology
• Paper
• Railroads, including vehicles and equipment
• Research
• Robotics
• Shipbuilding
WHAT CLIENTS ARE NOT A GOOD FIT FOR PEARSON STRATEGY?
Those clients with a culture of internal only innovation, no innovation, or an industry in which we have no expertise:
Government
Huge companies that have strategy, research, and Intellectual Property groups in-house.
Large military contractors working on classified projects. Interestingly, we have successfully worked with large military contractors looking to commercialize their technology.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE CLIENT NEEDS THAT FALL OUTSIDE OF YOUR EXPERTISE?
We have many partners with specific training, experience, or skills across various industries and technologies. We occasionally get a request that we cannot address and will either make a referral or conduct research to identify the subject matter experts in that discipline.
WHERE IN THE CORPORATE STRUCTURE ARE YOUR TYPICAL CONTACTS?
A VP of Technology, VP of R&D, or an Engineering Manager.
CLIENT CONFIDENTIALITY?
We guard our clients’ privacy just as we will guard yours. If you need a reference, some companies and people allow us to share their names upon request.
WHAT ARE AUTOMATED ALERTS?
Automated Alerts use computerized monitoring to identify areas you specify and alert you through email regularly. A well-known example is Google’s Alert service, which is free but very basic.
WHY SHOULD I USE ALERTS?
Pearson Strategy will build alerts using focused search engines to keep you up-to-date on those subjects – and only those subjects – of specific importance to you.
For example, would you like to know when your chief competitor is granted a new patent that could affect your business plans? Or when is a new technology paper published that could significantly accelerate or alter your current R&D project?
WHAT ARE COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE REPORTS?
Competitive Intelligence Reports are recurring reports that can’t be automated. For example, an upper-level executive who doesn’t have the time to review and analyze an automated alert could receive a Custom Alert summarizing and analyzing crucial information from various sources.
HOW DO I READ MY AUTOMATED PATENT ALERT?
Refer to the Patent Alerts page.
DO YOU USE YOUR OWN SOFTWARE TO GENERATE REPORTS AND ALERTS?
No, we choose the best existing software and databases for the job. Should a better tool become available, we will switch.
HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE?
Our prices vary significantly for different levels of services. We provide low prices for simple services and charge competitive rates for complex projects. We will refer you to free resources if they’re available.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE BILLING?
We are open to accommodating your billing preferences, but most of our clients prefer to be invoiced for all delivered services at the end of each month. We reserve the right to request a 50% deposit before starting larger projects.
IS THE METER ALWAYS RUNNING?
We will never charge you for our time exchanging emails or phone calls.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PATENT PUBLICATION AND A PATENT FAMILY?
A patent family is a collection of related patent applications and granted patent publications (if any exist). Each publication is a single document issued by the patent authority of a particular country (in the US, this would be the USPTO). For example, if you know a granted patent exists, you would anticipate that the application that resulted in that granted patent would be highly related; therefore, both the patent application and granted patent would be part of the same patent family.
HOW DO I OBTAIN THE COPYRIGHTED TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS CITED IN YOUR REPORTS OR ALERTS?
There are numerous locations to obtain copyrighted papers, and many are likely to show up from an internet search of the title. Additional sources may include the technical societies you belong to or the British Library.
CAN YOU OBTAIN COPYRIGHTED DOCUMENTS FOR ME?
Yes, let us know if you need a specific paper, and we’ll purchase it and send it to you with your report for the cost of the paper and a reasonable handling fee (both fees will be included in your upcoming invoice).
WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD A PATENT APPLICATION OR A GRANTED PATENT PDF FILE?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office does not currently support PDF downloads, but there are many places to download PDF formatted files for patent applications and granted patents, including Espacenet.
Let us know your needs, and we’ll send you PDFs. Additionally, we’ll do OCR (Object Character Recognition) on every file so that you can search for text within the file.
WHAT IS AN RSS FEED?
The acronym “RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication,” and these are news feeds generated by many organizations, companies, and governments to send out updates to those subscribed by the appropriate software program, typically called a “reader.” One popular reader was Google Reader until it was phased out in July 2013.
WHAT IS IDEA GERMINATION?
Idea germination involves the growth of new ideas. While many inventors conceive new ideas, deciding which ones to pursue can be frustrating and confusing.
We provide direction by vetting those ideas to ensure you only act on ideas that meet your profit goals and business strategy.
Our effective idea germination considers factors such as patentability, Freedom to Operate research, the risks of emerging/ adjacent/disruptive technologies, the current state of the art, and marketability.
WHAT IS STATE-OF-THE-ART RESEARCH?
We will research the current state of advancement for your specific technology or area of interest.
A research-based understanding of today’s state of the art (technology) in your field can help you decide whether or not to pursue research in a particular area.
You might find that acquiring or licensing other’s technology is a smarter solution.
