Wellspring Blog

Crowdsourcing isn’t new as an innovation technique. We can find large-scale examples of it going as far back as the 1700s, like when the British government offered more than $26,000 to whoever could figure out how to determine longitude at sea. It’s the way we go about crowdsourcing that has... Read More

2017 USPTO stats show a slight increase in patent grants compared to 2016. However, fewer patent applications are being published. Why? These numbers illustrate a shift in mindset towards patent applications among intellectual property (IP) teams that has appeared in recent years.  Read More

The 2017 R&D Trends Forecast by the Industrial Research Institute estimates that global R&D investment will increase by 3.4% in 2017 to $2.066 trillion with academic institutions and federal labs making up a significant portion of that total. Government and academic researchers play a critical role... Read More

As a long-time sponsor of the AUTM Annual Meeting, Wellspring is looking forward to meeting attendees in Phoenix this year. Whether this is your first event or you’re a regular at AUTM, it always helps to prepare for the four days of professional development and networking. With so many engagement... Read More

As the global leader in technology transfer and technology scouting software, Wellspring connects innovators to one another around the world. As of January 24th, these connections expand to further corners of the globe with the announcement of a formal partnership with IPRIS, a leading provider of... Read More

What are Invention Disclosures? Invention disclosures are the beginning of the patenting process. At its core, an invention disclosure is the first notification that an invention has been created, and establishes the description and chronology of an invention. Read More

In the last thirty minutes, 700 patents were filed, 150 scientific articles were published, and 70 new start-ups were founded. Read More

Managing Innovation Project Pipelines Read More

To some, IP docketing software may seem like a luxury rather than a necessity. Team leads may think that software would be nice, but spreadsheets have worked fine so far, so why change? However, with so much of IP docketing dependent on maintaining strict filing deadlines, relying solely on ad hoc... Read More

While many organizations undertake serious innovation efforts, there are a number of issues that can cause the effort to stall or fail. One key point of failure is structural misalignment between the innovation team and the core product teams. Since any open innovation effort depends on a... Read More