Setting up competitor monitoring that gets used

What to watch

Applications publishing in your technical classifications - this is where you see competitor direction, eighteen months after they committed to it.

Grants published in your classifications - because the post-grant opposition window is twelve months from publication of the grant.

Named competitors across all classifications, which catches moves into adjacent fields.

And lapses, which mark retreats and sometimes opportunities.

Why most monitoring fails

Because the output goes to the legal file rather than to someone who can act on it. A published application is only useful if an engineer reads the claims and says either we do that or we were about to.

So route it technically, review it monthly, and attach a decision: ignore, design around, monitor to grant, or oppose. Since March 2024, pre-grant opposition carries a fee and a prima facie filter, so a well-evidenced representation is more effective and a scattergun one less so.

What to actually do

• Monitor by classification and by competitor name.
• Route results to engineering, not to the legal file.
• Attach a decision to each item: ignore, design around, monitor, oppose.
• Watch grant publications too - the post-grant window is twelve months.