In increasingly competitive markets, small business owners and founders must have an edge, and for many, that's their intellectual property (IP). Often considered your most valuable asset, your IP is your idea(s) and inventions in legally documented form.

Your IP it is essential to your establishment and growth journey, allowing you to establish your company's position in the market, differentiate itself from other product offerings and protect yourself. But today's global IP landscape is hyper-complex, with more than 15 million active patents registered and hundreds of thousands of organizations holding those patents.

For the tech-savvy entrepreneur, artificial intelligence (AI) means you can work smarter, not harder, when it comes to sharpening your edge. Using AI as part of your IP strategy is an effective and affordable way to accelerate innovation, improve processes and proactively manage your assets.

IP-specific applications of AI are increasingly common these days. Buyers should be discerning and ask themselves, is this tool safe? Is it correct? Is it cost effective? Solutions like Patlitics are leading the charge in unblocking businesses from complex administrative work, realizing many IP workflows in minutes instead of months.

Here are five strategies on how to use AI to deliver significant IP wins for your small business.

Related: Top 5 Intellectual Property Challenges Facing Businesses

1. Speed ​​up comprehensive patent searches with AI

Conducting a thorough prior art search is a prerequisite for the patent application process. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), approx half of all patent applications face rejections due to prior art. By confirming the uniqueness of your idea, you increase the chances of your application being approved.

To prove uniqueness, we must search and compare. But try that with 15 million registered patents and you won't be done for years. Traditionally, patent searches are labor-intensive and time-consuming. AI is enabling deeper, faster and more accurate searches. Through machine learning algorithms, AI-powered patent search tools quickly analyze vast databases to identify relevant patents and highlight potential overlaps or opportunities. For small businesses, this means a faster path to securing patents and reducing the risk of infringement from the outset.

2. Stay ahead of the competition with AI

Always stay one step ahead of the competition. This is especially important in the IP sector, where similar products are constantly being invented. It is also particularly hard to dogiven potentially hundreds of millions of different products, patents and companies to stay ahead of.

Use AI to quickly and continuously scan for infringing products. Diligently monitor the market with an AI-powered infringement detection tool to identify potential products that may infringe your innovation – and therefore represent a threat or opportunity – and help you find the evidence you need to take action. This intelligence enables timely, winning and successful decisions asset protection.

3. Use AI to transform patents into profit

Patent licensing offers small businesses the opportunity to monetize their inventions without incurring the costs associated with manufacturing. But that might be a guessing game. According to many IP experts, most patents are invalid – perhaps even more than 95% never recover deposit costs. How do you know what big bets to make compared to your competitor's products, the market landscape, and your patent strengths?

AI introduces much-needed precision by removing the guesswork from complex benchmarking decisions. It allows small businesses to pinpoint their most valuable assets and make informed decisions based on competitive products, the market landscape and their MVPs.

Related: 5 ways to create value from your intellectual property

4. Build a strong and diversified portfolio with AI

Consider the construction portfolio strategy strong patents about your key innovations. Holding multiple related patents can create a patent layer, making it harder for competitors to challenge or work around your IP. Also, consider the diversification strategy. Diversifying your patent portfolio can protect against industry changes and technological advances. Having patents across sectors gives you multiple revenue streams and the ability to adapt to market changes with agility.

Both portfolio strategies assume a basic understanding of your current portfolio. This may seem basic (shouldn't we know all our patents?), however, when scaled to hundreds or thousands of patents, how can you discover meaningful intelligence points at a glance, such as the invention sector, jurisdiction, value or expiration? An AI classification tool can automatically tag your assets and classify which patents to operate.

5. Simplify the design process with AI support

Proper documentation is vital. Development of notes, sketches, and detailed descriptions of how your invention works and why it is unique is required patent application and also serves as evidence if legal issues arise. But gathering all this information from different groups and compiling it can be painstaking and often takes more than a year. This is a year when your idea is not yet fully protected, implemented or monetized. Use an AI patent drafting tool to help you discover and capture your inventions faster, reducing your idea-to-file time and making the journey from idea to patent approval significant.

Related: 5 Benefits Patent Management Software Should Offer

Shares and limitations of IP Challenges compel small business owners and founders to adopt smart and efficient methods to maximize successful IP outcomes. Now using new AI for IP tools, they can secure their place in the market better and faster than ever before. Your IP is the driver of innovation and business growth. We hope these strategies and tools will help accelerate your success.