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Is there any reliable free tool or software for managing the IP/patent portfolio - mainly for handling the timelimits, costs and for general overview of the patent porfolio (curently about 100 patents)? Currently I use an Excel sheet, but it is not very user friendly.

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    Interesting. There are a lot of paid software solutions out there. If this is your business, it might be worth investing in one of them. Otherwise if were me, I would make my own in something like FileMaker or MS Access (a really database) rather than Excel.
    – Eric S ♦
    Mar 19, 2017 at 15:37
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    I really think you need to post this question at: softwarerecs.stackexchange.com. Read a few of the questions to see the desired format which should contain a specific list of desired features.
    – Eric S ♦
    Apr 8, 2017 at 16:29
  • Received a mail from blackhillsip.com. They are conducting some free patent analytics course. Next class date is July 12. May find it to be of interest.
    – AD Adhikary
    Jul 6, 2017 at 3:56

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I also recommend Filemaker. I will say however that you are trading low upfront cost for a lot of development time.

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  • Although I agree with the suggestion of Filemaker (as evidenced by my comment from March), I think this question is better posted in softwarerecs.stackexchange.com. Also, Filemaker is not free as requested.
    – Eric S ♦
    Dec 12, 2017 at 15:01
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I'd add this advice: Don't use the same software as your patent lawyers. Once you're going to the trouble of tracking your portfolio, you should also track key dates (i.e. maintenance fee due dates, office action response dates, patent expiration date, etc.). If there is a bug in the software your lawyer uses, you serve as a backup. The lawyer should also use at least two different systems to track dates, but not all lawyers do.

I use Google Sheets. I previously used an Excel spreadsheet, but this way I can allow my patent lawyers read-only access to my own sheet.

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    I very much suspect that the original questioner is, in fact, a patent attorney.
    – Eric S ♦
    Mar 19, 2018 at 13:32
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Thank you all for your suggestions. Meanwhile I solved the issue by creating Microsoft Access Database. It was my first time using and creating Access DB, I learned it via free youtube tutorials in couple of hours. It took some more time to fill in all the patents/inventions data and optimise it to my needs, but at the end it worked very well, I could easily trace important dates, costs, link one invention with several patents, analyze data, create reports, search for patents by different reference numbers, link them with patent registers etc. Probably OpenOffice Base or similar software could be used for the same purpose. I worked as lawyer (with IP background) in university TTO at that time. Best regards

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