CNH is believed to be best in class as electronic processing of invention disclosures is concerned.
CNH already had a long standing tradition when I arrived in the Intellectual Property Dept and it is thrilling to be part of a team with such a visionary approach. It is fair to say though that we moved to a professional grade self service helpdesk for the R&D people when CogniStreamer got involved with their platform. One thing I like very much about the approach of CogniStreamer is that they are not afraid to leap to the next level. They take risks on a technological level that other companies would turn down. Over our longstanding relationship I am able to identify three big steps that correspond to the past, present and future of the Patent Flow tool.

Level 1 transparancy

The first version of the portal put a face on innovation. Transparancy was present in every aspect of the workflow. Every actor involved was able to track and trace all the information available. This has helped to strengthen trustworthy relationships between inventors, reviewers and members of the patent department.

Level 2 efficiency

As soon as things were scaled up and rolled out in multiple R&D centres around the globe a need for efficiency in following up the respective tasks for all actors involved began to surface. CogniStreamer took up the challenge and a no nonsense, intuitive task tracking system was put in place. This makes keeping up with your tasks a worry free activity. Log in to the Patent Flow tool and you instantly will be told what to do. For most users, it would be impossible to imagine a system now without this functionality.

Level 3 robust workflow

This created a solid foundation for the future, for which once again CogniStreamer is at our sides. The strict sequential execution associated with most manual workflow implementation easily leads to an equivalent approach in their electronic equivalents. This however leads to some unnecessary delays and a lot of points where an unresponsive actor can stifle the workflow. The challenge ahead of us is to exploit the enormous potential of the upcoming patent flow manager 2.0 in order to go parallel. Parallel processing by the actors involved will not only insure a next big leap in efficiency but above all will make available a robust workflow.

Robrecht Dumarey, Patent Attorney at CNH Belgium