Beyond the Filing: Building an IP Portfolio That Actually Works for Your Business

When most business owners think about intellectual property, they think about filing—submitting a trademark application, securing a patent, registering a copyright. And while those filings are important first steps, they represent only the beginning of what should be a comprehensive, strategic approach to managing your company’s most valuable intangible assets.

The events of 2025 have driven this point home with remarkable clarity. From the USPTO’s historic fraud enforcement actions that removed over 52,000 illegitimate trademark registrations to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dewberry Group v. Dewberry Engineers reshaping how we think about corporate structure and IP damages, this year has underscored a fundamental truth: the businesses that thrive are not those with the most IP filings, but those with the most strategic IP portfolios.

In this article, I’ll share what I’ve learned advising clients through these developments and offer a framework for building an IP portfolio that genuinely serves your business objectives—not just one that checks legal boxes.

The Shift from Quantity to Quality

For years, a certain mindset dominated IP strategy, particularly in the patent space: file early, file often, and accumulate as many registrations as possible. The theory was that a large portfolio would deter competitors, attract investors, and provide maximum flexibility for licensing and litigation.

That approach is increasingly outdated. Recent industry analysis reveals that successful companies—including some of the world’s most innovative organizations—are moving toward more targeted, quality-driven portfolio management. Companies like IBM have returned to prominence on innovation indices not by filing more patents, but by filing smarter ones that align with actual business objectives.

The USPTO’s 2025 fraud enforcement actions illustrate why this matters. When the agency terminated tens of thousands of registrations filed by bad actors, it didn’t just clean up the register—it reminded us that IP rights are only valuable when they’re genuine, defensible, and actually used in commerce. A bloated portfolio filled with unused marks or defensive filings that will never see enforcement isn’t an asset; it’s a liability that drains resources and creates false confidence.

The businesses that emerged strongest from 2025 were those that could clearly articulate why each IP asset in their portfolio existed and how it connected to their commercial strategy.

The Four Pillars of a Strong IP Portfolio

Through my work with clients across industries, I’ve identified four essential elements that distinguish robust IP portfolios from merely adequate ones. These pillars aren’t sequential steps—they’re interconnected principles that should inform every IP decision your business makes.

Pillar One: Strategic Alignment

Every IP asset in your portfolio should connect to a specific business objective. This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies file trademarks for product names they’re not sure they’ll use, or pursue patents for technologies that don’t align with their commercial roadmap.

Before any filing, ask yourself:

• Does this trademark support our brand expansion plans for the next 3-5 years?
• Does this patent protect technology we’re actually commercializing, or technology we might license?
• Does this trade secret give us a measurable competitive advantage that justifies the cost of protection?
• If we had to enforce this right tomorrow, would we?

The Supreme Court’s Dewberry decision adds another dimension to strategic alignment: corporate structure. The Court’s unanimous ruling that trademark damages can only be recovered from named defendants—not their corporate affiliates—means that IP strategy must now align with how your business is legally organized. If your company operates through multiple entities, your IP ownership and enforcement planning must account for that structure from the outset.

Pillar Two: Comprehensive Coverage

A robust portfolio includes multiple forms of protection, each serving a different purpose:Trademarks protect your brand identity—your name, logo, taglines, and the distinctive elements that help customers identify your products and services. In

today’s marketplace, this increasingly extends to non-traditional marks: sounds, colors, product packaging, and trade dress.

Patents protect innovations—new and useful processes, machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter. They provide a time-limited monopoly that can be crucial for recouping R&D investments, particularly in technology and pharmaceutical industries.

Copyrights protect original creative works—software code, marketing materials, website content, training manuals, and more. While copyright protection arises automatically upon creation, federal registration provides significant enforcement advantages.

Trade secrets protect confidential business information—formulas, processes, customer lists, pricing strategies, and other information that derives value from being kept secret. Unlike other IP forms, trade secrets require ongoing protection measures rather than registration.

The key is understanding which form of protection—or combination of forms—best serves each asset. A software company might protect its user interface through copyright, its underlying algorithms through trade secrets, and its product name through trademark. Layering protections strategically creates a more defensible position than relying on any single form.

Pillar Three: Active Maintenance

IP rights are not self-executing. They require ongoing attention to maintain their validity and value.

For trademarks, this means filing required maintenance documents (Sections 8, 9, and 71 declarations), monitoring for infringement, and ensuring continued use in commerce. The USPTO’s January 2025 fee increases make strategic maintenance planning more important than ever—renewal and maintenance fees have increased across the board, so businesses must be intentional about which marks warrant continued investment.

For patents, maintenance requires paying periodic fees to keep patents in force, monitoring the competitive landscape for potential infringement, and evaluating whether each patent in your portfolio continues to serve your business objectives.

For trade secrets, maintenance is ongoing and operational: maintaining confidentiality agreements with employees and contractors, limiting access to sensitive information on a need-to-know basis, implementing technical security measures, and documenting your protection efforts. Unlike trademarks and patents, trade secret protection can be lost permanently if confidentiality is compromised.

I recommend clients conduct annual IP audits—systematic reviews of their entire portfolio to identify assets requiring maintenance action, assets that may no longer warrant protection, and gaps where new protection may be needed.

Pillar Four: Enforcement Readiness

Owning IP is only valuable if you’re prepared to protect it. This doesn’t mean pursuing litigation at every opportunity—that’s rarely practical or cost-effective. But it does mean having a clear strategy for how you’ll respond when infringement occurs.

Enforcement readiness includes:

• Monitoring: You can’t enforce rights you don’t know are being violated. Implement systems to monitor for potential infringement—trademark watch services, online marketplace monitoring, and competitive intelligence.
• Escalation protocols: Know in advance how you’ll respond to different types of infringement. A competitor using a confusingly similar mark may warrant cease-and-desist correspondence, while counterfeit goods on an e-commerce platform may require a different approach.
• Documentation: Maintain records of your use in commerce, your enforcement history, and evidence of your brand’s distinctiveness. This documentation becomes critical if enforcement escalates to litigation.

Budget allocation: Set aside resources for enforcement activities. The cost of inaction—allowing your rights to erode through unchallenged infringement—often exceeds the cost of appropriate enforcement.

AI’s Transformative Role in IP Management

No discussion of IP strategy in 2025 would be complete without addressing artificial intelligence. AI is transforming IP management in two distinct ways: as a tool for managing portfolios more effectively, and as a source of new IP challenges that businesses must navigate.

AI as a Portfolio Management Tool

Businesses are increasingly relying on AI-powered platforms to automate trademark searches, track competitor filings, and monitor for potential infringement. These tools don’t replace human judgment—they augment it by processing vast amounts of data and surfacing insights that would be impossible to identify manually.

AI-driven analytics can uncover licensing opportunities, flag infringement risks early, and help prioritize enforcement actions based on potential business impact. For businesses of all sizes, these tools are becoming increasingly accessible and increasingly essential for competitive IP management.

AI as an IP Challenge

At the same time, generative AI raises novel IP questions that businesses must address. Who owns content generated by AI tools? Can AI-generated materials infringe existing copyrights or trademarks? What disclosure obligations apply when AI is used in creative or inventive processes?

Litigation over these questions continued throughout 2025, with cases addressing whether AI training on copyrighted materials constitutes infringement and how to attribute ownership of AI-assisted works. While the law continues to develop, businesses should establish clear policies now: document how AI tools are used in creative and innovative processes, understand the terms of service for AI platforms you rely on, and consider how AI-generated content fits within your broader IP strategy.

Lessons from 2025’s Landmark Developments

This year’s legal developments offer concrete lessons for IP portfolio management:

From the USPTO Fraud Crackdown

The termination of over 52,000 fraudulent trademark filings reminds us that the quality and legitimacy of IP rights matter. The USPTO is actively working to ensure the register reflects marks actually used in commerce—and businesses benefit when bad-faith filings that create false conflicts are removed. If you’ve received trademark refusals citing suspicious registrations, there may be new avenues for challenging those blockers.

More broadly, this enforcement action reinforces the importance of working with qualified U.S. counsel for trademark matters. The fraud schemes often involved unauthorized practice of law and misuse of attorney credentials. Legitimate filings supported by proper legal representation are more likely to survive USPTO scrutiny and provide the protection your business needs.

From the Dewberry Decision

The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that trademark damages can only be recovered from named defendants carries important strategic implications. For plaintiffs, it means being comprehensive and intentional about which entities to name in trademark litigation—failure to include all relevant parties may limit available remedies. For defendants, it underscores the protective value of maintaining distinct corporate entities and respecting corporate formalities.

For all businesses, Dewberry is a reminder that IP strategy doesn’t exist in isolation. It must be coordinated with corporate structure, tax planning, and broader business organization. The entity that owns your IP assets, the entity that uses them in commerce, and the entity that would enforce them in litigation may all be different—and that structure matters.

Getting Started: A Practical Framework

If you’re ready to move from ad hoc IP management to strategic portfolio development, here’s a framework to get started:

1. Conduct an IP Audit. Catalog everything your business owns or uses: registered trademarks, pending applications, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names, and social media handles. Identify gaps where protection may be needed and assets that may no longer warrant investment.
2. Align IP with Business Strategy. For each asset, articulate how it connects to your commercial objectives. If you can’t explain why an asset matters to your business, question whether it belongs in your portfolio.
3. Review Corporate Structure. In light of the Dewberry decision, evaluate whether your IP assets are held by the appropriate entities and whether your corporate structure supports effective enforcement.
4. Establish Maintenance Calendars. Create systems to track renewal deadlines, maintenance requirements, and periodic review dates. Missing a deadline can mean losing rights you’ve invested years in building.
5. Develop Enforcement Protocols. Decide in advance how you’ll respond to different types of infringement. Having protocols in place enables faster, more effective responses when issues arise.
6. Budget for IP. Allocate resources for filing fees, maintenance costs, monitoring services, and enforcement activities. IP protection is an investment, and like all investments, it requires capital.

Conclusion: IP as Competitive Advantage

The businesses that win in 2026 and beyond will be those that treat intellectual property not as a legal compliance function, but as a core business strategy. Your trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets are assets that can differentiate your offerings, attract investment, generate licensing revenue, and create barriers to competition.

But realizing that value requires more than filing applications. It requires strategic alignment with business objectives, comprehensive coverage across IP forms, active maintenance of your rights, and readiness to enforce when necessary.

The developments of 2025 have given us new tools and new clarity. The USPTO’s fraud enforcement has cleaned up the register. The Supreme Court’s Dewberry decision has clarified important questions about corporate structure and damages. AI-powered tools have made sophisticated portfolio management accessible to businesses of all sizes.

The question is whether your business is positioned to take advantage of these developments—or whether you’re still managing IP reactively, one filing at a time.

If you’re ready to build an IP portfolio that actually works for your business, I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss your situation. Strategic IP management isn’t a luxury reserved for large corporations—it’s an essential discipline for any business that depends on its brand, its innovations, or its proprietary information for competitive success.