Competitive monitoring could be done by inside patent lawyers or by the R&D function

Monitoring competitive moves in the intellectual property space could fall to in-house patent lawyers or it could fall to the R&D department. A French intellectual property consultancy, OPI, has found that 70 percent of the time in French companies the research group takes on that responsibility. What the situation in the United States is I don’t know.

According to 2010 Intelligence Report & Directory Series of Leaders League at 80, French executives believe that researchers will better stay abreast of the field if they keep track of what competitors are filing and researching. So long as the researchers appreciate the legal significance of a burst of activity by a player in the same field as their company, they can bring in the lawyers when needed.