Use IP Pilot to get a clear picture of market activity in your jurisdiction and benchmark key competitors. This guide covers (1) analyzing the local industry using Search, (2) drilling into specific competitors with Analyze → Law Firms, and (3) time-savers with IP Pilot Pro.
Analyze the Local IP Industry
1. Open Search
- Click Search from the left-side navigation panel.
2. Configure the Query
- Set the first dropdown to Law Firms → from → any country, region, continent (keeps all players in scope).
- Set filing at to your publication authority (your jurisdiction).
- Set Year Type to Prosecuted.
- Choose a multi-year range that shows trends (e.g., 2020–2024).
- Tip: For patents, avoid the current year due to publication lag.
3. Add Charts
- Choose the charts that are most relevant to your research.
- Filings Over Time: trend of filings in your jurisdiction.
- Important Clients: the clients represented by these firms and related volumes.
- Technical Areas & Fields: technical areas those firms are filing in.
- Tip: You can swap different charts or click Add Filter to narrow down the results.
4. Run the Search & Export
- Click Search. Results show up to 1,000 firms across up to 10 pages.
- Click Export (XLSX). In the excel file, you will find multiple sheets.
- Sheet 1: List of law firms + totals matching your criteria.
- Extra Sheets: One sheet per added chart (e.g., filings by year, clients, technical areas).
5. Analyze the Export
- Use pivot tables/charts to:
- Track year-over-year filing trends locally.
- See who is driving volume (top firms, top clients).
- Spot growing technical areas, rising firms, potential opportunities and threats.
Analyze Specific Competitors
1. Open Competitor Profiles
- Go to Analyze → Law Firms.
- Search the firm name; if they have multiple entities, select the relevant ones.
2. Review Key Charts and Examine international relationships
- In Overview, review their local filing strategy.
- Open Case Exchange and review:
- Their balance of sent vs. received cases.
- Partner mix and any heavy reliance on specific foreign associates.
- Use these insights to spot:
- Threats you must counter.
- Gaps you can exploit (e.g., tech areas or geographies they don’t cover well).
Save time with IP Pilot Pro
Option A: Excel Autofill (bulk export)
- Upload a list of competitor firm names (e.g., from your Search export in the previous steps).
- Select charts/time ranges you want.
- Export data in bulk for all listed firms (saves hours of one-by-one analysis).
Option B: Compare Entities (side-by-side)
- Open Insights (Pro) → Compare Entities.
- Add your firm and up to three competitors.
- Compare filings over time, client bases, technical areas, and more in a single view.
(If you don’t have Pro, open your firm’s profile and competitors’ profiles in separate tabs and compare manually using the same charts.)
Example Scenario
- Search: Law Firms → from anywhere; filing at: Canada (CA); Prosecuted; 2020–2024.
- Add Filings Over Time, Important Clients, Technical Areas & Fields. Export and chart YoY growth and top client drivers.
- Competitors: Open Analyze > Law Firms; review each rival’s Filings Over Time, Important Clients, and Case Exchange to see where they receive work from abroad.
- Pro: Use Excel Autofill to bulk-export charts for your top 25 competitors; use Compare Entities to benchmark your firm against 2–3 rivals side-by-side.
Best Practices & Tips
-
Pick stable windows: Use 3–5 full years to see real trends (avoid current year for patents).
- Segment smartly: Filter by relevant charts to reveal where competition is strongest or weakest.
- Tie market to action: Map growing tech fields to your BD focus and training plans.
- Watch reciprocity: In Case Exchange, heavy “received” with little “sent” can indicate partners who may be open to change.
- Refresh regularly: Re-run quarterly to track shifts in clients, partners, and technology focus.
Need help interpreting your market or building a competitor playbook? Contact our customer success team and we’ll walk you through a tailored analysis for your jurisdiction. support@ip-pilot.com.
