Research for the 2017 edition of IP STARS, Managing IP’s legal directory, starts today. Kingsley Egbuonu and Jennifer Ruther highlight some of the things you need to know and why IP firms and practitioners worldwide should participate by making a submission
Can you explain the research process?
In summary, researchers invite firms and practitioners to complete their respective questionnaires online. These are hosted on Survey Monkey. This year we ask firms to submit client referees separately, using our Excel template document. As we receive submissions, we start interviewing firms and contacting clients for feedback. Our researchers interview as many firms as possible and obtain a lot of data so not all firms will be interviewed, unfortunately. We would love to interview all firms. However, not getting an interview does not in anyway affect your existing ranking or inclusion to the rankings.
The information we obtain from firm interviews serves as a guide, and where appropriate we do more interviews to make sure the views are very much balanced or right. We conduct our own independent research and consider client feedback before drawing up the firm rankings and IP Stars list. All of this feeds into Managing IP’s awards.
Why is it important for firms to participate each year?
The least we expect is for firms to submit the questionnaire and client referees. Regardless of whether a firm is currently ranked or not, it is still crucial to submit these each year because it demonstrates your firm remains active in the market.
Furthermore, doing so helps us build up a strong profile on your firm and we may find non-public information from your submission which may influence a decision on our firm rankings or IP Stars list. If your firm is not yet ranked, then this is an opportunity for you to tell us why it should be. Nonetheless, a firm can still be ranked even if it did not participate in the research.
What about your practitioner listings?
We have two categories: private practice (“the IP Stars”) and in-house (“Corporate IP Stars”). The IP Stars are individuals in private practice who are highly recommended in their fields by peers and clients, and of course validated through our independent research. The Corporate IP Stars list recognises in-house counsel who have been exceptional in managing their company's IP assets and/or taking steps to nurture the IP ecosystem in their jurisdiction.
There is a questionnaire for individual practitioners which anyone, whether already listed or not, can complete. Its main purpose is to obtain practice details which we can publish in our handbooks, if the individual is eventually selected. The Top 250 Women in IP originates from the IP Stars list. All our listings are subject to change each year.
Is there a cost to participate in IP STARS research?
None at all.
Where can those who wish to participate find the links to the online questionnaires and document you mentioned above?
All the links to the questionnaires and all relevant documents can be found here. Please note that we have two firm questionnaires: one for firms based in the US and the other for firms outside the US. This is because we publish two editions, US and Global.
To make the submission process easier for firms, we have made available the Word version of the online firm questionnaire so firms can use this to prepare in advance and then simply copy and paste into the online questionnaire.
Do you accept Word or PDF submissions?
No. Official submission is made through SurveyMonkey. However, firms can use Word document to send us extra information after they have officially submitted online.
When are the submission deadlines?
The deadline for the firm questionnaire is November 7 2016, while the practitioner questionnaire is January 31 2017. See our research timelines here.
Is it mandatory that we submit our firm questionnaire before you can interview us?
No. Researchers start scheduling interviews with firms as soon as possible whether or not submissions have been received.
When will you publish the 2017 firm rankings and IP Stars list?
The rankings are first published in Managing IP magazine: trade mark rankings in the February issue, patent rankings in the March issue, and copyright in the April issue.
Thereafter we publish three handbooks - containing all the firm rankings, our editorial commentary on many of the ranked firms and the IP Stars lists - in April for the US edition and the Global edition of the trade mark & copyright handbook, and July for the Global edition of the patent handbook. All the contents of the IP Stars handbook plus other additional features will also be published on our website ipstars.com.
See our research and publication timelines here
Where can firms and practitioners find more information?
Please visit ipstars.com/general/about for more information on our methodology, FAQs, research timelines and submission deadlines, among other things. If you still have further questions please contact us.
We are hosting a webinar at 3pm (London time) on September 13 where we will provide further guidance and explain new features for 2017. Please do join us if you can. To register visit https://www.managingip.com/Web-Seminars.html