[Mastering the IP Portfolio, by Taeyoung Lee] ② Launching a New Razor: What Does Gillette Do First?

This is the second column in the "Mastering the IP Portfolio" series by our patent attorney Taeyoung Lee, published on May 10, 2020 in IP Daily, a media outlet specializing in intellectual property.

Using the Gillette ProGlide FlexBall razor as an example, this column presents a strategy for the initial review involved in building an IP portfolio.

[Mastering the IP Portfolio, by Taeyoung Lee] ② Launching a New Razor: What Does Gillette Do First?

Gillette is the dominant global company in the wet-shave razor market and, together with the electric shaver brand Braun, belongs to P&G. Although its market share has slipped somewhat with the growth of online subscription brands such as Dollar Shave Club, Gillette still holds more than half of the global wet-shave razor market.

Since launching its first razor in 1900, Gillette has continued to release innovative products for more than a century. In particular, when the triple-blade Mach3, launched in 1998, became a worldwide hit, Gillette established itself as the leader in the wet-shave razor market. It then launched, in turn, the five-blade Fusion (2010), the Fusion ProGlide (2011), the Fusion ProGlide FlexBall (2014) and the Fusion ProShield (2016).

Gillette is famous for its strategy of securing strong, net-like patent portfolios around its products to keep competitors out of the market. For each product it launches, such as the Mach3, Fusion and Fusion ProGlide, it builds a portfolio not of one or two patents but of dozens, to prevent competitors from copying it in the first place.

(For the full column, please click the link below.)

LNB IP Law Firm