What Is A Workspace Reader License And Why Is It Useful?

Workspace Reader Licenses are one of the types of license that we offer which enable a user to be able to view a Workspace that has been shared with them. They can then add comments and custom field values to these patents which should help in the collaborative effort when it comes to both reading and analyzing patents.

Workspace Reader licenses have similar capabilities to a full Database license with a comparison between them shown below:

Patent view

• Patent valuations are not available to Workspace Reader license holders.

• The "Save to Workspace" and "Quick Save" options are not available.
• The only option available from the Legal tab is "Transaction".

Workspace results page

• Workspace reader licenses can still make and view comments as usual (dependent on the sharing permissions they have been provided with), so there are no differences here.
• They are able to add brand new custom fields and allocate values to them for patents.
• They can create text, date, drop-down menu, numeric and URL link custom fields but not drop-down trees.
• "Export" and "Family expansion" are the only options available at the top of the page which means the other options available to a full database license are not, i.e. no imports, email alerts or custom analyses.
• Workspace reader license holders are able to view but not edit the Automatic Update that the folder is built based upon.
• They are unable to create new Workspaces. However, they are able to edit/share/delete Workspaces.
• They are unable to create new or edit Workspace folders. However, they are able to move or copy them.
• They are able to assign their own tasks and be assigned tasks by full license holders.

Other

• They are able to assign their own tasks and be assigned tasks by full license holders.
• Many of the functionalities from the top-right menu for a full license user are not given for a workspace reader license.

Why are Workspace Reader licenses important?

Despite the limitations mentioned above, the importance of Workspace Reader licenses can't be underestimated, especially for larger teams. We have a number of customers who make use of Workspace Reader licenses in combination with having users with full Database licenses. There are a couple of common use cases that these customers have made us aware that they utilize.

The most common of these is for the full license user to create a Workspace and set up custom fields within it. They will then share this with their Workspace Reader colleagues and give them the appropriate permissions so they are able to edit comments and custom field values.

Once a Workspace Reader license user has received the shared Workspace, they can then make comments and add custom field values to the patents given within the folder.

This process can be repeated multiple times which ultimately means the review process of the patents within a team can be done much more efficiently.

Another common use case relates to patent review tracking.

The way this would usually work is for the full license user to setup a Workspace with custom fields and then assign a number of patents to review for their Workspace Reader colleagues. These tasks will usually involve filling in specific custom fields for the assigned patents.

This again makes the patent review process run much more efficiently.

There are a number of other ways of making use of a Workspace Reader license but the two use cases mentioned above are the most common among our customers.