When I began my work at the patent consulting company in Dallas, TX I noticed my Agnihotra practice help in two ways.
One, I joined as an analyst and I was responsible for analyzing portfolios of intellectual property.
Analyzing intellectual property involves a combination legal, technical, and market analyses. To give an analogy, imagine you are in the middle of a cave with dozens of tunnels extending from where you are. Your job is to a find a path to the outside. If you go down one tunnel, you will come across another set of tunnels, and beyond that is another set of tunnels (so at least three levels of tunnels, representing the legal, technical, and market aspects of the analysis).
Analysis of intellectual property can be similar to burrowing down a rabbit hole. If you go down any path, you keep going until you either find your way out or all paths are blocked. If the path down a tunnel is blocked, then you need to backtrack your steps and pick another path to traverse, to hopefully find your way out.
Given this nature of intellectual property analysis, it's easy for analysis to take several weeks and even months. If you go down the wrong path, you could easily waste several days and even weeks.
I recall when I first joined the consulting company, I was given an assignment with a very short turnaround time. I realized that the only possible way for me to complete the assignment on time was if I picked the path, each and every step of the way to complete the project. I simply didn't have the time to inadvertently pick a wrong path and waste any time.
I remember sitting at my computer looking at the portfolio, wondering if it was even possible to complete the project on time. I resolved to give it my best effort.
I noticed something interesting happen as I started to analyze the portfolio. When I would begin to read and study one of the assets, an idea would spring in my mind as a potential path to pursue. I decided to pursue that path and did a Google search to see if the asset had market applicability, and I realized that the path had potential.
As I was studying the market, I realized I needed to search for the right keyword to narrow my focus within the market. As I sat pondering, I noticed a keyword come to my mind. I decided to follow my hunch and a search for that keyword took me down the right path to further the analysis on the portfolio.
This continued throughout my analysis of the portfolio. Each time I was at a crossroads and I asked myself the correct path to pursue, an idea would spring to my mind, and that would more often than not lead down the correct path. I was able to complete the project on time.
This intuitive insight continued not only for this project, but for the entire time I was at the consulting company, and throughout my legal career to this day.
I realized that after four years of my Agnihotra practice, it had connected me to an intuitive insight that helped guide me to efficiently analyze highly complex, multi-dimensional aspects of patent law.
The other aspect in which Agnihotra helped? Navigating through adversity.
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