Focusing on the fast-moving Techplatforms & Software sector, the article shows how leading digital innovators cope with ballooning patent portfolios and annuity costs through data-driven pruning. It analyzes 12 global technology platforms and shows that of 110,000 patent families filed between 2009 and 2017 and still in force in 2020, about 15% had been dropped by August 2025, then asks a blunt question drawn directly from the data: if patent-quality differences can be measured early, why do most organizations still wait more than a decade before acting…