Identifying And Managing Intellectual Property
Foreword By The Editor
The following article by Edmund Roberts succinctly covers the sometimes apparently mystical subject of intellectual property (IP). For further reading and/or advice on the subject, please follow the links in the last paragraph headed About The Author.
Mike Alexander
For all your content needs go to ClipCopy Content Solutions
The Bottom Line
- Image via Wikipedia
If you look at the books of large companies these days you will discover that their intellectual property invariably adds a massive amount to the balance sheet. In fact most business’s fixed assets are tiny in comparison to the brand and IP value. This tells us something very interesting. How much more would your business be worth if you invested more in IP identification and registration?
When a business strategically identifies, maintains and secures its intellectual property rights then this can obviously have a huge impact on the business in terms of its overall operation, including its ability to attract investors, enter into specific business partnership, and ultimately increase its value when it comes to sale or business merger.
Large businesses who have mega-brands like Google and Coca Cola are often quoted when it comes to their brand value as out-valuing their fixed assets hundreds of times, yet it is easy to forget how these businesses became so big.
The Information Age
We live in an information world now. Information companies like Google can be worth a few billion dollars a few years after creation only because information is now so valuable. Information is a tradable asset only when it is protected by IP and other laws. Every company, big or small should consider intellectual property seriously. It is one of the best investments you can make with a company if their IP value is capitalized within the company and added to the balance sheet.
It is highly recommended for companies of all sizes to be aware of these issues and produce particular strategies that will proactively ensure that their IP will at all times be properly legally protected.
Identifying IP Areas
Here are a few areas to help you by first identifying the areas that you are creating IP in:
- Trademarks: these protect parts of your overall brand such as slogans, images, names.
- Copyrights: these cover the trade protection of expressive items such as documents, books, pictures, video recordings, audio recordings etc.
- Trade secrets: these protect proprietary information, internal know-how, systems and operations that are deemed to give you a business competitive edge
- Patents and industrial designs: which protect particular types of ideas and inventions and processes
Considering the above items, the first step that you need to take is to identify current IP within your company. You may be surprised how much you have. Once all sources of a company’s IP have been identified, processes should be put in place that enable the company to easily keep track of all existing and new IP. Then someone needs to be given the responsibility of managing it.
Professional Help
Once the key IP has been identified then the next step is to look at what should be registered to protect it legally. This is where a good patent lawyer comes in to play. Good IP lawyers don’t come cheap but considering the value that is created it pays to invest in one for all your major IP.
