Intellectual Property - Time to Get Smart

Intellectual Property is perhaps the most powerful business tool that a business has access to. It has the ability to influence both the market and competitors with a degree of control that few, if any, other legal options can provide. To the smart business, IP is both a valuable tool and asset. It is its ability to both increase in value (e.g. goodwill) as well as being a tool for growth which makes Intellectual Property unique, and of such importance to business.

It is IP’s ability to exert control in a market which makes it a positive tool for growth. Growth often occurs as a consequence of innovation, and it is this innovation which has Intellectual Property rights associated with it. By protecting this IP, your business can protect the investment it has made in developing the innovation and also exclude others from using it – except under your terms.

The ability to protect your innovation investment is particularly important for businesses where developing new products is time consuming or expensive. However, protecting your IP is equally important when growth depends on new innovations. If you introduce these innovations into the market without IP protection, you are only doing the groundwork for your competitors – creating a new market for them to compete directly against you. By protecting the associated IP, you can create barriers which force competitors to move in new directions. A clever IP strategy can have a significant impact on a competitor’s ability to compete or remain in your market.

The smart business will possess an IP strategy, much as it will possess a marketing strategy and a growth strategy. It will integrate the IP strategy with its business plan, and treat it as a living document which evolves as its business plan changes. By doing this it ensures that it can maximise the value of its IP, and effectively respond to any threats or opportunities. In this regard it is important that your business maintains a relationship with an IP specialist, or patent attorney, who can oversee all aspects of your Intellectual Property in relation to your business strategy.

Intellectual Property is a versatile tool. Its protection can create barriers for competitors, as well as create opportunities such as licensing (and franchising), partnerships and joint ventures, as well as making the innovation more attractive to investors (IP protection is a pre-requisite for most investment). However it can also be enforced as a legal remedy, these commonly being infringement actions against others who copy or infringe your protected IP rights. This ability to enforce acts as a considerable incentive for others to behave appropriately, giving IP protection a valuable and extremely effective dual role as both a preventative measure (against infringement of your rights) and a cure (through legal action) for those who find your IP too attractive to resist.

If you’ve decided it’s time to become a smart business, the first step is to identify your IP assets. Ideally this will be done in conjunction with an IP specialist who can readily identify and advise you in this regard. Most businesses are unaware of their IP assets, or their value. It is not surprising for businesses to find that their most valuable assets are IP assets, and that these are unprotected (goodwill is a prime example). Neither is it uncommon for businesses to learn, until too late, that they could have stopped a competitor from proceeding down a path that now seriously affects their business. Once identified, these valuable IP assets can be protected and a strategy evolved which can help the growth of your business. The important message is to identify your IP assets, create a strategy to protect and use them to your advantage, and to do it now!

Intellectual Property needs to be part of the repertoire of any business. It needs to be identified, it needs to be protected, and it needs to be used in accordance with a strategy which reflects the plans of the firm. In this series we shall focus on different aspects of IP and how businesses can use them to their advantage.

IPRIMA - Registered Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys