What are the steps to creating an effective intellectual property strategy?

The first step in assessing your IP portfolio should be to identify the types of intellectual property, e.g. patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, trade secrets, ... What is your real strength? How do these intellectual property rights contribute to the success of your company? Are you aware of the many ways they can contribute? These are e.g. license revenue, the ability to exclude competitors from using your IP, customers being able to recognize and identify you as the origin of your products via a specific trademark or design, monopolizing/controlling a certain technology via patents, ...

To create an effective intellectual property strategy, follow these steps: first, identify the assets that are part of the economic activity and can be protected. Then, protect these assets, as what is transferred is the right, not the knowledge. Subsequently, value these assets, as they grant their owner an exclusive right to carry out any type of exploitation in the territory covered by the right. Finally, market these assets, as a well-crafted intellectual property strategy can help maximize your company’s potential.

On every innovation I try to approach, I start first by understanding the environment to assess the commercial value of spending time and money into it. An idea can be great, it can work, you can even have a patent, but it only works as long as people are buying it and with innovations, you are dealing with people who have habits and might not want to change. The value of a innovation is about creating the desire for a change, having the capacity to not stay alone to carry it while still folding secrecy properly and keeping the intellectual property until the end, despite competition, despite adversity, despite all the environment that can kill a good idea.

I am always advocating holistic view on the assets; not only understanding what kind of IP your portfolio consists of, and what could you do with it, but also what is your business goal and strategy and does your portfolio support achieving them.

Clearly define your intellectual property objectives in alignment with your overall business strategy. Determine whether your primary focus is protecting inventions, branding, creative works, or a combination.

Defining your IP objectives is a crucial step in creating an effective intellectual property strategy. Align these objectives with your business goals and vision. Clearly articulate what you aim to achieve with your IP, including how you'll measure success and what resources and actions are required. Ensure your objectives are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Objectives could range from increasing market share, entering new markets, boosting revenue, or enhancing your reputation through your IP

IP objectives should be supporting business objectives (business strategy) but this can be achieved in many ways. For example, if IP objective is to support revenue growth, this could be done e.g. by creating exclusivity position in the market, by avoiding litigation, by blocking competitors or by leveraging brand. Business model, offerings, market situation, competition and many more factor impact which IP objectives support your business strategy. If business strategy changes, IP objectives should change too, but this not always very fast or easy thing to do, given the long-term nature of IP development.

Clear IP objectives are imperative, in my experience. The strategy grounds objectives against outcome and keeps the IP legal team focused on actions that achieve the desired outcome. Another IP portfolio consideration, especially with patents, could be protective. For example, having an IP strategy whereby core parents are filed that specifically seek to protect an invention that will go to market is crucial. But patents “surrounding” core inventions can be quite useful to ensure less competitive proximity to core inventions.

Establish robust policies and procedures for creating, managing, and protecting intellectual property within your organization. Ensure employees know and adhere to these policies, covering invention disclosures, trademark usage guidelines, and confidentiality measures.

Many jurisdictions have statutory processes for employee inventions. Law may also define copyrights created in employment relationship. Even global companies must take these into account if they have global operations. IP processes and procedures should holistically cover all kinds of IP through contracting (NDAs, employment contracts, service contracts, business agreements, contract policy etc) and internal invention scouting, innovation co-development, trade secret management, copyright and product management, and of course include the patenting process and patent management. The bigger the Company, the more it can invest to this activity. But smaller companies should do this step by step and start with the most critical procedures.

Oftentimes implementation starts already long before there is any plan or strategy in place. For example in the start-up world, it is easier to just apply for a patent and think about the overall strategy later. And this probably works for some time, at least to start with. But for real growth phase, more structured IP operation is needed. This phase is probably the easiest to outsource for the longest period.

Put your intellectual property plan into action by filing patent applications, registering trademarks, applying for copyrights, and implementing trade secret protection measures. Ensure your IP strategy integrates into product development, marketing, and other relevant business processes.

In my experience implementing your IP plan is the fourth step in creating an effective IP strategy. This involves outlining specific tasks and timelines to achieve your IP objectives. Assign roles and responsibilities, allocate resources and budgets, and continuously monitor and evaluate progress and performance. Adaptability is key; update your IP plan as business needs and environments evolve. Ensure that your IP plan aligns with your overall business strategy and integrates seamlessly with other functional areas like R&D, marketing, sales, and finance, creating a cohesive approach to IP management

It is very important to optimize the IP portfolio in a timely manner to identify core IP that needs to be protected and expanded upon, non-core patents that could be divested or licensed out and patents for obsolete technologies which should be abandoned. There could be a challenge in evaluating a large patent portfolio regularly. Fortunately, there are quite a few AI-assisted tools available that can help evaluate a patent portfolio very efficiently. Our own LLM based AI platform can be trained on the business areas and core technologies of any company and then it can easily bucketize the entire portfolio of the company by technologies and then identify the key patents, the non-essential ones and the ones to watch for future.

Optimizing the IP porfolio is crucial and, depending on the country, there are several other aspects that can contribute to maximizing its value. For instance, IP can be used as a tax optimization tool in some countries. In Switzerland, for example, there is the so-called “patent-box“, which allows companies with patents to save on taxes. Regardless of their location, IP is also an important means for start-up companies to attract investors. In general, the topic of IP-backed financing will become more important. Singapore is one of the pioneering countries in this field, as it has allready provided a robust legal framework.

Continuously evaluate and optimize your intellectual property portfolio. Consider divesting or licensing underutilized assets and explore opportunities for acquiring additional IP assets that align with your business goals.

Regularly review and update your IP strategy to adapt to changes in your business environment, industry trends, and legal developments. Ensure that your IP strategy remains aligned with your overall business strategy.

Reviewing the IP strategy is the final step in its effective creation. Regular assessment of its effectiveness and efficiency is vital. Measure and analyze IP outcomes and outputs, comparing them to your objectives and expectations. Incorporate feedback from internal and external stakeholders and identify and address any issues or challenges. Utilize various metrics and indicators for this review, such as IP ROI, IP market share, IP reputation, or IP satisfaction. This process ensures your IP strategy remains aligned with your business goals and adapts to changing circumstances.

Enforcement Strategy: Develop a plan for enforcing your intellectual property rights. This may involve monitoring for infringement, sending cease-and-desist letters, or pursuing legal action when necessary. Collaboration and Licensing: Explore opportunities for collaboration and licensing to maximize the value of your intellectual property. Consider forming partnerships that allow for shared innovation and mutually beneficial agreements. Risk Management: Assess and manage the risks associated with your intellectual property strategy. This includes potential legal challenges, the cost of maintaining and enforcing IP rights, and the impact of changes in technology or market dynamics.

IP strategy will end up being a bunch of cost creating activities if the IP strategy does not align with business strategy and is not designed to support it. Always start with business strategy and the chosen business model and create IP strategy based on that. Business strategy creates the purpose and the goal and IP strategy will support it.

There are some common pivotal ways through which an intelligent property strategy is designed. It may vary depending on the actual service or product the tech company is offering. However, mostly the techniques are similar which are as follows: 1) Implementation of thorough research before finalizing the IP ?? 2) The smallest of things need to be documented for all kinds of procedures since for IT companies in particular, the biggest asset is the "Intel" ?? 3) The next thing is undoubtedly the legal protection aspect for securing patents ?? 4) Security Measures should be pristine to avoid any sort of data breach ?? 5) Regular Updating is mandatory since strategy needs to be changed with change in technology ??

Olá, se você está iniciando em um empreendimento baseado em uma inova??o (por exemplo uma startup), com um projeto passível de prote??o intelectual, é interessante buscar as agências de inova??o, geralmente ligadas às principais universidades do Brasil, que podem orientá-lo sobre os procedimentos necessários, custos, documentos etc. Elas s?o especializadas no assunto e mantém contato com com as institui??es de propriedade intelectual, estando sempre atualizadas. é um bom come?o. :)