Issue 6 || August 2024
??Maria Boicova-Wynants
Is your IP a strategic asset? It can be. Let’s discuss! I transform your intellectual property into drivers of your business growth.
Another first Saturday of the month, so it’s time for another Join me for a sIP, and this issue will be a bit shorter than usual: I am on workation after all...
Nevertheless, I still have a lot of interesting things to share, so get your preferred drink ready and let’s begin.
So what's on today?
I will live up to my promise to give you an overview of the seminar on copycats, give you a TL:DR recap of my posts of the #IPMasteryMonth, then a bit on decision-making (you don't want to miss this one!), AI and fun facts.
ECTA's Seminar on Copycats
In the last Join me for a sIP I promised to give you an overview of a very insightful session on Copycats held on the second day of the ECTA (official) Conference in Antwerp. I usually keep my promises, so here it is:
The session was chaired by Julien Scicluna and the presenters included Femke van Horen, Birte Vanrobaeys and Stoyan Sirakov. All four were insightful, but I will highlight two of them.
Bottom-line: there are different ways.
Another bottom-line: successful approach calls for IP strategy in advance!
Here are the two summary slides, highlighting the challenges:
Then she went into an analysis of the copycat question. In particular, Prof. van Horen presented the results of a survey of both lawyers and consumers on the topic of copycats and their perception. Funnily, there is a big difference between what consumers perceive and think and what lawyers think that consumers think :))
To illustrate, lawyers are more likely to advise their clients to go after direct copycats, but in reality consumers are less interested in or better inclined to buy these direct copycats and rather prefer the distant similarity.
Also, the impact of whether AI was involved in creation of the copycat product is differently perceived by lawyers vs. by consumers.
In other words, theory and reality again mismatch big time.
We think we know how we think, but in reality our brain reactions show otherwise.
A concluding slide of Prof. van Horen’s presentation sums up the questions for further reflection.
What do you think about these questions?
A recap of my posts of the last month.
In July I went for a #IPMasteryMonth.
I kicked off the month by delving into common pitfalls for SMEs, emphasizing the need for robust IP due diligence and trade secret protection to safeguard against infringement and legal risks. Further, I touched upon the essential steps for protecting core IP assets, guarding against infringement, and navigating international enforcement challenges in a global marketplace. Here, I also discussed the value of engaging external IP consultants and advisors, as well as important caveats of educating yourself first.
Then, I moved on to discuss the importance of scaling also your IP strategy to support growth, adapting to factors like funding rounds, expansion plans, and partnerships. I highlighted the importance of agility in IP strategy, emphasizing the need for startups and SMEs to adapt quickly to market changes, technological advancements, and regulatory shifts.
After that, I addressed strategies for monetizing IP assets, including licensing, franchising, and strategic partnerships; explored the benefits of forming strategic alliances and partnerships to leverage complementary IP assets, expand market reach, and accelerate innovation in a collaborative ecosystem.
Finally, as always, I advocated for investing in ongoing IP education and training for employees, fostering a culture of awareness, expertise, and compliance within startups and SMEs, emphasizing the transformative power of knowledge, collaboration, and continuous improvement in unlocking the full potential of IP for startups and SMEs.
As I conclude this month-long dive into IP Strategy for Startups and SMEs, I would like to leave you with this:
Intellectual property is not just a legal concept—it's a strategic asset that can fuel innovation, drive growth, and secure long-term success for businesses of all sizes. It does require your attention; for in case you don’t concern yourself with IP, someone else will, and you can find yourself accused of infringement or ruined by infringers. Or you can just be leaving money on the table.
At the end of the month I have also shared two checklists - IP Alignment with Business Strategy Checklist and Investment Readiness Checklist from IP Perspective. Both checklists are taken from my book “Intellectual Property: the Key to Your Competitive Advantage”. If you are interested, you have two options:
IP Strategy 101: without legalese and in under 100 minutes
Surprise!
Finally, yesterday I have announced another surprise - soon my Guide for SMEs and IP Professionals: “At the Crossroads: 3D Printing and Intellectual Property” will be available.
If you are interested, do subscribe to my Updates and you will be the first to know (read: the first to get it!). You can subscribe here: https://tinyurl.com/IPguide1
Decision-making: do you think you are making good decisions?
As a non-IP topic (though highly related to IP field anyway), today, I want to share with you some great resources on the topic of decision-making.
If I am talking about decisions, I simply MUST mention Cassie Kozyrkov .
Cassie used to be Chief Decision Scientist at Google. Now she heads her own company… and she created the BEST courses I have seen on decision-making especially in the context of machine learning, AI and all the shebang.
In general, Cassie is a great speaker and what I love the most about her is that she is absolutely no-nonsense and she always talks business!
Not AI for the sake of AI! No!
She always goes back to business goals!
(Same as I always go back to business goals when I talk about IP).
As a teaser to the above, I want to cite Cassie herself:
“Every time some genius decides to apply?AI?where it doesn’t belong, the world collectively rolls its eyes and puts another ballot in the AI-Is-A-Fad box. Which is why it's important to ask yourself: do you actually need AI to solve your problem? AI excels when the task is too complex for traditional programming. For example, teaching a computer to generate impressive video footage -- anyone else playing with the latest drop from Runway? -- would be nearly impossible to do by writing out explicit?instructions. So we feed the computer examples (data!) and let it learn that way instead. But for many problems - even large problems, even enterprise-scale problems - we'll get more reliable, accurate results by expressing our wishes to the machines in the?most precise way possible. So how do you select the right approach?”
If you watch her courses and the webinar I mention above, you will know the answer.
Food for Thought
Talking about AI, there was another interesting post I came across last month - from Linas Beliūnas :
领英推荐
So again - the bottom line is that before you jump on the AI speed train, ask yourself some thorough questions about how AI will actually support your business decision-making… and can it?
Just because AI is trendy doesn’t mean it fits with your business model.
Always starts with the business (yes-yes, you heard me say that countless times! Also in the IP context.)
Fun fact
Now, a fun fact:
Do you know what was the first thing you could ever buy online?
Think: thirty years ago, in the far 1994?
Any guesses?
Well… According to some sources, that was… pizza!
And nothing less but a specific PizzaHut pizza.
That’s what I call being a “tech savvy risk taker”!
While Internet (WWW) was publicly announced on August 06, 1991, just three years later (!!!), PizzaHut already started offering its Santa Cruz (California) customers a possibility to order pizza over the Web.
Inspiring, huh?
So… a food for thought for this weekend:
What should you have done 30 (20, 10, 5…) years ago? And what maybe makes sense to try doing right NOW?
Marketing-knowledge moment
Finally, let’s talk about marketing for a moment and here again I have a sincere recommendation:
I follow many marketing people but the no-nonsense attitude of Chris James appeals to me the most (you must have noticed, that I tend to love no-nonsense people).
I haven’t worked with him.
In fact, I am not sure I want to work with any marketing expert.
But if I ever do, it will most likely be him.
Why?
Aside from the style and attitude (which appeal to me), when at one point I exchanged DMs with him, HE DIDN’T TRY TO SELL to me or pretend he is smarter than me and knows precisely where my challenges are. He didn’t ask b-shit questions and didn’t try to push me anything.
Below is one of his posts that nails the content strategy for social media.
Read it carefully.
Essentially, once you really get it - it means you are on the way to ace the marketing game.
The bottom line: follow Chris James .
A bit more fun, but IP and AI related
Finally, I wanted to share a fun thing - which coincidentally also related to IP and AI…
And while it is fun, provides quite an in-depth dive into the issues with creativity and copyright in the era of AI.
Enjoy “The EleonORe Song” dedicated to one and only Eleonora Rosati - the main Kat of the IPKat.
My plans for August
As to my plans for August…
For the rest, I will take it relatively easy I guess.
After all, this is the last month of summer. Does it mean I will not do anything? Of course not! My routine stays the same. Just a bit less new work.
In this sense, I liked the post of Dr. Benjamin DELSOL (PhD, LL.M) - yes, even during the vacation it makes sense to stick to foundational habits.
These are foundational habits for a reason.
Et voilà!
You reached the end of this month's Join me for a sIP.
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
And I hope to see you on 7th of September.
Building the bridge to connect R&D, Intellectual property and Business | Innovation, Technology Curation & IP Management | Business IP Strategist
3 个月Thanks for the mention. Happy summer!
AI Business Automation & Workflows | Superior Website Creation & Maintenance | Podcast
3 个月Sounds intriguing! Can't wait to read it! ??
Patent Attorney and Course Leader at PATSKILLS
3 个月Dear Maria, Sorry, but threre's so much transmitted on social media that I don't even have time to sIP your resumé. Like nearly everyone I talk to, I'm short of time. I've summarised this in a song "Time Ain't Money" I am hoping to present to Eurovision. Thanks nevertheless for your deserving efforts Maria.
Director IP Management Training CEIPI | Chairman DIN77006 | Director Research Programms IP Business Academy
3 个月That's really exciting, thank you ??Maria Boicova-Wynants I always think it's great how much you can stay in touch with people through social media and how much you can learn from others. I recommend reading Clauswitz after SunZu - it's much more specific and not so "flowery". But anyway, how would we have known earlier that you're planning to do SunZu in August - that's just great. Thank you for your monthly sIP.
Co-Founder of Altrosyn and DIrector at CDTECH | Inventor | Manufacturer
3 个月It's inspiring to see you distilling a month's worth of IP wisdom into bite-sized insights for your readers. Balancing the demands of sharing expertise while staying current on rapidly evolving trends like AI must be challenging. How do you find time to recharge and maintain your own intellectual curiosity amidst such a demanding schedule?