Is Your Company Leaking Innovation?

I interview a lot of inventors. As part of what I do, I need to assess project potential because ultimately, I will be responsible for the generation of their first cash-generating transaction, as they blast through my Academy program.

When I used to ask how long they have been working on the project, I would frequently get a response of 5-15 years. Later, I find they have been employed all that time and had worked on it in their own time. Some shared that they got the idea at work and when they saw the potential, they just kept working on it at home.

This can present a real problem.

If you discover or create something in the employ of someone else, who owns the associated intellectual property?

I would suggest that if you were remunerated by the firm, as an employee or contractor, in the creation of any IP, you might not be able to lay claim to it. Every Court is different, but I can suggest Patent Law doesn't change that much across jurisdictions.

If you are a business owner, a director of a public company, or even the head of a government department, you might benefit from stopping this IP leakage, and - even if you elect to reward those who develop such IP - you can at least create another revenue stream for the company, from the resulting commercialization.

How can this be done?

There are six key things you need to implement, in order to capture and monetize innovation within your organization. These are:

1. Publishing a policy on ownership of all innovation that is developed in-house. I would take this opportunity to add an incentive program based on the value of ideas and a reward system for licensing or trade-sale of any emerging IP.

2. Modifying all employment agreements and contractor agreements to include a "waiver of rights" clause, ensuring all ideas, improvements, devices, processes, formulations, ingredients, etc, that are different from the conventional ways of doing things, are assigned to the employer.

3. Form an IP Portfolio group within the company, to take responsibility for nurturing, qualifying, protecting, and monetizing any ideas with potential. When I recruit for these groups, I traditionally hunt for a mix of skills, from R&D, Finance, Engineering, Marketing, QA, etc.

4. Create an IP Portfolio Register, which can contain all of the opportunities until these are either commercialized, licensed, traded, or abandoned. This register should bring all expenses and revenues to the accounts via this register and ultimately the register can be reviewed regularly and even valued by the auditors.

5. Plan and conduct an annual IP opportunity audit of the organization, to identify potential or emerging IP. This usually involves a series of department focus group meetings to build a list of opportunities, to get opinions of potential, resources required, as well as the pricing, costing, and sourcing associated with being able to produce these in volume.

6. Present a policy paper to the Board to ensure the group has the resources and commitment to drive the opportunities, through inclusion, licensing, and/or trade sale to other (several) parties.

Before you consider you have this locked down, you should test your capabilities in this area, by completing the new IP Opportunity Audit assessment score, to see just how prepared your organization is to maximize your IP opportunities that may be carried out your front door by departing employees or contractors.

https://opportunityaudit.scoreapp.com/

This online multi-choice questionnaire takes around 3 mins and it's free. When we reach 10,000 respondents, we will aggregate and publish the emerging trends and fears of respondents, without releasing any private information, of course.

Daniel

#invent , #inventing , #funding , #licensing , #invention , #innovation , #IP , #ideas , #startups , #patent , #prototyping , #designthinking , #entrepreneurship , productdevelopment, #R &D, #technology , #creativity , #research , #inventors , #disruptive , #patenting , #inventors , #venturecapital , #entrepreneurship , #manufacturing , #leanstartup , #sustainability , #disruption