Going Global

Sophisticated software can help today's businesses manage their IP portfolios on a global Scale. Simon Hughes, Antoinette Lachat and Maurus Schreyvogel explain how using CPA Global Memotech 2004 has helped Novartis achieve tangible business goals.

Most businesses have well planned procedures for registering and enforcing their IP assets, particularly if they operate on a global scale, and Novartis is no exception. Since its formation in 1996, with the merger of the Swiss companies, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis has become a world leader in the fields of pharmaceuticals, consumer health, generics, eye-care and animal health.

As Novartis’s mission statement makes clear, the company wants to be recognised for ‘having a positive impact on people’s lives’ and for ‘contributing to society’; for that reason it was named Novartis from the Latin novae artes (‘new skills’). And if the company ethos sounds too good to be true, it isn’t – in 2005, Novartis was included in a listing of the ‘Global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world’, receiving high marks for demonstrating sustainability premium and strong performance on environmental, social and governance issues.

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the Novartis Group employs more than 80,000 people in its pharmaceutical, consumer health and generics divisions in over 140 countries. It organises all its IP through a central Corporate Intellectual Property department (CIP), but the 236 IP specialists who work in the team are split over 10 key locations, including Basel and New Jersey. They manage and maintain a portfolio of well over 100,000 individual IP cases, comprising patents, trademarks and domain names – a portfolio as large as it is global.

The figures are, as you might expect, massive. In 2004, the Group’s businesses achieved sales of US$28.2 billion and a net income of US$5.8 billion. Strong corporate branding and astute management of intangible assets have also paid dividends; in 2005, Novartis was ranked for the first time in the top 100 best global brands, with a brand value of US$7.746 billion.

A global IP strategy
Today the IP division works closely with the R&D and marketing departments at all stages of product development, but it wasn’t always so. ‘Prior to mid-2003, Novartis didn’t see much reason to evolve the way it looked after its IP,’ says Simon Hughes, head of the Services group within CIP. ‘The department was operating in a long-established and well-understood way. There were no urgent demands for more, better or different services. Nor were there commonly understood views of what we needed to do to become “world class”.

‘New management pushed a major shift in the way CIP operated,’ he explains. ‘We worked to become a valued strategic partner to R&D projects, product development teams and marketing, and our work changed as a result. We needed to show cost and portfolio transparency, not simply at a boardroom level, but also to deliver and empower people, foster a global working environment and a performance management culture. This had implications for the way we worked and the software we used.’

Previously, CIP was using three differing systems to manage its IP: patent management was based on an in-house system, but US cases were administered using an external package and CPA Global Memotech was used for trademarks. ‘Running three systems simultaneously had negative effects on our time and resources,’ says Simon. ‘We could see that commercial software packages offered significantly extended functionality that could help save time and improve efficiency. Integration with MS Office tools, reporting and analysis, workflow management, integration between departments and services… all these were missing. It became increasingly obvious that we needed to place one system at a global level to manage our global portfolio.’

'New management pushed a major shift in the way CIP operated. We worked to become a valued strategic partner to R&D projects, product development teams and marketing'

In November 2003, Novartis decided to move to an integrated IP management software. Its objective was to put in place a modern, integrated solution covering the entire IP spectrum, in order to increase efficiency, customer service and cost effectiveness.

‘Our vision was to implement a management system that would integrate the trademark, patent, domain name and corporate services groups,’ says Antoinette Lachat, a trademark specialist and a key driver behind the implementation of the new system. ‘We started to look for an IP management system that could help us improve efficiency, share organisational data and processes and allow for virtual decision making.’    

A strategy for software
Novartis assessed more than five software systems before opting for CPA Memotech 2004. ‘The shortlisted suppliers were very different,’ explains Antoinette. ‘We evaluated all of them over four days to eliminate those that couldn’t meet our requirements. CPA Memotech 2004 was the preferred system in all evaluation categories. We were impressed by CPA’s long experience in the IP software market, by the team’s well-developed understanding of IP matters and by the web platform and the strong technical skills that supported it.’

Implementing the software across the whole department also provided Novartis with an opportunity to align its IP procedures. ‘We wanted to maximise the opportunities afforded by CPA Memotech 2004,’ emphasises Simon. ‘We wanted to standardise our processes to best make use of the new functionality. For example, by using common data and processes in our management of patents and trademarks, and by exploiting the data migration resources and capabilities.’

‘But we also wanted the system to be developed by users for users,’ adds
Antoinette. ‘So we involved the department at every stage of the implementation. Teams were allocated responsibilities for developing modules, so that they could contribute to and evaluate their growth. CPA worked alongside us to accommodate our needs by providing technical solutions that could work with the standard software.’

‘The project was driven by IP specialists, not IT specialists,’ agrees New Jersey-based trademark specialist Maurus Schreyvogel, who is managing phase two of the trademark software launch. ‘Of course, the functionality they desire is not always realistic from an IT perspective. However, it has ensured that all users have bought into what we are trying to do before the software has been launched.’

Novartis has been using CPA Memotech 2004 to manage trademarks since November 2005 and patents went live in January 2006. ‘The advantages of the integrated, web-based system we want to implement will come in the future,’ concedes Maurus. ‘It’s a tremendously complicated process to unite all the data together, and we are all aware of the work that still needs to be done. However, this is just the first version of the system and we will be able to iron out problems in the coming months.’

‘Of course, after working so long with the previous system, it is an immense task to change the management system,’ agrees Simon. ‘However, even after only a few months of live operation, the consensus is now very positive.’

To find out how CPA Memotech 2004 could help your business, please visit www.cpaglobal.com or e-mail ebrice@cpaglobal.com

This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 14