- Make IP a part of the business’s strategic thinking and planning; for example, by considering risk control, maximising value, being aware of emerging technologies, seeking appropriate legal protection and so on.
- Understand the role of your intangible assets by assessing the importance of IP and other forms of intellectual capital now and in the future to the market position and future success of your business. Part of this is the challenge to identify the IP of others and avoid infringing the associated legal rights.
- Be aware of competing IP Rights.
- Know your own intellectual capital: apply rigorous processes to identify and evaluate the existing intangible assets in the business, creating a comprehensive record of results and developing a process for identifying future IP Rights being developed.
- Identify required intellectual capital, which is a process of forecasting future needs.
- Acquire any required intellectual capital in the form of IP Rights.
- Think tax and balance sheet.
- Be ready to protect your rights.
- Measure improvements as an essential part of good intellectual capital management to develop measures of success of the management and evaluation of IP Rights.
- Know the cost and value of your intangible assets.
This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 25
Picture: source
