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Managing IP assets efficiently in order to take advantage and lead markets

According to the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), companies which wish to obtain full return on their specialised knowledge and creativity must take appropriate measures to establish an Intellectual Property strategy and include it in their business strategy.

The WIPO urges companies to overcome the concept of intellectual property as “merely holding” registrations. Companies demand profitability from the knowledge which they generate and therefore following registration of their intellectual property they wonder: and now what?

The answer is to make it profitable. To this end, prior to developing a project, they must have information about the technological background as well as a thorough idea about where, how and with what means it is going to be marketed.

They need to establish internal and external non-disclosure agreements from the initial stages and to make an inventory of their knowledge in order to determine what would be protectable and with what alternatives.

They must know the mechanisms for handling shared knowledge, those of licensing and those of contracting. This involves knowing market prices and how much we will be able to obtain from others for our knowledge. In other words, valuation.

Valuing the companys products and the mark with which they are marketed will be one of the premises given that innovation can only be considered as the result of the R&D which reaches the market and which the market accepts.

Valuation also makes it possible to obtain financing by placing those intellectual property rights as guarantee, something which is provided for in our laws and which not everybody knows how to make the most of.

It is important to have an intellectual property management system in order to optimise and coordinate these activities.

Designing a strategy, knowing what is protected and what is not, which routes to use, knowing how to transfer technology and how to receive it safely.

It is also important to know how to handle agreements which cover these concepts, how to establish agreements with the staff who work with sensitive information, how to internationalise with guarantees, how to obtain financing with the intellectual property which is generated, how to coordinate the companys different departments, etc.

Generating a management system for coordinating these areas is simple, affordable from a financial point of view and quick to implement.

It is common to find this system in the most competitive companies. Efficient intellectual property management leads to greater competitiveness, which in turn leads to acquiring new knowledge, using it, licensing it, increasing commercial relations and, possibly, obtaining return on the effort.

As an example it is useful to know the improvement in the results of companies in different sectors, such as the aeronautical, automotive, food, industrial, energy, university and port sectors.

There are many companies which have defined this system as “simple, efficient, profitable and innovative”.

As well is in organisations of a certain size and structure, a system which allows efficient exploitation of generated knowledge is particularly useful in SMEs.

There are many which have benefited from introducing a system, significantly improving their results.

Complying with the indications of the WIPO by establishing an intellectual property strategy in companies is a consultancy task aimed at enhancing value and achieving optimum returns on intellectual property for clients.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles