In today’s expanding global economy, companies can’t afford to take a passive approach to managing their intellectual property (IP). Rapid and continual advances in technology have completely reshaped industry landscapes, opening doors to a seemingly endless number of competitors. As a result, sound IP practices have become critical for any growing organization to best defend and monetize its core products and technologies.

The problem faced by many businesses when considering how to use IP is often “where do I start?” Most companies find the process of effectively managing their IP to be a daunting task. They ask themselves:

• How do I impress upon everyone in our organization the importance of IP?
• How do I understand our invention inventory?
• Where are competitive threats emerging that may weaken our current IP position and how do I continually monitor these threats?
• How will our company use IP once we have it?
• What corporate functions within the company should have influence over our IP decisions?
• How will I choose an intellectual asset management (IAM) process that works?
• Who will take the lead our managing our IP initiatives?
• How should we incentivize and reward our inventors such that they contribute to the success of the company and of our IP goals?

ipCG can help. ipCG has the deep IP expertise, process experience, and resources to design, implement, and manage complex IP strategies that are tailored to your organization. By taking the time to understand your business goals and by bringing together key decision-makers, ipCG will develop, deploy and monitor a comprehensive, measurable plan in accordance with your business objectives.

We will staff your IP Director’s office for you and provide the necessary structure to allow you to work towards your IP objectives, including:

1. Providing up-front (and on-going) IP training to key decision-makers;
2. Creating an Invention Inventory and analyzing your internal IP against your core products and technologies;
3. Performing a competitive IP analysis by reviewing your IP relative to that of your competitors, suppliers, vendors, etc.;
4. Creating new IP (and strengthening existing IP) through directed invention sessions with your inventors;
5. Developing an ipStrategy (including definable, measurable metrics) based on your business goals, the competitive IP analysis, and your desired IP end states;
6. Installing proven IAM processes based on ipCG’s experience;
7. Working closely with key decision makers from business units including Legal, Engineering, Finance, and Marketing to deploy the processes/strategy across the organization;
8. Driving continued adoption of the processes/strategy across the organization and monitoring the strategy on a periodic basis to ensure continued alignment with business goals; and
9. Searching for new opportunities, as appropriate, that will allow your company to maximize ROI from your intellectual property (e.g. licensing transactions, divestitures, expirations, etc.).

Further, this methodology can be supplemented with any of ipCG’s existing service offerings to provide additional support or analysis in a given area.

Protecting your core products and technologies through well defined IP practices is simply too important to ignore. It is a complex process that should be managed by a team of experts who possess the required know-how and skill; thereby allowing you to focus on the most important part of your business --- delivering value to your customers.

If you would like more information about how ipCG can help you achieve maximum value from your IP, or to explore a potential engagement (whether corporate wide or for a targeted area), please contact us to discuss your needs.