The word “strategy” means a lot of things, particularly when it comes to invention and Intellectual Property (IP). To some it means simply one word, “defense” or “offense.” To others, it means an analysis of and placement of their patents into meaningful business groups, to show where new IP may need to be developed. IP Strategy may mean a deliberate attempt to use IP more proactively in company transactions, such as in licensing or partnering. Many executives ask:

1. How can we link the entire business into our IP Strategy?
2. How can we link the market and products roadmaps into our IP Strategy?
3. How can we use the IP Strategy to help us solve our business issues?
4. How can we use what we know of our own patents and the patents of others to determine where to develop new IP?
5. How do we use the IP Strategy to drive new inventions?
6. How do we include other forms of IP, such as trade secrets, trade names, “enabled” publications?
7. Who owns the IP Strategy in the company, and how can it get executed?
8. What are the “tactics” of an IP Strategy?

ipCG has developed a robust IP Strategy Process that we have used in both small projects and across entire companies that have tens of billions of dollars in sales. We have found it’s important to show first a base IP Strategy framework and then customize this framework to one that matches the company’s culture, resources, and goals. We have a process that gets facilitated across many groups in the organization, is data driven, and results in a strategy that is executable and “bought into” by the organization. Our IP Strategy process:

1. Links the entire business (C-Level executives, Market, Business, Technical, and Legal) into the IP Strategy.
2. Collects the data on the market and products roadmaps and links this formally into the IP Strategy.
3. Is a process that uses creative examples of well-known IP strategies to help solve your business issues.
4. Uses our IP Landscape, IP Mining, IP Analytics to map your own patents and the patents of others, to determine where to develop new IP. Our ipScan process can even extract into the strategy the current human capital of potential inventions.
5. In the analysis of Vision, Mission, and Goals, we find that “opportunities,” when filtered with the data of what we have and what others have for IP, creates an invention demand statement to drive development of new inventions. Our Invention on Demand process is designed to be compatible with the IP Strategy, to help create new inventions where they are needed.
6. Our IP Strategy process is unique, because it uses all forms of IP, including trade secrets, trade names, and “enabled” publications. We create unique ways to protect or be proactive with IP, including marketing or business models or ways to add tracers into your IP to find infringers, or add “firewalls” into your invention, to make it difficult to copy or reverse engineer your inventions.
7. The result of the IP Strategy is an execution list, which has multiple, agreed-upon–owners, for action dates and expected outcomes. In this way, the entire company owns the IP Strategy. There is an IP Strategy Process Owner as well as a Measurements and Tracking Owner, who report to top management. In this way, the IP Strategy gets executed.
8. One of the most confusing areas of developing and IP Strategy is in using creative “tactics” within the IP Strategy. We have cataloged hundreds of tactics that are used in the industry. We have found that it is important to help companies develop their own tactics, based upon the business they are in, the competitive forces they face and the market pressure and technology innovations they experience.

ipCG’s IP Strategy process has been described by clients as “being the most systematic, comprehensive and executable IP Strategy process” available.

To obtain more information or discuss your unique challenges please contact us.