IP Lessons learned from the front Line

For more than 25 years working for and in start-up companies and multinational corporations focused on a wide range of technologies, products and services, I’ve been very fortunate to work with and learn from a lot of great colleagues from a lot of different functions.  Here are just a few of the intellectual property (IP) lessons I’ve learned while being on the front lines.

1.  IP strategy is too important to leave to R&D or to the lawyers.  What are you doing to make sure you have people from other functions involved in your IP strategy on a regular basis? What are you doing to make sure your marketing, sales, business development, research, manufacturing and other teams recognize IP issues and opportunities?

2. Everyone is more creative than they think they are.  What are you doing to capture the results of this creativity?

3.  Most people do a very poor job of recognizing their inventions and the other IP they create.  What are you doing to make sure that the company is taking full advantage of all of its investments it is making to create and commercialize new technologies, products and services?

4.  Everyone can become better at ideation, brainstorming, and recognizing the breadth, depth and value of the IP that they create, use and share.  What are you doing to build these skills in your employees?

5.  There is always prior art that is relevant for a pending patent application or a granted patent.  What are you doing to make sure that you’ve investigated this before filing a new patent application, bringing a lawsuit, or licensing or purchasing another party’s patent?

6.  Every employee and consultant creates, uses, shares, accesses, and/or has access to IP every day.  What are you doing to address the positive and negative ramifications of this?

7.  Good relationships with others outside your company can build IP, and can cause you to lose IP.  What are you doing to capture the new IP resulting from these relationships? What are you doing to make sure that your employees are only disclosing the information that is absolutely necessary as they work closely and build relationships with your external suppliers, partners, and customers?

8.  Now more than ever, good IP strategy requires good defense. What are you doing to protect your valuable information from theft, malware, phishing attacks, and other loss?  What are your product and service providers doing to protect the valuable information of yours that they have or use?

9.  It is almost always easier, cheaper and faster to deal with IP problems in advance than after the IP is lost, a relationship goes sour, a lawsuit is filed, or the company makes the news in a negative way.  What are you doing to identify and mitigate potential IP risks early?

10.  Once your valuable IP is lost you almost never can get it back.  What are you doing to consider the IP implications of a public disclosure, to make sure that employees understand the limits of a non-disclosure agreement, and to make sure that they are only sharing information that needs to be shared?

11.  It is very easy, and often very expensive, to build an IP portfolio that adds little value to your company.  What are you doing to align your IP strategy with your commercial strategy?

12.  You need to think long term when building a brand.  What are you doing to make sure that your brand is clear to use, is not being misused by your employees or others, and is understood as intended when it is translated into to other languages or used in other countries?

13.  Building and maintaining an IP portfolio can get significantly more expensive over time.  What are you doing to review your IP portfolio and increase the return on your investment in it?

14.  Treating your IP portfolio like a commodity can reduce costs, but you often get what you pay for.  What are you doing to strike the right balance between cutting costs and spending money when building and benefiting from your IP portfolio?

15.  IP plays many different roles for every company.   What are you doing to make sure your IP strategy is maximizing its positive impact in each of these roles?

Good luck on the front lines!