There are many ways to look at intellectual property (IP). From a completely legal point of view, there are many types of intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, designs, trade secrets, and utility models.
From a non-legal point of view, intellectual property is involved in a lot of areas, including technical and scientific development, creative efforts (e.g., songs, music, software, paintings, photographs, graphics, designs, movies, stories), brand marketing, business strategy, and risk mitigation.
Unfortunately, both views are very complex and often are very difficult to build into day-to-day thinking, working and habits.
So let's simplify this further and focus on the basic ABCs of intellectual property and what individuals and every company should know about intellectual property. These ABCs are important no matter what functional area you might be in, whether it is engineering, R&D, marketing, information technology, sales, procurement, manufacturing, finance, product development, legal, etc.
First,..., the As. Intellectual property has some absolutes for every company:
- All employees create, use, share or have access to intellectual property every day.
- All companies have intellectual property, intellectual property related risks, and opportunities created by intellectual property they create and use.
- All intellectual property rights can be compromised and even lost if the employees and companies are not careful.
Second,..., the Bs. Intellectual property strategy plays important functions for every company:
- the Base function: intellectual property, whether it arises from technology, a brand, a work of authorship, software, commercial strategy, etc., forms the base of every company, and often is the basis for why and how the company got started and how it remains competitive.
- the Border function: intellectual property can be used to block competitors from using certain brands, designs, inventions, software and content, and many other things, thereby providing competitive advantage.
- the Badge function: intellectual property rights can be enforced when they are stolen, infringed or misappropriated.
- the Bank function: intellectual property can help raise venture capital and financial investments, as well as help support product and service prices and license fees, and provide many other financial benefits.
- the Billboard function: intellectual property can be used in marketing campaigns to attract customers, partners, and investors, to build other relationships, and to counter the marketing activities of competitors.
- the Bargaining function: intellectual property provides leverage when negotiating with suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, and other parties.
And finally,..., the Cs. Intellectual property strategy is involved in key strategic areas for every company:
- Core strengths: what are the key strengths of the company and drives it success, and how can any intellectual property arising from investments the company is making in these core strength areas be recognized and monetized?
- Customer needs and feedback: what is the company learning about and from its customers and how is it using this information to drive its success?
- Competitor strategy, expectations and responses: how are current and new competitors evolving their offerings and in the marketplace, and how can these competitors be thwarted?
- Commercial strategy: how is the intellectual property strategy supporting and aligning with the company’s strategy and path to success?
- Cross-pollination and adjacency opportunities: what other opportunities exist for using and monetizing the intellectual property the company already has invested in creating?
Intellectual property strategy is available, buildable, and critical to help drive success for every company. It also requires constant attention and evolution as every employee and every company must always be creative in order to stay competitive.
So now onto D, E, and F….