Companies can reap the benefits of smart intellectual property management strategies as it competes in a global market. Managing Intellectual Property Rights is absolutely important for a company's growth and development. There are many things we can't control in a business but we can control IP. Intellectual property management can help a company to gain and sustain competitive advantage. How the production and exchange of technology differs from more traditional economic goods? Since the year 2000 a lot of work has been done in the area of Intellectual Property Rights management. It is absolutely essential to educate employees or partners about their rights and responsibilities regarding intellectual property.
Business or even an individual can achieve success through development and marketing that takes due account of intellectual property rights. Enforcing intellectual property rights is expensive in countries around the world. It's important to get things right from the start. Just having a patent isn't enough to protect an invention from the fierce competition of the market.
Success, for a large number of companies, has been driven by the development of intellectual property. A company must invest resources in intellectual property because the industry has become IP-intensive. Information dissemination is rapid today calling for greater protection of ideas. People are now aware of the importance of intellectual property management and trade secrets protection. They no longer fear that their competitors will have access to the information and copy it.
One of the most important steps in managing IP is to establish its value. Valuation is the
process of ascribing value to technology. Valuation is particularly crucial for the
commercialization of early technologies, for licensing and for mergers and acquisitions
(M&A).
Probably the best sources on the valuation of IP in general are Razgaitis (2002), Smith
and Parr (1998) and Lamb in Simensky et al. (1999, Chapter 5) and Damodoran (1994).
Razgaitis recommends using multiple methods of valuation. Multiple methods produce value
or a coherent range of values that make sense from those multiple perspectives.
The evidence of corporations being increasingly capable of extracting value from
intellectual assets is provided by the growing importance of licensing. This increase in
importance had, according to Manfroy (2002), the following consequences:
(1) Corporate vision changed and many corporations created the position of Chief
Technology Officer.
(2) Emergence of the Intellectual Capital Model. A model of a company from the
intellectual assets perspective that explains how the different pieces of a corporation
fall together, how they interrelate and their impact on a corporation's intellectual
assets and profitability.
(3) Attention is given to intellectual assets management.
(4) With the increasing importance of intellectual assets licensing professionals are
demanding increased remuneration.
Rajrathnam V P, Attorney/Advocate and IPR Consultant - rajrathnamvp@yahoo.co.in