The basics of an intellectual property program

In today’s resource-constrained and highly competitive environment, companies and their senior executives have a keen interest in maximizing the value of their intellectual property, many of which are generated by employees’ daily activities. One way to help build a valuable intellectual property portfolio is to establish an Intellectual Property Program (IPP).  Properly designed, an IPP can help identify, protect, and optimize the value of a company’s key assets and increase its competitive advantage.

Any company developing intellectual property, which could include rights over products, services, technology, business practices, and creative content, should implement fundamental IP protections. These protections include ensuring staff members and consultants have signed confidentiality and assignment of invention agreements and educating employees, especially those in sales, marketing, engineering, and legal, about the basics of trade secret, patent, and other intellectual property protection. 

A company should be keenly aware of these issues as it begins to look at ways to increase competitive advantages in the market or sell new products in new regions of the world.  Managed well, an IPP can help focus the company on developing processes that can highlight competitive opportunities and topics for management, in addition to helping build a valuable intellectual property portfolio.

This whitepaper examines the following topics:

• Features of an Intellectual Property Program
• What is intellectual property – trade secrets, branding, and art?
• What is the difference between trade secrets and patents?
• Why do copyrights and trademarks matter?
• What is the role of the CEO and CFO (and why should they care)?
• Why consider foreign patents or copyrights?
• What is the value of my IP? 
• Who should run the program?
• How can useful information be efficiently obtained?
• What should the Patent Committee or Director consider?

For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly specialists can help, contact our team.