In the area of transfer pricing, OECD guidelines and U.S. 482 are considered as the most influential publications; however, in the field of IP management, it is hard to find these kinds of publications. Although it is hard to find a “tell it all” reference, we are able to combine and offer reference guides about IP management from three aspects. Over the years people have focused their studied on three different aspects of IP management – IP Commercialization, IP management and intangible capital development.
IP Commercialization
IP commercialization attaches values to intellectual property. It is a process that link business, innovation and intellectual property together. Innovation develops from ideas and lead to new products, services. From a business perspective, intellectual property is the result of innovation which provides the opportunities to explode values. By labeling, indentifying, managing, valuing and protecting the intellectual property, organizations can extract values from the IP. There are many ways to commercialize IP such as licensing or sale the IP to a third party and protection is very important in the phase of IP commercialization. Organizations should have ideas about what to protect, how to protect and where to protect, and the ideas should be developed based on the overall business goals. In order to help you better understand the concept, a few questions are offer below to help define an IP commercialization strategy:
In order to meet the goals of the companies, what new service or products should be developed?
Does this kind of technologies or intellectual property exist in the organization?
What price you will offer for the new product or service?
What approach you will take to protect the intellectual property?
IP Manage
IP management hereby refers to the management of IP portfolio. In order to maintain and raise the value of an IP portfolio, the managers should not only try to secure the value of the IP, but also update the technology and enhance the value of the trademark to make sure the value of the portfolio did not depreciate. Sometimes IP portfolio is managed by a legal team of a company, which can fail to follow the latest trends of the industry or technology developments. From an IP manage prospective, a full understanding of changes in technologies and business models are crucial. IP portfolio is like one of your “business unit”, the managers should be able to weight risks and values and make decision on what new to incorporate into the portfolio and what to eliminate.
Intangible Capital Development
Intangible capital is the invisible record on your accounts that enhance the overall corporate value. Intangible capital is composed of human capital, structural capital, relationship capital and strategic capital. These four capitals are the elements that keep an organization running daily. The skills of employees, the relationships with the customers and key supplier and the overall strategic of a company will multiply the value of the company. For more information about intangible capital development and how to implement it in the overall business strategy, please visit the IP Management Quick Scan.
