Essence of every business lies in its planning. We know it as a 'Business Plan'. On a bird's eye view, a business plan defines the company's objectives for sustenance and growth. A business plan deals with, amongst other matters, with objectives such as management, operations and growth of the business. On a similar framework, the ideal business plan should have a well defined IP strategy in the similar order, i.e. management, operations and growth.

Any well defined IP strategy has five basic elements. These include:

  • Recognition of the IP
  • Securing the IP
  • Registering the IP
  • Protecting the IP and
  • Exploiting the IP

The first four elements closely relate to the operations and management aspect of the business plan, whereas, the last element exclusively deals with the growth objective of the plan.

IP is created in the organization but is often not recognized. If not recognized, it can result in severe losses to an organization, caused by the transference of IP with the movement of employees. The next concern is the securing of IP, i.e. ownership. Often business plan needs to incorporate the apt acquisition strategies of IP created by people it engages with; which is often not the case and it leads to the loss of IP. Registering the IP is crucial, since it limits others to use it. Another aspect deals with the business plan would ideally deal with the protection of IP, that involves confidentiality, particularly at a point when IP needs to be disclosed to a third party, outside the organization. Finally, the important part is the exploitation of IP that is all the more crucial as it directly impacts the growth of the organization.

Hence, it is important to have a clear defined strategy for each of the objective in the business plan:

  • An organization needs to realize the value of the IP created within. At each step, the management must verify its patentability and commercial employability
  • Proper contracts and acquisition strategies therein, must be defined to acquire IP from the people they engage
  • Defining the IP filing strategy is also crucial with the appropriate authorities (Patent and Trademark Offices)
  • Well defined third party agreements mitigate the risk of handling confidential IP agreements
  • Finally, an organization must keep an eye for opportunities to license and enforce its IP and impact its revenue

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.