Managing Intellectual Property is something innovative businesses need to do as part of their everyday processes. Not managing intellectual property can cause headaches and loss in business value – something no business can afford.
Does your Intellectual Property (IP) management system have a scattered approach with patents and potential assets with a commercial value hiding away like lost bones? Signs that your IP system has not kept up with your needs include:
- It’s disjointed;
- It’s slow to respond to changes;
- Important links to background information are not easily seen.
If your business is expanding, that’s great news, but if your current IP system is a collection of notes in your paper files or an excel spreadsheet, you might be wondering how it will handle even more content and complex demands on the information.
As your organisation’s staff numbers increase, it’s more crucial than ever to have a secure and reliable IP system whose management can be shared with relevant staff members. A system with allocated security access according to your level of authorisation would be ideal.
As a business grows or projects progress, reporting needs of the intellectual property will escalate with board reports, funding bodies, Government departments and researchers all making various requests. Industry and government investment requirements are increasing around the tracking of outputs, especially those that can be commercialised. When commercialisation of a project is realised, common questions include:
- “Who contributed what?” and
- “Who owns what?”
Having to go back many years and through several projects to get answers is time consuming and can reduce confidence in the accuracy of your data.
Does your current IP system cope well with these extra demands or are you frustrated at the interruptions on your workflow, with time needed to work around the limitations of your IP management system?
When data is buried away, critical deadlines or renewal dates can be easily overlooked. Automated reminders and emailed notifications ensure that important dates are not missed and relevant staff are notified to follow up on a deadline. This ‘set and forget’ feature of a dedicated IP management system ensures that the right people get notified of the right tasks at the right time. The ability to generate tasks and reports using the latest data ensures that managers make informed intelligent decisions using the most recent information.