The right questions to ask

Do you have a management and reporting framework that allows you to understand if your IP is being effectively managed? Do you have any performance indicators that provide answers to this question? As a CEO, CFO, chairman or non-executive director what questions should you be asking of the business and what should the company be telling you?

An insight into the market

The World’s best IP companies are slowly beginning to define the rules and regulations needed to provide a governance regime for IP, though even the most sophisticated recognise that in areas like open innovation, the thinking to define those rules does not yet even exist.

Knowing or honestly believing that your organisation is creating, capturing and managing its IP effectively is not easy. Intangibles and IP are often nebulous and their asset characteristics mean that they can behave in odd ways. But like any other asset they can be understood and managed.

Although little known, it is becoming clear that true compliance with both Sarbanes-Oxley and ISO Standards requires businesses to understand and manage their IP assets around a set of IP policies.

Answering the questions

ipVA has developed eight IP Governance™ products aimed to provide an infrastructure for IP management and reporting.

How we work

ipVA’s IP Governance™ modules cover eight target areas to provide an integrated IP governance and reporting structure.

Module 1-Building the best innovation culture

• Designing the ideal innovation culture
• Education, awareness and induction
• Carrot implementation
• Stick implementation
• Celebrating success
• Rewards

Module 2—Optimising invention output

• Education and awareness
• Following the strategies of the leading innovation companies, including near, medium and far term patenting
• Funnel creation and review
• Matching IP reviews to development gating processes
• White space analysis
• Competitor analysis and benchmarking
• Five step systematic inventing
• Invention rating and ranking
• Selecting the most appropriate method of protection
• Smart searching (and dumb searching)

Module 3 --Primary responsibility

• Defining the role of the Chief IP Officer or Head of IP
• Defining the characteristics of the typical CIPO
• Defining the responsibilities and scope of role of the CIPO
• Developing appropriate performance indicators for review and reward
• Budget responsibility and separation
• IP announcements and communications
• Training and awareness
• Identifying the right times to appoint an IP manager or an in-house attorney

Module 4—Secondary responsibility and Board reporting

• When to create an IP sub-committee of the Board
• Creating the ideal and balanced IP sub-committee
• Roles and responsibilities
• Developing appropriate and effective performance indicators for the Board
• Board education and involvement
• Innovation review committee and specific roles and responsibilities
• Creating reward structures that work

Module 5—Budget

• Separation, purpose and timing
• Cost transparency
• Lifetime cost understanding
• Aggressive portfolio management
• Creating the right international filing strategy
• Playing the system on timing

Module 6—Effective competitor watching and management

• To look or not to look (at 3rd party risk) and how to decide
• Conscious and unconscious ostrich
• Matching IP reviews to development gating processes
• Competitor watch tools (narrow and broad)
• Developing the risk story
• Strategic options to defuse competitor and other risks

Module 7—Visualisation and Presentation

• Creating your own IP Brand
• Creating the story behind your IP
• Visualising IP assets
• Valuation and balance sheet requirements
• Valuing prospective IP assets

Module 8—Hygiene

• Lab books and discipline
• Research tools and training in application
• Product marking
• Invention disclosures
• Trade secrecy policies including defining, identifying, recording and categorising per category of know how
• IP management in NDAs and through the lifecycle of commercial agreements
• Creating the IP assets inventory
• Employment and contractor relationships
• Open source use and risk

The target

Our work provides an IP governance and reporting structure within your organisation that supports your IP strategy and aims, and provides transparent reporting at management and board level.

We target effective implementation so that everyone in the organisation – from board members to technical developers and in between – all know their respective IP roles and responsibilities.