Assessment of Intellectual Asset Management Practices
Background
In the knowledge-based economy, the effective management of intellectual assets
is becoming an important business consideration. Many businesses have intuitively
developed excellent Intellectual Asset and Intellectual Property management
practices. However, often this business management component has either not
been addressed at all or one or more important facets have been dealt with
inadequately or entirely overlooked. Often a business has several intellectual
asset management practices that can be easily upgraded.
In order to establish ensure that an effective intellectual asset protection
and exploitation strategy, a constructive first step is to audit and review
the current intellectual asset management practices.
What is an "Intellectual Asset Management Practices Audit?
In auditing a business' intellectual asset management practices, Vertex looks
at ten key intellectual asset management elements and considers how the business'
practices compare to best practices for their specific industry. Based on
the results of the review, recommendations for upgrading the company's current
practices are then developed.
In the performance of an audit, Vertex's meets with key client personnel and
examines the client's pertinent written policies. Based on the understanding
of our client's business practices developed during this process and our understanding
of industry best practices, we arrive at our conclusions and, where appropriate,
offer recommendations for upgrading their intellectual asset management practices.
What Do We Consider?
Vertex's Intellectual Property and Asset Management Practices Audit considers
ten intellectual asset management elements. They are:
- Identification and cataloguing of intellectual assets (i.e. patents, trademarks & trade secrets),
- Patent strategy development & management process,
- Trade secret identification & protection,
- Assessing intellectual asset ownership implications arising from employment & consulting agreements,
- Invention policy,
- Non-disclosure agreements,
- Proprietary information protection,
- Licensing-out - opportunity identification & business development,
- Licensing-in - opportunity identification & processes, and
- Enforcement & maintenance of patent rights, trademarks & copyrights.
How do Vertex's Clients Benefit?
Past clients have found that Vertex's actionable recommendations to be constructive
and often easy to implement. Our recommendations have helped to enable our
clients to:
- Gain a better understanding of their intellectual asset portfolio (i.e. patents, trademarks and trade secrets),
- Elect the most suitable patenting strategy,
- Fully address issues and needs such as:
a. Defining intellectual asset ownership in employment & consulting agreements,
b. Developing and implementing an appropriate invention policy,
c. Applying non-disclosure agreements effectively, and
d. Protecting proprietary information, - Develop and implement intellectual asset exploitation strategies such as licensing, and
- Avoid problems that would otherwise have likely developed.
