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. Recommendations for upgrading the company's current practices
are then developed.
In order to gain an understanding of our clients' current practices, 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 that
we develop 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.
Vertex's Fee
Our fee for this service is dependent on the
size, diversity and complexity of our client's business. For small and medium
sized businesses, our fee for this review and our initial analysis and report
is generally in the range of $6,000 to $12,000.
Engaging Vertex
Contact Vertex in order to discuss how this
service would benefit your business. We would be glad to meet with you in
order to develop a plan to meet your specific business needs.
