Convincing the Board
Getting buy-in at Board level to have an IP-centric approach can be tricky. Many do not intuitively see that in general IP and business strategies are intertwined and that intangible assets are what ensures the sustainability of a business.
Understanding the people on the Board and their drivers is an ideal start, but often that is not readily achievable if you are new on the scene. Sometimes you only have one chance to convince a Board. Conducting as much research on the organisation beforehand can help show the Board the relevance of IP to the organisation’s issues.
Examples of investigations include asking such questions as:
Risk Profile
How risk averse is the Board – or not? A bullish approach has different IP considerations than a more cautious one.
Revenue paths
Where are you going to get your money from?
Each path has different IP considerations. For example, if scaling up, where and when can affect an IP filing strategy. Scaling up requires packaging operations in a way they can be exported to various parties/locations.
Scaling up often requires a combination of templates, internal systems and IP protection coupled with appropriate agreements. Scaling up is difficult to do however, if there has been disclosure of essential parts of the package.
If tendering is a significant part of securing revenue, then IP needs to be built into the process.
R&D
What level of R&D will you be engaging in? If R&D heavy, then systems are needed to be able to identify valuable IP generated and protect it accordingly (say trade secrets, patents, or designs).
Third Party Interactions
Interactions with other parties are where valuable IP can be gained or lost. Good documentation is needed with suppliers, designers, customers, and employees to ensure that valuable IP is not lost. Even visitor protocols need to be considered.
Who are your main competitors or potential collaborators? What is their IP?
Reputation & Brand
Understand that quality (usually achieved by good systems) underpins brand value. Do you have a distinctive trade mark to ascribe brand value to. If not, are you prepared to re-brand to something more distinctive?
Existing IP
What currently in terms of IP? What rights and systems (say document control & project management) are there that will be valuable going forward?
Have you lost the ability to protect what you have as it already has been sold/disclosed?
Staff
How valuable are your existing staff? Do they know about IP and how it relates to their roles? Will they recognise a development of value? Will there be an on-boarding process with an IP component?
Is there someone invaluable we need to protect?
Barriers To entry
What barriers to entry are there to you and your competitors? Can you design around them or put more barriers in place for your competitors?
By asking questions around the business and then being able to key in the IP relevance goes a long way to convincing a Board of the value of incorporating IP into their considerations.