All companies, large and small, have intellectual property (IP), whether patents, trade marks, designs, copyright or confidential information. This may take many guises from an extensive patent portfolio to a simple trade name.
Effective IP management is critical to maximize opportunity and value and to reduce the risk of infringing competitor IP. However, IP activity and the associated expense without a clear plan which supports the business goals, risks the investment being wasted.
To generate value, patenting must be strategic by protecting and supporting business goals. All too commonly, patents are viewed as a technical discipline. “Patenting the invention” is as far as a “commercial approach” goes. We see this approach as fundamentally flawed. For example, a highly innovative company with extensive patent holdings driven by only the technical function identifying inventions or patenting only based on technical merit may:
- Patent neat ideas but fail to identify opportunities to protect what supports the business
- Generate patents which are technically sound but which do not protect the business from competition
- Patent in the wrong countries
- Face spiraling costs without a clear basis for a commercial return
Taking a strategic approach avoids these pitfalls by generating a focused portfolio which underpins the business goals and selling points of the products, by identifying and targeting opportunities and integrating technical, commercial and legal factors at the right time and cost effectively.
Protection afforded by competitor patents presents a serious threat. Products may need to be withdrawn, lines of research abandoned, capital investment closed down or modified or licence fees paid to enable continued sale or operation. Early identification of such protection which may impact your business enables active management by commercial resolution, avoidance or modification at an early stage or appropriate legal challenge to patent validity for which timing may be critical. Avoidance of the elephant trap rather than seeking extrication from it through active surveillance of competitor rights is invariably less costly and disruptive of business activity and, in short, smarter.
Early stage innovative companies often have a tension between investment in IP at a critical time to set solid, cornerstone foundations and other priorities for scarce funds. By developing a clear strategic focus, a patent position based on a key invention may enable early partnerships and generation of revenue streams for example through licensing and raising funds. Considering fields of use in generating patent rights, understanding the routes to market and the supplier, customer and competitor activities enables the protection afforded to map onto the commercial reality the client faces, irrespective of technical considerations.
Whilst all companies seek to manage IP expenditure, the costs of patenting and timescales to secure rights may be all the more acute for start-up and spin-out companies. Through our senior, in-house experience with ICI, ExxonMobil and Unilever and extensive experience across the life science, medical device chemical and engineering fields, we are able to offer clear financial and budgetary management, maintain cost control and identify appropriate IP priorities whilst delivering a genuinely strategic approach to create value through IP.
For more information contact Stephen Geary. Bawden & Associates, Noneley Hall, Noneley, Wem, Shropshire SY4 5SL UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1582 466704
Email: StephenG@bawden.co.uk
www.bawden.co.uk
