The world Intellectual Property (IP)
day is celebrated on 26th April every year. As Indian
firms look
towards expanding their business footprints globally as well as in new business
areas they have to build up their IP strategies in the emerging business
scenario.
The global business scenario has been
consistently changing over the past few decades. From the post-world war 2
build-up in western nations, the rise of the competitive and efficient Asian
economies like Japan and the South East Asian countries in the 80`s, the IT and
internet boom in the 90`s and to the rise of India and China, in the last 15
years, as the global back office and manufacturing base respectively, the
scenarios have constantly evolved based on the business requirements.
The next decade will be dominated by
countries and organizations for which “innovation”
is at the core of the business models. A few examples are the shale gas
discovery which has redefined the global energy dynamics and consumer
electronic items like the IPod. Competitiveness along with “innovation” will be
the hallmark of leading global organizations for which markets will accord
greater values as can be seen in cases of Apple and Google. Companies will need
to leverage better their intellectual capital, assets and knowhow to outperform
their competitors. Such companies will need to utilize their intellectual base
effectively to further their growth as well as have effective entry barriers to
protect their businesses.
In this dynamic and competitive
scenario, companies need to have an effective strategy to manage their intellectual
knowledge and processes through a pro-active Intellectual Property (IP) strategy. Patents, trademarks, trade
secrets, copyrights and information confidentiality management are some of the
effective tools that are being used in this endeavour. A pro- active strategy
encompasses using IP to derive business value as well as use it to mitigate
risks. It is a common misconception that IP management is only in the domain of
the technical team. For an effective IP strategy all the business functions of an
organization from marketing, procurement, operations, finance, HR, R&D and
support functions need to be effectively aligned with the overall IP strategy
to derive maximum value from the process. For e.g. sales and marketing
personnel, who are the interface of a company with the customers, can give a
feedback to the management on any new products in the market which can be
infringing on the company`s patents. Technical and R&D teams need to work
with the marketing team to develop products and protecting it with an effective
patenting strategy. Procurement personnel need to sensitize other functions on
confidentiality of critical data of suppliers.
In short, companies should not have a reactive and defensive set of IP
activities but a well-integrated and pro- active IP strategy. Successful
examples of companies that can be highlighted are DuPont, Exxon Mobil and Dow Chemicals.
I sincerely hope that the Indian
firms, who have not been active in the IP space, will react pro –actively and
build up their strategies accordingly.
