Intellectual Property management - business context for the future

The world Intellectual Property (IP) day is celebrated on 26^th 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.