I recently read an interview with Marshall Phelps, now corporate vice-president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft but previously at IBM for 28 years. Whilst at IBM, Phelps "is credited as having revolutionised the way in which companies manage their IP portfolios and, in particular, profit from their IP through licensing." In essence, the story goes that IBM and the industry in general viewed IP as a side issue, a burden due to the enforcement/maintenance requirements and lacked vision over its real value and exploitability. Phelps turned this around with a focus on making money specifically from IP - by licensing it out to potential competitors and customer alike.
This discussion really rings true for what I see every day. While many clients, particularly the larger companies, understand the importance of IP and have sophisticated licensing arrangements and protections in place, frequently others (often the smaller clients with the technical skills but perhaps not the business experience) seem to view IP and its protection and exploitation as a bit of a chore, at best something they know they need to get right but don't really understand why, at worst something that is an apparently trivial after-thought. The very name - "intellectual property" - is enough to put many people off.
But technology businesses cannot afford to be ignorant or complacent about their IP. In most cases, your IP is your business whether you realise it or not. Software developers create source code protected by copyright. Hardware manufacturers create component or system designs which may be protected by copyright, design rights and/or patents. Website designers create graphics, text and images protected by copyright.
There are two reasons why active management of these assets is a must: firstly, you can protect your rights from illegitimate exploitation by others and, secondly, you can often increase revenue by licensing those rights to third parties. For software developers, for example, this does not mean simply your core business of licensing end users; you might also seek to cement your market advantage by allowing (for a price) other developers, who might otherwise produce competing products, to use and license the software or components of it.
There are a million things to do when starting up and running a business. But don't let IP fall off the radar - it will be the key to your success.
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