Intellectual Property Business: Everything You Need to Know

Intellectual property is a means by which you own your business identity, technology, works of authorship, logo, slogans, or trade dress. 15 min read updated on February 01, 2023

What is Intellectual Property Business?

Intellectual property is a means by which you own your business identity, technology, works of authorship, logo, slogans, trade dress , and any other practical expression of the ideas that drive your business forward.

Intellectual property is vital to all levels of your business. From your initial business plan to trademarks , patents, and copyright , having the right representation and knowledge to protect those things that make your business unique is essential to your success.

What Is the Intellectual Property-Business Connection?

Everything important about your business aside from the actual people that run it, is somehow tied up in intellectual property. You could say that your business is the sum total of all of the intellectual property that form and relate to your concepts, practices, goods, and services.

One important aspect of intellectual property is that it must have commercial value and be protectable by patent, copyright, trade- or service mark , or trade secret laws. Specific kinds of IP can include brand names, works of literature, paintings, discoveries, formulae, physical inventions, written information, registered design work and music.

Why Is Intellectual Property Important to my Business?

Intellectual property is the key to drive growth and competition in the market place. It's essential to your company—in many ways, its heart and soul. Your ideas and the way you express and use them are as (or more) important to your company than its physical assets.

In addition to protecting these assets, they help you to:

Build a brand identity

Analyze information from the IP of other companies to gain a competitive edge

Increase your revenue stream from limiting or licensing competition to use your IP

Increase the commercial value of your company

Increase market access

Gain financing and venture capital

Increase the value of your brand

Create strong business partnerships

Protect your freedom to operate , and reduce infringement risks

Preserve geographic market segmentation by restricting exports and imports

How Do I Protect My Intellectual Property?

Protecting your intellectual property is essential to maintaining your competitive edge in the marketplace, and is accomplished in one of four ways :

Trade Secrets

Abstract ideas are not subject to the above protections. In no case is an abstract concept or idea granted specific intellectual property protection . There must be some expression of the idea, which is what is protected.  

Copyright protects works of authorship. That includes literary, musical, dramatic, graphical, sculpted, photographic, recorded, filmed, architectural, and website works, as well as the interface, form and function of software, and the specific code used to make the software work.

Copyright provides the owner with exclusive rights to use, display, copy, exhibit, modify, and otherwise present and distribute the work. Such protection is automatic the moment a work is created, but can also be registered with the federal government for additional protections in court.

Trademarks are those things that make up your brand. Certain phrases, logos, unique words, and graphic design elements can be trademarked. Trademarks defend against confusion or dilution of the brand in the marketplace. Like copyright, trademark is automatic upon the first time you use such a mark in business, and mark it with a ™ symbol.

However, for stronger protection in courts, it is highly recommended that trademarks be  registered with the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office). Registering such a mark carries a presumption of validity in court and allows you to use the ® symbol after the mark. In addition, after five years of constant use you can file for your mark to become incontestable, which adds strong additional protections.

Trademarks have to be distinctive in order to gain protection. You can't for example, just call a deli, "Sandwiches," and trademark that word. Even a derivative of the word, like "Sammiches," would be hard to trademark, as it's still simply descriptive of the product. The more distinctive the word is, the easier it is to trademark, but you still need to create a market identity, so finding a distinctive term that still evokes your product is a delicate balancing act. The mark's association with your business denotes its strength, which is vital if you need to defend your ownership of it.

The Difference Between a Trademark and a Copyright

The difference between a trademark and a copyright is what they protect. Trademarks are registered with the USPTO and last for ten years. They protect any name, symbol, or logo that is used for branding the goods of a business. Copyrights , on the other hand, are used to protect creative works. This can include films, books, songs, and many other works of art. A copyright is registered with the Library of Congress. It lasts for the lifespan of its original owner plus seventy years.

Patents protect your actual inventions—methods, processes and physical creations which are "novel" (unique), "non-obvious," and which solve a problem in a useful way. Patents last for 20 years, during which time you have exclusive rights to use, manufacture, ship, import, sell or make available for sale your invention.

There are three types of patents :

Utility patents , the most common, form, protect physical inventions, chemicals and processes. These are the type of patent that's usually referred to when someone talks about patents .

Design patents protect the unique form, appearance or design of an item.

Plant patents protect the development of a new variety of plant via asexual reproduction in a controlled setting.

The elements of a patent require that your work be "novel," or truly unique and previously unknown in the territory or country where the patent is held. It must be non-obvious, meaning that anyone with ordinary skill in the associated art wouldn't have come up with the same idea through a basic leap of logic. Finally, it must be useful, that is, offer significant use that is beneficial in solving a problem.

Patents protect physical inventions and specific mixtures of ingredients or chemical compounds, as well as those acts, methods and processes related to industrial or technical use. If it's a unique physical product or the process for producing a physical product, a patent can be sought to protect it. Obtaining a patent requires that you publicly reveal the object in full detail.

It can take up to three years (sometimes longer) to complete the process of a patent, so it's important to start the moment you have something that is patentable . It's also important to note that you have one year to file for a patent following the revelation that your invention exists, be it from a public demonstration or published description.

Trademarks, Business Name Registration, and Domain Names

Trademarks, domain names and business name registrations are three related but very different things. Trademarks protect your brand in court from use by another. Business names can be registered with your state to allow you to function as a corporation, LLC or other entity for tax purposes. Domain names are web address URLs. Each of these is mutually exclusive in terms of the legal protections it offers, and each must be pursued separately.

Trade secrets , finally, are those things which give your business a competitive edge, and which if they were known would harm your ability to compete in the marketplace. Legal protections for trade secrets are limited and are usually defined only through licensing and non-disclosure agreements which outline the penalties for violating the secret.

The down side of this protection is that once a secret is revealed, it can no longer be treated as a trade secret. Trade secrets also do not protect you from someone reverse-engineering or parallel development of the same process or formula.

On the up side, so long as you maintain your secret, you can gain exclusive income far longer than the 20 years offered from a patent. Some of the best examples of this are the secret formulae for drinks like Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.

IP Protection Strategies

Protecting your intellectual property does not stop at filing the right paperwork, but requires active work to defend. Make sure that your clients are aware of your ownership and make active use of non-disclosure agreements.

Keep an eye on independent contract workers. These can be some of the largest dangers for IP theft. They also may attempt to claim ownership of any IP they developed while working with the company, after their contract is up. Use contracts that clearly define the ownership of any IP developed in the course of the partnership.

Don't be afraid to make use of cease and desist letters or to contact potential infringers and advise them to stop their infringing activities. You may need to file a lawsuit if they fail to obey, but active legal protections are vital to maintaining your IP.

Do your homework. Always make sure that your IP isn't owned by someone else already when you pursue a new market. Also ensure that the new market's laws will protect your IP rights adequately. Transferring IP to the new market will carry associated costs, which you'll need to consider.

Above all else, remember that your IP is an asset to your business. Protecting it is a necessity, not a luxury. It is an essential part of your costs and budget, every bit as important as your employees.

Fallacies about Intellectual Property Business

There are a number of fallacies regarding intellectual property that can prove devastating to businesses, including:

It's not worth the time and effort to register IP: If you fail to register your trademarks, copyrights and patents, before you know it someone will produce knock-off products and it will fall upon you to prove that you had the property first. Even worse, if your competitor files a patent on your invention before you do, they legally own it!

Once I have a trademark, my property is safe: This may or may not be true. Even with a valid trademark, people can still challenge your ownership. The trademark ownership also doesn't stop other people from buying a domain using that trademark.

A patent automatically allows me to produce something: This is a basic misunderstanding in patent law . Patents don't give you the right to produce; they give you the right to stop others from producing. In addition, patents can and often are challenged in court.

A trademark or patent in the U.S. protects me everywhere: Again, this carries varying degrees of truth. In general, IP rights have to be gained country by country. There are certain trade agreements that offer limited protection across borders but these are by no means universal.

The myth of the Patent Troll : Coined in reference to a lawsuit between holding company NTP and Research in Motion, who market the Blackberry, over a wireless e-mail delivery patent, this myth dismisses those who collect patents as a business model as parasitic trolls out to hoard property and never let anyone have it except at a premium.

The truth is, many inventors are "idea people" who partner with others to produce their concepts. Thomas Edison was one such inventor. These people aren't generally out to stop others from using products, but to allow as many people access as possible through licensing agreements .

An Overview of the Business Plan

Your business plan is far more than a report you write to get funding. It's a detailed strategic document you will use to guide your business, engage in commercial practices, bring products and services to market and grow in the future. The elements of a good business plan are:

Company description, mission statement, objectives, status, and parties of interest (managers and shareholders)

Description of goods and services

Goals for future development

Discussion of target audience, market and clients

Discussion of competitors

Company marketing strategy, distribution channels and sales

Discussion of how the business will be organized, from supply and manufacturing chains to outsourcing and purchasing issues, to employees and technology partners

Financial planning outline, including pro-forma balance sheets, profit and loss projections, estimation of required funding and outline of available funding sources.

Business plans serve a dual purpose. Internally, they are valuable for guiding your decisions and defining your vision and objectives for commercial and technical development. They provide useful indicators and targets to manage corporate performance.

Externally, your business plan will explain your company to investors and partners to act as an important aid in fundraising and business collaborations. They will both raise interest in your activities as well as serve to demonstrate your plans for the future which are based on a solid understanding of your own assets and strengths. They serve to plant your business solidly inside a larger technology and commercial community.

The Intellectual Property-Business Plan Connection

Intellectual property is deeply entrenched in your business plan, which describes your assets, resources, and strategy for success. It is vital to include a strong IP management and protection policy to make sure that all of your practices are defended against misuse and corporate espionage.

Your IP will have a major influence on the business model you choose to operate. Your business plan will refer to this IP and the intellectual property rights you hold to describe what makes you unique from competitors.

It also outlines the resources you can access to establish positive relationships with partners, investors and clients. IP and IPR become a key factor of your how solid and valuable your business is in the marketplace, and will have an influence on the strategic position you hold.

IP Information and the Business Description

How you will handle intellectual property rights is a key part of your business plan. If you describe it and place the proper value upon it, it can add a great deal of value in turn to your company.

On the other hand, if it is not clear or detailed enough, it can actually harm the value of your company in the eyes of potential stakeholders. This is because your company and the goods and services it provides have inherent value, but only if they are properly protected.

It's important that you avoid uncertainty or a lack of clarity. Failure to do so can lead to exploitation of your IP by competitors seeking to undermine your business. Further, defining these issues in your plan helps to make sure they are not only clearly defined for you and your business, but that they are in line with your mission and goals.

Dealing With Technical Details and Specs

When drafting your business plan, you need to decide the level of technical detail and specifications you want to include. This depends on how detailed you need to be in order to make the technology you're using understandable to readers, as well as defining the value it adds to your target audience.

Ideally, you'll want to keep the focus on the "value added" level as your business plan is an outline of your strategy for success in the market. Focus on descriptions of what the product does, how it works and what value it adds. Avoid overly technical jargon in your descriptions. Instead, focus on readability and clarity.

Your business plan is generally considered privileged information and will remain generally confidential. As such you'll want to be careful who has access to the details within. This also means, however, that you can (and should) describe your products and associated trademarks as well as the brands you'll use to market them. Most successful businesses find it helpful to use a trademark for the overall brand, and then offer various modules and solutions under it.

Protecting IP Ownership Within the Business

Your business plan should be absolutely clear on how you will handle the ownership and commercialization of innovations and technology developed by various groups of employees, with involvement from researchers, designers and suppliers from outside the company.

The easiest way to handle this is that ownership is transferred to the business. In order to gain private investors , you may in fact have to adopt this option. If you choose to pursue shared ownership of the IP with the creators, you will need to have a default exclusive and long-term licensing agreement.

Investors and Intellectual Property

Investors focus heavily on IPR when they perform due diligence before offering any funding. They will check on the status of IPR the company owns, and consider all of this when they value the business. They will also review the extent to which the company's rights can be registered to restrict competition from copycats. The more exclusive your property can be held, the more valuable it will be come.

If you cannot register a certain IP, you will need to explain how the advantage offered by that IP will be maintained into the future. You could, for example, limit access to the IP to very specific people inside the company as a trade secret with binding non-disclosure agreements. For products like software packages with a limited lifecycle, a commitment to continual innovation and improvement can maintain a competitive edge.

Another important factor in maintaining your IP edge is to register web domain names (.com, .net, .biz, .eu and all variants) for all of your properties, even if you don't plan to use them. This will stop other people from gaining the domain and using it to create confusion in the marketplace.

Third Party Contracts

Any contracts you intend to keep with third party researchers, investigators, suppliers or other service providers need to be identified in the body of your business plan, with a clear policy for the development and maintenance of relationships with these partners, who become a form of stakeholder in your business.

Your partners need to have access to the necessary elements to fulfill their responsibilities to you, but not restricted in a way that they cannot themselves remain competitive. As such, define what access they will have to your IP for product development, but avoid overly restrictive or locked alliances.

Explaining your approach to partnerships in your business plan will allow you to create a roadmap for the future. It will define the parameters of your future collaborations and clarify any gray areas that might exist. Some options include:

No access to IP or proprietary information is required or involved in the agreement.

Specified patents are licensed to a partner, who may integrate the property into their own products within the country.

Collaboration and R&D agreements exist for all innovations which clearly define ownership of any new IP. If the IP is owned by the partner, the company has the right to negotiate for a first option on worldwide, exclusive sub-license on any resulting assets.

Sales Strategy: Global vs Local Markets

It is a common mistake for entrepreneurs to focus heavily on the global market potential of their product in their business plan, while ignoring the portion of the market that is immediately available and achievable. While having a big picture is admirable, it's vital to use your business plan to focus on the details of the small-scale operations and strategy of your company as well.

In order to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse marketplace, you will have to establish a range of partnerships, each of which has to be carefully reviewed and drafted to protect your interests. Failing to take care in these agreements can end up with you accidentally granting unlimited IP access to a partner who could later become a serious competitor.

Thus, when you define your sales strategy for the future, be as detailed and clear as possible in how you will handle:

Long-term relationships

Exclusive partnerships

Limited partnerships

Territorial partnerships

Contractual targets and milestones

Commercial Exclusivity

Never grant commercial exclusivity unless there is a specific need for it justified by your global strategy —a worldwide device manufacturer, for example, who can effectively fulfill your product manufacturing and distribution channels.

You will need to be sure the price of such exclusivity is reflected in the revenues you gather from the commercial agreement . All of this needs to be accounted for in your business plan.

Every partnership, for example, includes multiple arms. These could include (but are not limited to):

Product sales

Product manufacturing and distribution

Licensing agreements and fees

Fee-based services and transfers related to skills and competencies

Outsourcing of know-how and services

At the other end of the spectrum, be sure that any co-existing direct or indirect sales channels are organized in such a way that they don't jeopardize one another. Having a clear strategy and vision when it comes to commercializing your IP creates a very clear explanation of the roles each market segment and territory will play. These could include (but are not limited to):

Skills and services for equipment installation and operation

Access to specific designed commercial and/or industrial markets

Access to an established infrastructure for sales, distribution, marketing, fulfillment, maintenance support and customer service

Past licensing agreements of goods and services from other companies

IP in Your Financial Plan

The financial plan area of your business plan describes both your beginning financial status and your plan for maintaining and growing the business into the future from a financial standpoint. The more accurate and detailed your valuation of your company is, the more credible you will look to potential investors.

In order to properly know what goes into the logic supporting the numbers, and to be able to answer questions put to you, you will need to understand the value of your IP assets and IP-related revenues. Not only do your IP assets help in terms of getting investor buy-in, they can serve if properly valued as security against loans.

Use respected, well-known and clear accounting methods when you value your business assets and intellectual property. Keep your figures realistic and rooted in proven methodology and an understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of the method you choose.

When you negotiate with partners, investors or lenders you will likely have to further negotiate the values in question, as they are, in the end, only estimates. You will, however, have to incorporate a fixed value for your IP in your projected balance sheet.

Maintaining Realistic Expectations

It's important to keep the expectations for standard licensing agreements realistic and minimal. Clearly state them in formal collaboration agreements. Such standard rates can be found by doing your homework online, checking business databases and  performing internet searches .

If you expect that IP-based revenues will represent a large percentage of projected revenues, you may want to consider describing the global policy in your business plan. Consider include clauses in licensing agreements that, among other considerations, include:

Performance agreements

Pricing options and discounts

IPR, Market Potential and Analysis

Successful entrepreneurship requires keeping your eyes open for potential opportunities at all times. Your business plan should precisely describe not only chosen market segments to target, but how you will approach those markets in light of competitors and alternative technologies.

Searching patent and trademark registers can be vital to provide you important information about your competition. This will in turn, allow you to better map out your business' future and strategy. Not only does this information give you the freedom to market and use your technology, it gives you essential information about how to go about your marketing.

Market monitoring and analysis provides a clear understanding of your competition, which in turn lets you develop a strategy to place yourself in the market. This adds value to your business plan. Know the strength, strategies, weaknesses and market presence of all of your relevant competition, and summarize this information in a table within your plan.

Business and Trade Organizations

Various business organizations, trade groups and chambers of commerce can help you to better use and leverage your IP. They can advise and aid you in increasing your market competitiveness, provide leadership and guidance in economic issues, help you to attract new partners and customers, particularly if you are operating in a sector of innovation, and can offer new sources for income generation.

Another important source of help for any intellectual property issue is an outstanding IP attorney. The attorneys at UpCounsel carry many decades of combined experience in trademark, copyright, patent and all issues related to protecting intellectual property. Representing Harvard, Yale and other top law schools in the nation, they are among the top attorneys available in their specialized areas. Post your legal need in the UpCounsel marketplace to find the legal help you need to establish and protect the IP that's so vital to your business.

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How to develop a successful intellectual property strategy for your company

How to develop a successful intellectual property strategy for your company

Table of Contents:

Last updated on: December 29, 2022

The majority, if not all, of today’s businesses, own intellectual property assets, among other business assets, which makes it imperative for business owners to know how to properly safeguard these assets to maximize their commercial benefit and, more importantly, to protect their business, customers, and employees.

In today’s article, we will review what intellectual property rights are and their role in business operations, as well as what an effective intellectual property strategy is, and what intellectual property strategy development generally entails.

What is intellectual property and what does it protect?

Intellectual property (IP) is a classification of property that principally includes intangible creations of the mind. These are original works of human intellect, such as literary, artistic, or scientific creations as covered by copyrights, inventions and utility models as covered by patents, names and symbols used in commerce as covered by trademarks, and trade secrets.

When we speak of intellectual property rights , therefore, we are referring to the rights granted to persons or entities over the creations of their minds. What intellectual property law seeks to protect is the exclusive rights of such owner or creator over the use, distribution, and reproduction of his/her work for a certain period of time, the duration depending on what kind of creation is involved.

Why do I need an intellectual property strategy?

Traditionally, companies focus on their physical assets, such as equipment, infrastructure, machinery, and finances, in the safeguarding of business properties. It is important to note, however, that these tangible properties constitute just one category of business assets. Business assets also include intangible properties— brand identity , business data, software and programs, websites, databases, trade secrets , and so forth. 

Certainly, these non-physical assets and creations need the same protection, too, if not more. This is rooted in the reality that today’s businesses derive most of their income not from physical assets, but from innovative ideas and technological creations, among other intangible assets.

An intellectual property strategy, precisely, works to protect this category of business assets. Simply put, an intellectual property strategy is a plan, made to align with the company’s business objectives, in order to protect its intellectual property assets and maximize the commercial benefits from such assets.

It cannot be denied, therefore, that an intellectual property strategy is now a necessity in building, maintaining, and protecting a business, its customers, and its people. 

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What are the elements of a successful intellectual property strategy?

A successful intellectual property plan for your business involves the following:

A successful intellectual property business strategy entails taking active steps in safeguarding your IP assets (filing the necessary paperwork, among other legal actions), including effective tracking and protection against intellectual property infringement .

Optimization

Your IP strategy should be able to optimize your business assets and business processes. This includes investing in the right tools, such as intellectual property software, to maximize your company’s IP assets, plans, and resources.

Monetization

While not a primary factor for all companies and business owners, a successful IP strategy should, still and all, improve the value of the organization. Apart from selling products or services faster with IP exclusionary rights , this also involves, at the least, building a better brand identity and reputation for your business and creating more business opportunities in the market.

How do I develop a successful intellectual property strategy for my company?

While there are no strict rules in intellectual property strategy development, the following are fundamentally your to-do’s in coming up with an IP strategy for your business:

1. Identify your intellectual property assets.

Of course, first and foremost, you will need to properly identify which of your business assets need intellectual property protection. Apart from making an enumeration, it is crucial that you are also first able to determine whether your intellectual property is not actually owned by someone else yet, as well as whether it is clear to your business developers and workers that certain IP assets, although technically products of their own intellect, are actually and legally owned by the company.

2. Align your IP strategy framework with your business objectives.

Another crucial step is understanding your business goals, particularly how they relate to your IP goals. To reiterate, an effective intellectual property strategy must go hand in hand with the company’s business objectives, so it is important that there is first a clear understanding of what your business intends to be and accomplish, to begin with.

3. Involve your people.

Your members, ideally, must also participate in the planning and execution process. They must be properly educated about what your company’s business objectives are, why your IP plans are relevant to such goals, how exactly you intend to implement your IP strategies, and how each member can actively and effectively contribute to achieving the desired result.

4. Be open to continually refining your IP strategy.

The work does not stop in executing your intellectual property strategy, nor, most certainly, in its mere development. Your IP strategy should evolve as your business strategy evolves. Your business position may change over time, and your IP assets may grow, too. Accordingly, you must remember to continuously develop and improve your IP framework to keep up with your business growth or reorganization.

What’s next?

This discussion on developing an intellectual property strategy for your business essentially highlights the importance of protecting your company’s intellectual property assets in order to maximize the commercial benefits from such IP assets.

This process need not be difficult and expensive on your end. For a cost-effective and hassle-free intellectual property tracking and protection approach, Red Points is here to help. Automatically find and remove IP infringement with Red Points’ Intellectual Property Protection software .

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Anna Patricia Pichay

Intellectual Property Lawyer

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Intellectual Property Explained

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5 min. read

Updated January 5, 2024

Do you have intellectual property? A creative work or invention that could be legally protected and provide a competitive advantage for your business?

It’s worth taking the time to find out if you’re unsure. 

The worst thing you can do is not know if you have IP, fail to protect it, and lose it. 

Let’s explore the basics of intellectual property and how you can protect it.

*Disclaimer: This content is intended to be general information and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult an attorney before making any intellectual property or other legal decisions.

  • What is intellectual property?

A thought or notion floating around your head may be a great idea for a future product or service, but it isn’t yet intellectual property.

In the simplest terms, intellectual property (IP) pertains to things you create with your mind; not the ideas themselves, but the expression of the ideas. Names, designs, logos, automated processes, software, books, articles, music, etc., are all potential IPs. 

For a business, IP is an asset. It provides tangible value like equipment, inventory, or other physical possessions. And like your physical assets, IP should be monitored and protected differently.

There are four primary ways to protect your IP:  

  • Trademarks (including design rights)
  • Trade secrets

Intellectual property mistakes to avoid

Avoid common missteps such as thinking you don’t have IP, falsifying dates, or believing that registering IP isn’t a big deal.

How to protect IP when outsourcing software development

You may need to work with outside vendors or partners to get your business up and running. But how do you protect your intellectual property if it circulates outside your business?

  • What is a trademark?

A trademark is the words, numbers, symbols, or unique packaging that distinguishes your brand.

Once registered, you can use the registered ® logo to notify the public that you own the symbol or name.

In the United States, you can also mark a trademark with a TM symbol, which means you claim an unregistered trademark. 

If another company uses your trademark, you can sue for trademark infringement or take legal cease-and-desist action against them. If the trademark is not registered, the lawsuit will be more difficult.

Why trademarking is important

Learn the importance of conducting a trademark search, why different trademarks matter, and what it means if denied.

How to register for a trademark

Learn how to apply for a trademark on your own or with the assistance of an attorney.

Domain names and trademark law

You’ll want to review outstanding trademarks before selecting a domain name. Otherwise, you may unintentionally run into legal conflicts.

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  • What is a patent?

Patents protect new inventions and cover how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of, and how they are made. 

Patent protection is an act of the federal government and has to do with interstate commerce. Once a patent is approved, it provides you with exclusive rights to produce a product or use a process for up to 20 years.

If someone profits from claims to an invention you have duly registered with the U.S. patent office—your patent protection allows you to sue. 

Should you patent your idea?

Learn what qualities make an idea patentable and how to know if it’s the right time to file.

What to know before filing a patent

Become familiar with the patent application process before you file for a patent on your own.

How to profit from your patent

How do you make money from a patent? Starting a business is the obvious choice, but there are actually several other ways to use your patent for a payday.

Large corporation patent strategies to use

By paying attention to the market, exploring broader protection, and investing in internal legal roles—you can find the same success using patents as a large and established corporation.

How to file patents in multiple countries

If you’re selling internationally, you likely need additional patents to protect your business outside of the U.S. Learn the basics of filing for and landing patents in several countries.

  • What is copyright?

Copyright protects original works of authorship like books, songs, movies, art, photographs, etc. 

Copyright protects the actual expression of ideas, not the idea itself. The copyright terms can vary but generally last at least 50 years after the author’s death.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, a visual copyright notice should contain three elements:

  • The symbol  ©, the word “Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”
  • The year of first publication
  • The name of the copyright owner
  • What are trade secrets?

Trade secrets Protect confidential and proprietary information like customer lists, manufacturing processes, secret ingredients, etc. Trade secret protection lasts as long as steps are taken to maintain secrecy.

How to protect trade secrets

Physical security is essential if you have material qualifying as a trade secret or a prototype you are considering patenting.

Keep any sensitive documents like recipes or customer lists locked away in a safe or other secure storage option, not lying around on a desk for any enterprising thief to find. For any prototypes you may have, ensure that anything you don’t want stolen isn’t left in plain sight.

Additional legal steps to protect your business

Intellectual property can provide you with a competitive advantage when starting a business. So, don’t miss out on protecting your work, brand, or innovations by not knowing how to identify and register IP. 

Contact an attorney for professional guidance if you’re unsure about any part of the registration process. 

Want to learn more about how to legally protect your business? Check out these resources:

  • Small business insurance guide
  • How and where to obtain licenses and permits
  • Understand your tax obligations

Clarify your ideas and understand how to start your business with LivePlan

Content Author: Kody Wirth

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

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Intellectual Property Issues: Valuing Intellectual Property in Your Business

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Most companies that are worthy of raising venture capital have proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). In fact, the quality of the IP and the management team are often the two most important aspects of a venture capitalist’s investment decision. The challenge that many ventures face, however, is that most investors will not sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and NDAs are critical to maintaining the proprietary nature of the IP. This article details the appropriate strategy for addressing proprietary IP in your business plan template in order to attract investor attention while retaining the confidentiality of your inventions. Focus on the Benefits of and Applications of the IP: The business plan should not discuss the confidential aspects of the IP. Rather, the plan should discuss the benefits of the IP. Remember that even the most amazing of technologies will not excite investors unless it has tangible benefits to customers.

The business plan first needs to discuss the products and services into which the IP will be integrated. It then must detail the benefits that these products and services have to customers and differentiate them from competitive products. When applicable, it is helpful to include non-confidential drawings and backup materials of the products and services in the Appendix. Focus on Customer Needs and the Relevant Market Size: The business plan must also discuss how the benefits of the IP fulfill a large customer need. To accomplish this, the plan needs to detail customer wants and needs and prove that the company’s offerings specifically meet these needs.

Secondly, the plan needs to discuss the marketplace in which the IP is offered and the size of this marketplace. Critical to this analysis is determining the relevant market size. The relevant market size equals a company’s sales if it were to capture 100% of its specific niche of the market. For example, a medical device’s market size would not be the trillion dollar healthcare market, but rather the sales of all competing medical devices. Focus on Competition and Competitive Differentiation: Your business plan must also prove that your IP is better than competitive inventions. In identifying competitors, note that listing no or few competitors have a negative connotation. It implies that there may not be a large enough customer need to support the company’s products and/or services. On the other hand, should there be too many competitors, then the market may be too saturated to support the profitability of a new entrant. The answer — any company that also serves the customer needs that you serve should be considered a competitor.

The business plan should detail both the positive and negative aspects of competitors’ IP and products/services and validate that your offerings are either superior in general, or are superior in serving a specific customer niche.

Prove that you can Execute on the Opportunity: As importantly as proving the quality of the IP and that a vast market exists for its applications, the business plan most prove that the company can successfully execute on the opportunity.

The plan should detail the company’s past accomplishments, including descriptions and dates when prior funding rounds were received, products and services were launched, revenue milestones were reached, key partnerships were executed, etc.

When a company is a complete start-up, and no milestones have been accomplished, the plan should focus on past accomplishments of the management team as an indicator of the company’s ability to execute successfully.

Getting Investors to Sign the NDA: If you are able to convince the prospective investor that the IP is integrated into a product/service which yields real customer benefits in a large market, then the investor will take the quality of the invention for granted when reviewing the plan. Later, during the due diligence process, the investor will review the actual technology. At this point, a discussion regarding signing an NDA would be appropriate.

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Intellectual property strategy: Your IP is a company asset

Intellectual property is an asset.

Intellectual property (IP) is a company asset and should be managed as such. An IP strategy is simply a plan—consistent with the company’s business goals—to acquire IP assets and leverage the most value from existing IP assets.

The definition of value is assessed in the context of the business goals . Even though IP assets may play a central role in the business strategy of a technology or biotechnology company, acquiring and owning IP will not overcome poor business strategy and make a company successful.

Strategy for acquiring and managing IP

There are usually drafting, filing, prosecution and maintenance costs associated with acquiring and managing IP.

A company should consider what their return on investment is for any money spent on IP , and take into account any cash-flow management issues. Potentially, depending on the overall budget, the money may be better spent elsewhere, such as monetizing a web-based technology product or service faster.

However, IP assets should also be considered from a long-term point of view. For example, if your biotechnology business depends on acquiring patent protection in order to attract outside investment, then that is money well spent.

Consider all types of IP

There are multiples types of IP—mainly patents , trademarks , copyrights and confidential information —which are all different legal tools designed for different purposes.

Patents are not the only kind of IP. While keeping in mind the business goal, consider all types of available IP protection. This is the only way to ensure you are pursuing the right type of IP strategy. Ask yourself these kinds of questions:

  • Is protection as a patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret or industrial design/plant breeders’ right appropriate?
  • What will the chosen type of IP protection help me accomplish?
  • What am I trying to accomplish and will IP help me do this?

IP policies on acquisition, exploitation, monitoring and enforcement

A company will usually need to develop policies on the acquisition, exploitation, monitoring and enforcement of their intellectual property.

Acquiring IP includes managing the chain of title to company-developed IP. Employee agreements and independent contractor agreements should clearly deal with IP ownership issues .

Take stock and create an inventory list of your company’s existing and potential IP.

Exploiting IP is maximizing the acquired IP’s value. You may do this by protecting your company’s IP in the form of brands, technologies or secrets. But it may involve other commercialization and monetization strategies  .

Monitor the internal and external use of your IP. Again, this is not just limited to one specific type of IP; you must systematically monitor all types of IP in your portfolio.

Once IP rights are acquired, you must take more steps to enforce those IP rights ; if you do not, then there is no consequence to a potential infringer. Unfortunately, enforcing IP rights through litigation is costly and uncertain in outcome. Deterrence and negotiations may be viable alternatives.

Use the CIPO, USPTO and WIPO databases for your research

Canada, like many other jurisdictions, has online patent and trademark databases . It is possible to extract competitive intelligence from these databases.

Read and review the wares and services associated with trademarks for other companies. Examine the state of the art in a specific field of research by conducting patent database searches . In other jurisdictions, such as the US, there may be further caveats that need to be considered before conducting patent research.

A potential pitfall is that patent searching is complicated since any public disclosure from around the world may be relevant. For example, did you check the international patent cooperation treaty (PCT) applications?

On a practical level, you can do an ad-hoc analysis. However, a more thorough analysis requires the skills of a patent agent, patent searcher or patent lawyer.

Marketing value of sharing information and open collaboration

At times, information or processes developed by a company does not fit into a category of intellectual property or cannot be monetized through any traditional strategy.

Sharing that information through social media, or as a whitepaper, may demonstrate expertise in an area and can build goodwill in the brand; doing this may have advertising and marketing value. Of course, carefully analyze the implications of any disclosure before releasing the information.

Canadian Intellectual Property Office. (2009, November 16). Retrieved November 30, 2009 from www.cipo.ic.gc.ca United States Patent and Trademark Office. (2009, November 23). Retrieved November 30, 2009 from http://www.uspto.gov/ World Intellectual Property Organization. (2009, December 1). Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.wipo.int

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Start » strategy, what every new startup can do to protect their intellectual property.

Here’s what new startups should understand about intellectual property, including what type(s) they might have and how to protect it.

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Intellectual property (IP) is an invention or creation of the mind, like artwork, symbols, designs, and more. In business, IP might look like company or product names, slogans, logos, and even unique brand colors. As a business owner, it’s essential to protect any IP you may have so you can maintain your unique brand identity. Here’s what new startups should understand about IP and how to protect it.

Common types of IP

Here are some of the most common types of IP in business:

  • Trademarks: Trademarks help brands distinguish themselves from competitors (direct and indirect) by protecting their slogans, symbols, and company and product names.
  • Patents: Patents protect businesses’ unique processes, methods, and inventions for at least 20 years, meaning no other business can make, sell, or distribute your invention.
  • Copyrights: For creative brands and artists, copyrights protect creative works like music, poetry, books, motion pictures, and architecture.
  • Trade secrets: Trade secrets contain private information a business owns for a competitive advantage in its industry. Protecting your trade secrets prevents other businesses in the marketplace from acquiring and implementing the information.
  • Digital assets: Digital assets are a more recent form of IP that include things like software code and online content.

[Read more: Can an Employee Own Intellectual Property? ]

Steps to identify and protect your IP

Identify what type(s) of intellectual property your business has.

Using the information above, determine the type or types of IP your business owns. Create a list so everything is organized and important pieces of IP aren’t missed. To help, the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) has a new IP Identifier tool that identifies which types of IP your business has/needs to protect.

Educate yourself on the specific type of IP you want to protect

Once you identify the IP you own, you need to understand the specific protections available for that type of IP. According to Warren Tuttle, Co-Chair of the Creator Committee of the USIPA and Founder of Tuttle Innovation , business owners should familiarize themselves with the USPTO so they can learn about the patent system.

Different types of IP protection last for different amounts of time.

“You [can] put in keywords and inventors, … business startups and all types of things, and you can access a plethora of information on the site [that can give] you some direction of where to go,” Tuttle said. “This could be helpful in getting knowledge and an awareness [of] … what IP [protection] might be the best for you.”

Get legal assistance to file your IP protections

Legal assistance is key when it comes to filing IP protections. While you alone can file for provisional patents that last for a 12-month period, you will eventually want to file a non-provisional regular patent within that first year.

“As you start to get more knowledgeable, you really have to get legal assistance,” Tuttle said. “Any type of real filing … requires a really good attorney.”

Tuttle also recommended educating yourself on potential legal issues by consulting an organization called the American Intellectual Property Law Association , or finding more local help and resources.

[Read more: 12 Ways to Protect Your Startup’s Intellectual Property ]

Understand how long your IP protection will last and what the next steps are

Different types of IP protection last for different amounts of time. For example, copyrights don’t expire until at least 70 years after the creator’s death

“On utility … and design patents, it's a 20-year agreement, so you cannot protect it for a lifetime,” Tuttle said. “But therein lies the genius of the patent system — people get to prosper — but then we open it up for competition eventually.”

“As far as trademarks … to keep your name out there, you have to do a certain amount of business, which means you have to have some success,” he continued. “If you have a product or business that doesn't make it, maybe after [several] years, you don't need to trademark anymore [and] you'll shut it down.”

Trade secrets, on the other hand, last indefinitely — so long as the information is kept confidential. Digital assets are treated similarly: If the assets are kept safe and protected from potential breaches, they can continue to be protected as intellectual property.

“All these things have fee arrangements and … you have to check in from time to time to make sure you're [registering properly],” Tuttle said. “It’s sort of like registering with the state or federal government when you're a small business: You have to pay all your taxes and all that stuff, [and] you do have to stay … on top of this stuff and not let deadlines slip.”

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Intellectual property: What it is, how to protect it

intellectual property for business plan

Safeguard your company’s ideas, trade secrets, and branding.

As a business owner, you manage many assets on a daily basis, but you may be overlooking an important one: intellectual property.

Your intellectual property includes the intangible assets you create for your business, such as names, designs, and automated processes. And just like tangible possessions — such as supplies, equipment, buildings, and inventory — your intellectual property contributes to the value and success of your business. So it needs to be monitored and protected.

Here’s a breakdown of common types of intellectual property and tips on how you can protect these assets.

Trademarks are the words, phrases, and symbols that differentiate your brand from others in your industry. In order to qualify as trademarks, they must be distinctive and used in commerce to sell or promote a product or service.

  • Company and product names
  • Slogans and taglines
  • Logos and symbols
  • Brand colors

How you can protect them : Trademarks may be registered with the federal government or your state government. Federally registered trademarks protect your rights throughout the U.S., while state-registered trademarks protect your rights only within the state’s territory.

While you’re not required to register a trademark, having a registered trademark can make it easier to challenge anyone who infringes on your trademark rights.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides information on how to register your trademarks at the state or national level.

Federal trademarks last as long as you use them with the public to promote your goods or services. Trademark applications generally cost between $250 and $350 per class of goods or services. To see if your desired trademark is available, you can begin with a general internet search or by checking the USPTO website . A trademark lawyer can help you do a more detailed search to determine the availability of your desired trademark.

A copyright grants you legal rights to anything you create that expresses or embodies an idea. It gives you exclusive rights to copy, distribute, reproduce, display, and license the work.

  • Architectural designs
  • Graphic arts
  • Video and sound recordings
  • Books and blog articles

How you can protect them : Like trademarks, you have some rights to your original work even if you don’t register the copyright at the U.S. Copyright Office . However, registering can give you more leverage if a case ever goes to court. For instance, if an employee writes an article or takes a photo within the scope of their employment, the employer is the copyright owner automatically. However, an independent contractor who writes an article or takes a photo will be the copyright owner of that asset unless they transfer the copyright through a written contract. As with trademarks, registering them officially can give you more leverage in the event of a dispute.

A copyright empowers you to profit from your creative assets. You can sell your copyrighted assets and lease them in exchange for license fees and royalties.

A new copyright owned by an individual typically lasts 70 years after the death of the copyright owner. A copyright owned by a limited liability company (LLC) or other legal entity will last 95 years from the first date the work was used with the public. You can file to register a copyright with the United States Copyright Office . The current online application fee for basic registrations is $45 to $65.

Patents are granted for new, useful inventions, and they will give you the right to prevent others from making, using, or selling your invention.

  • Utility patents : for tangible inventions, such as products, machines, devices, and composite materials, as well as new and useful processes
  • Design patents : the ornamental designs on manufactured products
  • Plant patents : new varieties of plants

How you can protect them : Patent applications can be filed in the United States with the USPTO , and internationally in the patent office of the applicable country or region. U.S. utility and plant patents have a term of 20 years, while design patents have a term of 15 years. Patents require a nonrefundable filing fee, along with issue, service, and maintenance fees. This can add up to thousands of dollars, but some small businesses qualify for discounts.

Before submitting your patent application, you can (but are not required to) search existing patents and published patent applications to see if your concept has comparatively novel features. A patent lawyer can help you do a more thorough search to determine the availability of patent protection for your concept. They can also help you investigate whether any third parties have patents that could prevent you from bringing your product or service to market.

Trade secrets

A trade secret is a piece of confidential business information whose secrecy gives you an advantage over your competitors.

  • Methods, techniques, and processes

How you can protect them : Though trade secrets cannot be registered, they can be protected in other ways. For instance, to keep valuable trade secrets safe, businesses use a variety of methods, including internal policies that restrict access to the trade secret, employment agreements, and non-disclosure agreements. You can take legal action against those who misappropriate your trade secrets.

Get started: Put protections in your business plan

Intellectual property rights can help you establish your brand identity, profit off your unique assets, prevent others from using your creations. Making them part of your business plan can help ensure nothing’s missed. Just as your protect your assets from online threats , it’s important to keep your ideas safe, too.

Start by listing all your intellectual property assets, then consider which assets need to be protected. Budget for the time and money you’ll need to properly secure the rights to your creations, and outline how you plan to protect your intellectual assets. Finally, set deadlines for research, filing, and finalizing these steps and work toward them as you would any other business goal.

As you build and protect your company’s value, Wells Fargo is here to assist. Explore our helpful products and services , and make an appointment today.

Sources: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office , U.S. Copyright Office Fees , U.S. Copyright Office FAQ

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United States Patent and Trademark Office - An Agency of the Department of Commerce

Intellectual Property (IP) strategy is a business strategy

Have you considered how intellectual property (IP) can add value to your business and what types of IP you may already have? The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in collaboration with the Arizona Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, will provide a brief overview of the four major types of IP and discuss why innovators and entrepreneurs should consider them in their business plan.

Topics include:

  • Overview of intellectual property types: patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets
  • An introduction to the new IP Identifier tool
  • Why innovators and entrepreneurs should consider protecting their IP
  • Understanding the risks of early disclosure
  • Resources and assistance available through the USPTO

Register today

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Sample Intellectual Property Management Business Plan

We’ll be looking at writing an intellectual property management business plan.

Are you an expert in the oversight of intangible assets? If you are, you may want to consider starting your intellectual property management business.

These types of businesses are involved in the management of a variety of intangible assets such as inventions, music, publications, as well as software.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BUSINESS PLAN PDF SAMPLE

Now, having experience in this field of operation greatly helps but isn’t sufficient to make your business succeed.

You’ll need to have a plan on the ground on how things will play out. Here, we’ve provided you with a guide on how to launch your business successfully by using certain tips.

These can also be termed as basic strategies included in a business plan to make your dreams come true.

Area of Specialization

Before you begin your quest to establish an intellectual property management business, there needs to be clarity regarding your specific area of specialization.

Intellectual property can be divided into four major categories; trademarks & design rights, patents & utility models, trade secrets, and copyrights.

Now for many entrepreneurs, a crucial decision will have to be made about where to focus on. Of course, you should go for or choose a field you’re most competent in. In other words, you should settle for your most preferred area of specialization.

Additional intellectual property management categories may later be added as the business expands. In any case, the focus should be on providing a valuable service to clients within your area of specialization.

Target Market

As an intellectual property management business, most of your clients will be new startups seeking guidance and protection from intellectual property rights infringements. As such, your business will mostly be law related.

The checklist for most startups (potential market) will include carrying out clearance searches, checking if a domain name is available, registering a trading name, brand and logo as well as identifying all intellectual property assets.

Additional services required include confidentiality, and protecting unregistered intellectual property. Several other types of services will need to be considered in the process. This will have to do with the needs of your target market.

Important Sections of your Plan

To effectively strategize for your intellectual property management business, your plan must be well written. In other words, all sections essential to the smooth operation of your business idea must be fully and carefully unveiled.

These areas include the executive summary section, company description, products and services offered, market analysis, strategy and implementation, organization and management team as well as financial plan and projections

Executive Summary

As the name suggests, the executive summary section of your intellectual property management business is basically about summarizing the entire business plan. Here, you want to provide an idea of what your business is all about.

Although this section is brief, it sets out to describe your products and services, target market as well as competition. What more, it must include a financial overview, unveil your team as well as discuss your funding needs.

Its main purpose is to explain the features of your intellectual property management business. This should be compelling enough to make the reader want to learn more about your business.

Company Description

What’s the use of the company description section of your intellectual property management business? It simply gives a snapshot of who you are as well as what your business is about or what it does. It also highlights differences (if any) between your business and your competitors.

What more? You should include the niche your intellectual property business will be filling or the product(s) it will be offering.

Products and Services

As discussed earlier, an intellectual property management business offers multiple service categories. However, you’ll need to be more specific in listing the range of products and services your business will be offering.

You can also include possible areas of interest you want to venture into in the future. The aim is to clarify your vision and pursue a definite goal. Here, you’ll have to include your list of services as well as what makes them unique,

Important questions will also need to be answered such as what makes them better than what’s already in the market. Also, why would clients prefer your services over those of your competitors? All these must be fully answered to ensure your business takes off smoothly.

Market Analysis

In this section of your intellectual property management business plan, you want to focus on the evidence that there’s a niche your business can exploit. In establishing such evidence, a strategy for marketing and sales is developed to reach out to customers.

Strategy and Implementation

Apart from the discussion of what needs to be included in your intellectual property management business plan, there’s also a need to fully implement the strategies discussed. Here, the “who, where, how, and when” is focused on.

Property implementation is vital to the survival and success of your intellectual property management business as the plan of a written plan. Choosing the most effective implementation strategy greatly enhances your competitive advantage.

Organization and Management Team

Here, you need to summarize the information about your team as well as the business structure. This important section helps prevent indiscriminate hiring. In other words, it enables you to adequately assess and fill in the most competent hands for every position within the business.

Intellectual property management is a crucial area of business that requires all the expertise you can offer in making your operations worth the try for clients. Your reader should be able to see a strong team covering all basic areas of operations. Only then will the business be taken seriously.

Financial Plan and Projections

This is one of the key areas of your intellectual property management business plan and includes short, medium, and long term financial projection. Also, it covers details on cash flow statements, profit and loss statements, balance sheets as well as expenses budget among other details.

Investors are very much interested to read through this section as it provides an overview of what money will be spent on and how much money or investments can be recouped.

This intellectual property management business plan guide offers you all the help you need to launch your business operations. This process shouldn’t be rushed as doing so will only complicate things and affect your goals.

Related posts:

  • Sample Property Management Business Plan Executive Summary
  • Sample Property Management Business Plan
  • Sample Property Maintenance and Renovation Business Plan

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How to protect and structure an Intellectual Property Business

A few weeks ago, we talked about certain key aspects to consider when structuring a holding company, as well as reviewed a number of jurisdictions that may be interesting for holding company purposes. If you haven’t had the chance to read them, you can do it here and here .

Today, we’ll go over a specific type of holding company – an intellectual property (IP) holding company – how we can protect our IP, exploit it, and the benefits and caveats that one should take into account when setting up an IP-based business.

IP is, perhaps, the most valuable business asset class one can have. Look at the major companies of the digital age, and many of them are all built primarily on IP.

Whether it is a reputed trademark among consumers, a patented process, technology, or a copyrighted software – intellectual property is what gives you your competitive edge and key differentiation against your competitors. It is your added value to the marketplace in an increasingly knowledge-based and technological-focused economy and one of the key drivers of your company’s valuation.

IP is a key revenue generator whether it is via licensing and the exploitation of IP rights or commercializing IP-protected products and services. IP also plays a fundamental role in investment decisions when obtaining financing and it can also be leveraged when implementing tax optimization strategies.

From a structuring standpoint, IP is an intangible asset and therefore can be held virtually anywhere, giving a high degree of structuring flexibility that has traditionally been exploited in tax planning international structures to significantly reduce a given business group’s tax liability. Furthermore, in order to boost technological innovation and create value for local economies, a number of jurisdictions have traditionally provided tax benefits for IP-based businesses, the so-called ‘patent boxes’.

However, the international tax landscape is undergoing major changes regarding this and certain caveats must now be considered when structuring an IP-based business or an IP holding company such as economic substance or the so-called nexus requirements, which we will review in this article.

From a commercial and financial standpoint, your IP must be protected to keep your unique position in the market and your competitive edge or avoid competitors to benefit from your hard-earned reputation, product research and development achievements, trade secrets, or directly plagiarize your products. In addition, your IP can have certain financial benefits such as using it as collateral for loans or a higher company valuation in the event of a merger, acquisition or an equity offering.

In this article, we have reviewed certain key aspects to consider when protecting and structuring your IP-business. The article is not intended to be a comprehensive review and is not legal advice or tax advice of any kind.

IP Protection

As we commented previously, in order to leverage the commercial and financial benefits from your intellectual property, you should take the appropriate steps to protect it.

First of all, in order to protect your IP, you may need to first identify what class of IP you have via an IP audit – which should be carried out by professionals.

Performing an IP audit in your business can give significant advantages as it will provide you the intelligence to determine your IP protection strategy, in addition to potentially identify new sources of revenue as well as get valuable knowledge on how you can better manage your IP and orientate your business and operational strategy to strengthen your position in the marketplace.

This IP audit can also serve to rethink your corporate structure and the relationship between your different business units to leverage certain tax and asset protection strategies, as we will see later.

When it comes to intellectual property, we can divide it into four broad categories: patents and utility models, trademarks and design rights, copyrights and trade secrets. Different IP protection strategies apply to different classes of IP.

Patents and Utility Models

Patents are the strongest protective methods when it comes to IP. They are also the most complex, expensive and time-consuming to obtain.

Patents apply to inventions on certain functional and technical aspects of products or processes. Patents are exclusive rights for using, selling and importing these inventions for a limited period of time, generally 20 years, in a specific jurisdiction or territory.

Generally, to be patentable, an invention should be novel, it must have industrial applicability and must involve an inventive step, i.e. a non-obvious solution for solving a problem.

The principle of territoriality applies to patents and are only enforceable in the jurisdictions where the patent has been filed and the exclusive rights are granted in accordance with the law of that jurisdiction. Elsewhere, a patent may be freely used as it is of the public domain. Patent registration in the country of origin does not grant protection in other countries if no international treaty is in place.

Criteria for granting patents vary across countries. Certain countries only grant patents for technical products and processes such as those related to chemistry, mechanics, and information technology, while others also cover business processes which involve technology.

For instance, the EU has a more strict approach on what is patentable, in which generally, patents are not available for software or for business processes, whereas the US is more flexible and may grant patents to these inventions. However, since Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International , it has become much harder to obtain and enforce software patents in the US – which is generally the first place companies register intellectual property.

In the EU, the European Patent Office (EPO) requires the invention to be an ‘absolute novelty, i.e. it must not be disclosed to anyone (except under confidentiality agreements) before the date of filing or priority. For its part, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) gives a grace period of 12 months before filing the patent application.

In most countries, patents can be issued to either natural or juristic persons, except in the US, where only natural persons can apply for a patent. Usually, an employee of a US company will apply for the patent and the rights will be assigned to the company via a contract. In some countries, an employee may also have the right to apply for a patent if their employer has not done so.

Inventions can also be protected via utility models in certain jurisdictions, are generally applied to mechanical and other technological innovations and commonly used for adaptations of existing products.

Requirements to obtain a utility model are much more flexible than patents. Although the ‘novelty’ feature is required, the requirement of involving an ‘inventive step’ and/or be ‘non-obvious’ are far more relaxed or directly not required and the procedure may not include an inspection. Protection terms are also lower as well – generally between 7 to 10 years.

Utility models are not available in the US, Canada, or the United Kingdom. However, in the US, entrepreneurs may seek to protect their utility models via a ‘utility patent’.

Both patents and utility model rights can be transferred and licensed.

Trademarks and design rights

Trademarks are usually registered to protect marketing tools such as brand names, logos, or company slogans, among others, from third-party use or plagiarism.

Same as with patents, the principles of territoriality apply, meaning that you should register it in each jurisdiction where you wish to seek protection. There are certain supranational options such as the EU Trade Mark that cover all EU countries.

There is also the Madrid system for the international registration of marks, which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It allows having your trademark protected in more than 90 countries, including the US, Europe, and most Asian countries.

Trademarks are usually valid and renewable for periods of 10 years and can be canceled if they are not used. Like Patents, trademarks are also property and their rights can be sold and licensed. Trademarks however, should be more aggressively utilized – while patents can be used as more of a defensive course of action.

Trademark owners should diligently protect their trademarks from infringement and other misuses (e.g., blurring, tarnishment, unfair competition, passing off, false advertising and cybersquatting) that may harm the owner’s goodwill and business reputation. A trademark owner is not required to uncover all possible uses that might conflict, or immediately commence a lawsuit against every possible infringer. At the same time, a complete failure to enforce will lead to a weakening of an owner’s marks, loss of distinctiveness over time and, as we saw in this case, potential forfeiture of certain available remedies. “Trademarks : if you snooze, you lose” source

Most countries whose legal code is based on Common law grant certain protection by default to trademarks, subject to the fact that certain goodwill must have been established, meaning the trademark has earned a certain reputation or public knowledge.

Other countries apply the first to file principle, whereby the first party applying has priority. There are a number of exceptions such as with well-known trademarks.

Designs may also be registered and protected. They refer to the shape, colors or material aspects of products such as packaging and containers, furnishing and household goods, lighting equipment, jewelry, electronic devices, textiles, and, in some instances, to graphic symbols, graphical user interfaces, and logos.

Generally, to qualify for registration the design must be ‘new’ or ‘original’. Protection terms vary across jurisdictions and can be from 5 to 25 years.

Although industrial design protection also applies country-by-country, the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on the international registration of industrial designs provides for the registration of designs in 70 countries with a single application to the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Copyrights are the most common way to protect intellectual property and refer to original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works derived from intellectual effort or creative skill.

Copyright is usually used for software and for websites, music, videos, brochures, books, etc. and can be protected via copyright which is usually obtained automatically. Note that only creative content can be copyrighted, and not ideas, brands, procedures, operational methods and/or mathematical concepts.

Creators of a given copyrighted work have the right to prohibit or authorize its reproduction, public performance or publication, broadcasting, adaptation, dissemination or retailing. They can sell or license these rights and receive royalties in return.

Protection term is usually 50 years after the creator’s death as per the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties.

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is the international agreement governing copyrights, in which most jurisdictions worldwide are contracting parties. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have also implemented the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which also covers matters related to Copyright protection.

Under the above treaties, copyrights are protected without requiring registration. Although, certain jurisdictions such as the EU provide for a registration option where copyrighted works can be lodged to facilitate any legal claim.

An exception to this is the US, which, although it is a member of the Berne Convention, it does require registration with the US Copyright Office (USCO) for copyright owners to sue for infringement and receive certain remedies for statutory damages and attorney fees.

Generally, the copyright owner is the creator of the copyrighted work by default. Labour laws may include provisions that grant copyright ownership for employees’ creations to the employers. However, these may not apply in an independent-contractor relationship. Care should be taken when drafting certain agreements to include relevant provisions that assign the ownership of the copyright to the company.

Trade Secrets

Confidential business information should be protected also. This may include know-how, customers or prospective databases, technological developments, business strategies and tactics, recipes, manufacturing processes, among many others, which collectively are known as trade secrets and may provide a competitive edge over other market players. This know-how can also be licensed and become a direct source of revenue.

Trade secrets do not need to be registered in order to be protected, and therefore, no protection term limitation applies.

Definition and conditions for trade secrets vary across jurisdictions. However, certain international standards are outlined in the TRIPS agreement including the fact that the information should not be known by or accessible to the public, it should have certain commercial value and steps should be taken to keep them confidential, such as via non-disclosure agreements with partners, clients, suppliers, contractors or employees, among others.

Trade secrets that consist of inventions may be patentable or qualify as a utility model. Some companies prefer not to register as seeking a trade secret protection strategy does provide for no limitations in time, no registration costs, have immediate effect and do not need to comply with legal requirements applicable to patents.

However, trade secrets do not provide exclusive commercial rights and are more difficult to enforce than patents. If these trade secrets are materialized in products – third parties may discover it via reverse engineering and may use it without any legal constraints. Furthermore, in a worst-case scenario, a third-party who has discovered the trade secret may patent it, although certain legal restrictions may apply.

Infringement

IP rights’ holders are responsible for identifying infringement and whether enforcing their rights. IP rights infringement may involve civil offenses and, in certain cases, criminal offenses such as counterfeiting or piracy.

Court proceedings are time-consuming and represent a financial burden. Furthermore, IP infringement might be difficult to enforce in certain countries – and, of course, there is no guarantee.

This is why many IP rights’ holders opt for sending ‘cease and desist’ letters to the infringer in the first instance, or seek dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation or arbitration when the dispute is between parties of a contract.

Mediation is usually the less expensive option, and In international contexts, arbitration might be more easily enforceable. Furthermore, it may allow keeping better business relations between the parties than in a legal proceeding.

IP Exploitation

As previously commented, intellectual property is one of the most valuable business asset classes that can be monetized.

For instance, a given company can commercialize its IP-based product whereby a license agreement might be concluded with the client. This is common with software developers and providers, where the licensor may grant a non-transferable, non-exclusive copyright and patent license to use such software under certain terms and conditions. In certain instances, part of the revenue generated by the product might be classified as royalty which might entail certain tax benefits as we will see in the next sections.

In a B2B environment, IP rights can also be licensed to third parties and/or affiliates to use the IP rights. Licenses can be established for the use of any type of intellectual property including patents, copyright, trademarks, designs, and trade secrets.

With exclusive licenses, only the licensee, and not even the licensor, can use and/or exploit the relevant IP. Non-exclusive licenses may allow the licensor to exploit the relevant IP and grant more licenses. A co-exclusive license is used when the licensor is only permitted under the contract to grant licenses to a limited group of persons. In any of these cases, exclusivity may or may not be restricted to a product, field, territory, among others. The agreement may also confer different rights, such as the right to use or the right to commercialize.

IP rights can also be used for cross-licensing agreements, for instance, when two or more entities agree to leverage each others technology. IP also plays a fundamental role in franchising agreements, especially when it comes to trademarks.

IP agreements are also common in mergers & acquisitions, or in joint ventures to govern relationships in which, for instance, a company may contribute with certain know-how and other with specific market experience and knowledge.

When it comes to cross-border agreements, you should make sure that your IP is protected in the relevant jurisdictions, or you might end up with no right to restrict the use or exploitation of your IP.

And in any of the above cases, you should seek specialized legal advice in the relevant jurisdictions to carefully draft and/or review the terms and conditions governing these contracts.

Your IP can also serve as collateral for accessing financing. Securitization of IP assets is a growing trend, as we will see later.

Furthermore, like any other asset, IP can be bought and sold, transferred and/or assigned to any entity.

IP Structuring

Ip holding company.

A number of business groups elect to set up a vehicle to hold their intellectual property assets – an IP Holding Company.

Using an IP holding to hold, administer and commercialize IP rights by licensing them to related companies or third parties may provide a number of benefits, and not doing so, may potentially lead to certain issues.

First of all, a business may operate via different entities due to commercial reasons, e.g. operating in different markets, different products, and services, etc. In these groups, different entities may create and/or use different trade secrets, brands, copyrighted work, etc. which may be further shared and used across entities.

IP rights may not be clearly assigned to any entity, or in the case of registered intellectual property, each one may be assigned to a different entity. In these cases, there may be no licensing agreements between entities, and no clarity on who holds and accrues the IP rights.

This could create cross-contamination and cross-liability issues which can negatively affect your valuation, it can lead to problems when selling business units/subsidiaries/IP or when securing financing, as well as having your IP exposed to liabilities arising from trading activities.

Furthermore, when a given group IP is all over the place it might be challenging to efficiently identify and manage all the intellectual property that the business is accruing or get the most out of it via, for instance, turning the IP into a direct revenue-generating asset.

By establishing an IP holding company, one can minimize or eliminate the aforementioned issues. The IP holding is solely established to accrue the IP rights, hold the IP, implement the IP protection strategies, and carry out any financial or commercial IP-related activity.  

Relationships between the IP holding and affiliated companies using or exploiting the IP rights should be properly legally covered via a licensing agreement to clearly determine ownership of the IP and isolate IP assets from other group’s entities liabilities.

It also provides a further level of flexibility. For instance, at a certain point of time, a given business could switch to a franchise business model with ease by selling the operating companies and keeping the intellectual property holding company.

Asset Protection

As we discussed in a previous article , a holding structure can be a powerful asset protection and risk management tool and may lead to a separation of legal and financial liability and risks between business assets.

By establishing an IP holding structure and segregating the IP assets, the assets may not be exposed to the legal financial risks and losses from the commercial activities of the group. For instance, it can protect your IP from other related businesses creditors or insolvency.

Although sharing key management control personnel between trading entities and the IP holding company is possible, steps should be taken to clearly distinguish governance and administration of the entities, for instance via separate and differentiated board structure and meetings. Additionally, in the wake of new tax policies, as we will see later, this will reinforce that transactions between related companies are conducted in an arm’s length basis, and having on the ground directors makes prudent sense from a substance standpoint as well.

Furthermore, appointing different executives whose duties are exclusively the management of the IP, or employing staff whose tasks are IP-related such as research and development, and are not directly involved in the day-to-day commercial activities, may reinforce the ring-fencing objective of the IP Holding, and may also provide R&D tax breaks, as we will see later.

Intra-group transactions should be properly documented, accounted in their respective books and records, and covered by the appropriate licensing agreements. Activities of the company should be properly structured to assign the accrued IP to the IP holding. Ideally, no trading entity should be doing business in the name or on behalf of the IP Holding.

For a greater level of IP asset protection, an IP-holding subsidiary authorized to sub-license the IP rights could be used to enter into licensing agreements with third parties, therefore the IP holding wouldn’t be conducting transactions with these third parties, and minimize any trading and financial risk.

However, when structuring the holding and the relationship between affiliated parties, certain legal caveats would also need to be considered such as that in certain jurisdictions non-exclusive IP rights licensees are not able to receive remedies for IP infringement.

As IP holdings may be considerably mobile businesses, one of the main benefits related to structuring IP holdings has traditionally been the ability to implement tax planning strategies by setting up in low-tax jurisdictions.

Certain multinational groups’ IP holdings have been incorporated and/or controlled and managed from offshore tax advantageous jurisdictions and have concluded licensing agreements with affiliate operating companies and royalties received by the holding have been exempt from taxation. In this way, as royalty payments are deductible expenses, the tax base of the trading company (which may be subject to higher taxes) is significantly reduced.

However, as most offshore jurisdictions do not have double-taxation agreements (DTA) with most countries (where operating entities are set up), these royalties are subject to withholding tax at the source, minimizing the tax efficiency of the structure.

To avoid that, multinational groups set up intermediate companies in onshore or midshore jurisdictions to sublicense this IP. These companies would be tax resident in jurisdictions that have a large network of DTAs and have a low to nil withholding taxation on royalties paid.

These practices are known as ‘treaty shopping’ and the Netherlands has been, perhaps, the most popular jurisdiction to set up these ‘intermediate companies’ due to their vast network of dual tax conventions

However, the international tax landscape is quickly changing on this matter, as we discussed in previous articles . In order to prevent these legal practices for tax avoidance, under the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Inclusive Framework and the European Union Code of Conduct Group (Business Taxation) (EUCoCG), the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) has instigated most jurisdictions worldwide to introduce amendments into their tax legislation to outlaw these tax planning strategies.

Some of the measures include the implementation of the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which allows a tax authority to disregard any structuring arrangement that has been put in place only to obtain a tax benefit in a given jurisdiction and does not have economic or commercial substance, as well as Controlled Foreign Company Rules (CFC) which may tax undistributed profits of a subsidiary incorporated in a low-tax jurisdiction. Exit taxes are also being implemented to avoid a company to change its tax residency (or transferring assets to a foreign permanent establishment) without paying a ‘capital gains’ tax on the appreciation of their assets (including IP).

There is also a wave to amend double-tax agreements (DTA) with increasing economic substance requirements to qualify for treaty benefits. Transfer pricing requirements and reporting are increasingly becoming stricter with country-by-country reports (CbCr) and local and master file transfer pricing documentation for large multinational groups, as we discussed in previous articles .

Furthermore, most advantageous IP-regimes, the so-called ‘patent boxes’, are suffering major changes with stricter qualifying requirements. BEPS-compliant patent boxes require an eligible company to meet substance requirements (physical presence, local expenditures, control, and management). Economic substance tests usually look at where strategic decisions are made and where the management and control over these strategic decisions, budgets, research and commercial programmes take place.

BEPS-compliant patent boxes also apply the ‘nexus approach’, whereby IP income eligible for an exemption is determined based on the ratio of R&D and other expenditures carried out within the country.

Typically, an IP holding company would outsource R&D activities to another affiliated entity in another jurisdiction, while IP rights are assigned to the holding company. With new requirements, it might be worth considering whether it is beneficial for the business group to keep R&D activities in the same country where the IP is held.

Traditional offshore jurisdictions have also been required to put economic substance requirements in place for IP businesses, which now have to conduct the core-income generating activities (CIGA) within the jurisdiction, and have management, staff, premises and local expenditures within the jurisdiction.

This is especially the case for IP businesses that have not created the IP (have acquired it), are licensing the IP rights to affiliate companies or are not conducting R&D activities locally, which are considered ‘high-risk IP businesses’ and are subject to enhanced economic substance requirements (and will be presumed not to have met the economic substance test by default and will need to rebut this presumption).

Although the international tax landscape is becoming increasingly challenging for IP-based businesses or IP holding companies, IP-based business groups can still leverage international structuring opportunities to obtain significant tax benefits.

As we’ve seen, economic substance is key. There are a number of jurisdictions in which by incorporating your IP holding and establishing local activities, you can have access to advantageous IP regimes with substantial exemptions to royalty income. You may want to relocate your R&D and/or IP commercial & development management and staff. Furthermore, if your company has intensive R&D expenditures, it might be worth considering setting up shop there to access tax concessions.

For instance, Luxembourg provides for an 80% tax exemption on net IP income eligible (determined by the nexus ratio) derived from patents, utility models, copyrighted software, etc. as well as a 100% exemption from net wealth tax and exemption from capital gains – provided that the substance requirement is met.

However, it is important to look at what class of IP you will be accruing, and if it qualifies under the IP regime, and other relevant aspects such as what type of IP income qualifies (e.g. IP-income derived from the sale of products or income from licensing agreements) or whether the IP needs to have been developed by the company, or the mere IP economic ownership suffice to be eligible.

You can establish your regional trading activities in jurisdictions that provide tax benefits and have a tax treaty with the jurisdiction where your IP company is located. Economic substance requirements vary depending on the jurisdiction. You could also leverage ‘mid-shore’ jurisdictions that have relatively low tax rates where you may not need to meet unreasonable substance requirements.

However, establishing economic substance and the place of effective management is a positive step to take and is paramount in an optimized corporate structure. As it will also provide certainty on the tax residency jurisdiction of your company it may also avoid triggering CFC laws in the jurisdiction of the parent entity, if applicable.

You must also consider how transactions between entities, either affiliate or third parties are structured, as it may have a significant impact from a tax standpoint as well. Commercial substance between entities is important and should reflect commercial reality. As we’ve mentioned before, IP holding companies should have their own decision-making structure independent from other group’s entities. All IP-related transactions between affiliated entities must be conducted at arm’s-length and fair-market-value, and be properly documented.

A good approach is having the proper structure on day 1. Postponing the incorporation of an IP holding company to the time that the IP has been considerably developed may lead to less tax-efficient restructuring options and you may lose access to certain tax breaks in certain jurisdictions, in addition to potentially higher capital gains tax.  

Your financial and commercial goals should also be considered in conjunction when determining your structure – incorporating in a jurisdiction only because tax reasons may not be that effective.

Other tax benefits from properly structuring your IP holding may include in some jurisdictions a reduction of capital gains tax in an eventual IP sale. Certain IP assets may be considered depreciable assets or have been acquired for a minimal cost (such as a trademark), and a subsequent sale of these assets may lead to a balance adjustment – which gains may be taxable. Having an IP holding may lead to potential tax efficiency depending on the country where the company has been incorporated as the sale of shares may be fully or partially exempt from taxation.

Securitization

As we briefly commented previously, properly protecting your IP assets and holding them in a holding company may also lead to a broader range of financing options.

First of all, having an IP-focused entity may help you to properly identify and value your IP assets, which in turn may lead to higher valuations for your business group.

IP assets can also be used as security for obtaining financing, such as from venture capital funds, hedge funds, private lenders, or angel investors. Furthermore, there is a growing trend for using intellectual property assets as collateral for commercial bank loans.

You could also leverage your IP holding for fundraising via an equity offering. For technology and blockchain-related companies, you could even set up an IP special purpose vehicle (SPV) to tokenize your IP and give rights to the business royalty revenue streams to your token holders.

However, if you are looking at alternative ways to get financing via securitizing your IP assets, investors will want to see that your IP is properly protected, and saleable.

When structuring the IP business it is also worth looking at whether your IP-based business may benefit from government and non-government financing schemes such as grants and/or loans. Some governments provide additional incentives for IP headquarters or an HQ where IP is primarily generated.

The Bottom Line

As we’ve seen intellectual property (IP) assets may be one of the most valuable business assets and therefore businesses should take the appropriate steps to protect them, as well as execute the appropriate commercial strategies to get the most out of them.

If you haven’t done so, perform an audit of your business and identify what intellectual property assets you have, what class of IP, and then design and implement a plan on how you can protect it.

You should evaluate whether you can register them, and if so, that the registered IP protection covers at least all the international markets where you operate or plan to operate, whether it is via individually registering them or via an international treaty.

If they are not registrable, you must ensure that your contracts with partners, employees, contractors, suppliers, and clients contain the proper clauses to maintain confidentiality and properly assign and protect the existing or accrued IP rights to your business.

Even if you are a newly set up start-up, your intellectual property strategy plan should be already in place, otherwise, it might negatively affect your position in the marketplace once your business grows and might have negative business consequences, and even tax consequences.

When exploiting your IP rights, and licensing to third parties, you should be really careful in the terms and conditions of your contract, especially in technology-licensing agreements and joint-ventures.

It is of significant importance to have the proper IP Holding structure and the IP properly assigned and owned by one entity. It may lead you to more efficiently manage, administer and develop your IP, set the foundation for IP-focused business growth, and find new sources of revenue.

Furthermore, if the IP ownership is properly assigned and administered, it may lead you to higher business valuation and open a number of alternative financing options for your business.

It will also provide a greater level of asset protection, as you can effectively isolate your IP from the business risks and liabilities that arise when carrying out commercial activities.

You can also leverage your IP structuring strategy to access tax breaks. Most countries have ‘patent boxes’ available that provide tax concessions for income derived from the exploitation of IP rights and other tax incentives related to R&D expenditures.

In addition, a properly structured IP business may lead to significantly reduce your overall business tax burden. To effectively achieve that, economic substance, transparency and commercial substance between entities are of increasing importance. With the current international landscape, shell vehicles or treaty shopping strategies might not be as effective as they used to be and a more comprehensive and elaborated approach should be taken.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, however, there are a number of jurisdictions that provide a number of benefits, or that can be beneficial for international structures dealing in IP. In the next article, we will review some of these jurisdictions.

If you are planning to structure or restructure your IP business, we here at Flag Theory can help you leverage global structuring opportunities with a global approach and jurisdictional comparison intelligence customized to your specific business.

We take into account not only all the legal, regulatory, and tax elements, but also the commercial needs, priorities, and goals of your business. Our goal is to empower you to legally benefit from the highest asset protection, risk management, tax minimization, and smooth finance and commercial operations. Contact us today, it will be a pleasure to assist you.

About the Author

Marc Gras is the Managing Director of Flag Theory and a business strategy and international structuring specialist experienced in multiple sectors. His day to day activities consist of finding solutions for multinational businesses from a variety of industries that have complex international corporate structuring and banking/financial needs.

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How IP laws can be reimagined to stimulate innovation

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By placing the focus of IP laws on diversity and innovation, we can incentivise collaboration, reward innovation, and offer more equitable opportunities for creators Image:  Manyone A/S

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  • Current IP laws aren't adapted to the realities of multicultural societies and fast-changing economies.
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  • By placing the focus of IP laws on diversity and innovation, we can incentivise collaboration, reward innovation, and offer more equitable opportunities for creators.

Intellectual Property (IP) laws are a two-edged sword. On the one hand, they enable creators to reap the full value of their creativity without fearing appropriation or imitation. On the flip side, IP laws can often be inimical to innovation and productivity when they do not consider the context and nuance in which a specific work was created and what it means for the larger society.

When US Trade Rep Katherine Tai announced the Biden administration’s support for waiving IP protection on COVID-19 vaccines, it was based on this premise. Indeed, no context or nuance could be larger than the biggest global health crisis in a century. Although Biden’s decision drew the ire and condemnation of the pharmaceutical industry , the point had already been made. At a time when we needed to get as many safe and effective vaccines as possible across the world - especially to poorer nations, IP laws were among the chief factors holding us back.

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Adapting IP to the digital age

The digital age has introduced a new era of innovation, one that has seen the advent of new technologies, services, and products that have revolutionized the way we live and operate. From the rise of the internet to the emergence of social media, the world we live in today is vastly different from the one we knew even a decade ago. But while technology has continued to evolve and human design processes are driving exponential growth, IP laws have largely stayed the same.

In today’s dynamic world where many rely heavily on technology to survive, continuous innovation is paramount. However, innovation will happen at a snail’s speed when would-be creators cannot leverage existing inventions when IP laws restrict them.

American software programmer Richard Stallman foresaw the challenges we are faced with today when he launched the GNU Project and founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in 1985.

The free software movement activist sought to grant end-users the freedom to create, modify, and share software as a pathway to faster innovation. Decades down the line, open source models are now standard for facilitating the sharing of ideas and resources, allowing for the development of new and improved products and services.

Current IP laws are designed to protect creators and inventors from having their work copied, stolen, or otherwise exploited without their consent. This is a noble goal, but the laws need to address our constantly evolving times adequately. For instance, it can be difficult to enforce copyright when an individual can easily copy and share digital content online.

The prevention of the flow of ideas and collaboration between inventors and creators are also a consequence of the restrictiveness of the current laws. Good ideas, in this case, need to be enabled, but all our IP laws can do, at best, is lock them up in cages—modern ones nonetheless.

We face similar challenges with IP laws across everything else, from how we leverage frontier technologies to design new products and services to our ability to drive innovation across diverse cultural and design applications. Indeed, emerging conversations about AI's rights intellectual property - well, actually any type of intelligence’s rights - shows how far down the road IP laws still need to travel to catch up.

How is the World Economic Forum fostering a sustainable and inclusive digital economy?

The World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Digital Economy and New Value Creation helps companies and governments leverage technology to develop digitally-driven business models that ensure growth and equity for an inclusive and sustainable economy.

  • The Digital Transformation for Long-Term Growth programme is bringing together industry leaders, innovators, experts and policymakers to accelerate new digital business models that create the sustainable and resilient industries of tomorrow.
  • The Forum’s EDISON Alliance is mobilizing leaders from across sectors to accelerate digital inclusion . Its 1 Billion Lives Challenge harnesses cross-sector commitments and action to improve people’s lives through affordable access to digital solutions in education, healthcare, and financial services by 2025.

Contact us for more information on how to get involved.

Redesigning IP laws for global inclusivity

The dynamics of our rapidly evolving global community demand that we reframe IP laws to spur innovation because innovation is critical to human progress, not just because it is key to long-term economic growth and prosperity, but also because it’s our only way to respond to a constantly evolving world.

However, there needs to be a paradigm shift in how intellectual property ownership is viewed and shared, to achieve this. At the moment, what IP laws do best is help large companies fence off competition. Good for the bottom line, but not so great for evening the playing field and innovation.

People are circumventing IP laws by creating workarounds to drive cutting-edge innovation. Crowdsourcing platforms continue to grow, as people look to create together across disciplines and cultures without worrying about patents.

Creative Commons licences also allow creators to make their work available to the public while still retaining some control over how the material is used. By utilising these tools, innovators are pushing back at the restrictive boundaries of IP laws. It is the only way to new and exciting ways of collaborative and productive design.

We need new creative ownership models that protect the rights of creators while simultaneously spurring new ways of enabling creative environments. One great example, which I've given elsewhere , is Africa's design space. If there's any place that demonstrates the inadequacy of today's IP system, it is here where intellectual property is as much a by-product of timeless collective knowledge.

Have you read?

Global risks report 2024, a way forward.

IP laws need to adapt to protect multi-generational and collective knowledge—something they are currently ill-equipped for. The closest thing may be 'Protected Designation of Origin', but it does not protect inventions and technology from being copied. Today's IP laws are poorly suited to protect such "indigenous" knowledge because they are usually based on Western norms such as individual rights and commercialization. It's a glaring issue that IP laws do not effectively protect core intellectual property in the world's second largest continent.

If we truly want to spur innovation globally, we must recognize all forms of intellectual creations —from AI to all humans—and make space for them in our legal frameworks.

If IP laws will continue to be useful in the future, then we must open them up to multiple and evolving intellectual realities, especially those that seek to reward not just the creator in the individualist sense, but also everyone involved in the creative process, from the individual to the community. And the onus must be on innovation not protection. This would incentivise collaboration, reward innovation, and offer more equitable opportunities for creators and creative spaces.

Hence, rather than viewing IP from a narrow prism of ownership—a viewpoint restricting reproduction, use, and modification, we need IP laws to reflect the realities of design today in a way that enables everyone to benefit from the wisdom of the crowd. How we get there will require reframing and enlarging our concepts of who owns what and how.

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License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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ProfitableVenture

Intellectual Property Management Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » B2B Sector

Are you about starting an intellectual property management business? If YES, here’s a complete sample intellectual property management business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE.

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting an intellectual property management business. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample intellectual property management marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for intellectual property management businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Starting a business is such a wonderful experience even though it can be challenging and demanding. The truth remains that having a product or service is one sure way of earning income and perhaps becoming wealthy.

There are loads of businesses out there that an aspiring entrepreneur can start without going through business training from Harvard, and one of such businesses is an intellectual property management services business. If you intend starting an intellectual property management services business, it is very needful that you analyze the existing intellectual property management services agencies in and outside your area.

You would be required to check the existing competition, as well as know their strength and weaknesses. Knowing the weaknesses of the existing intellectual property management services agencies mean that you would be able to learn from their mistakes and in turn come up with a better and more preferred intellectual property management services agency devoid of the mistakes and weaknesses of others.

What is an Intellectual Property Management Business?

Intellectual property management agency services as the name implies is a company that helps corporations, businesses and individuals manage their assets such as patents, trademarks, brand names and franchise agreements for a licensing fee.

This kind of venture is such that needs the effort of more than one person and it is worthy to note that this business is a very lucrative in the united states of America and in most countries of the world.

If you have decided to start an intellectual property management services agency, then you should ensure that you carry out thorough feasibility studies and market survey. A business plan is yet another very important business document that you should not take for granted when launching your own intellectual property management services business.

Below is a sample intellectual property management services business plan template that can help you to successfully write your own with little or no difficulty.

A Sample Intellectual Property Management Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Businesses in the intellectual property management services industry help corporations, businesses and individuals manage their assets such as patents, trademarks, brand names and franchise agreements for a licensing fee which is paid to the asset holder.

Operators own the rights to the original assets but may not be the creators. It is important to state that franchise agreements that allow the use of a name contingent on the purchase of products from a franchisor are also excluded, as are copyright revenue inflows.

In the coming years, industry revenue is projected to continue to grow as stronger macro – economic conditions augur well for the Intellectual Property Licensing industry.

Experts noted that falling unemployment rates and improving consumer conditions will help boost consumer spending on a variety of items, while rising advertising expenditure will help encourage consumer purchases to tend toward brand names.

The Intellectual Property Licensing Industry is indeed a very large industry and pretty much thriving in all parts of the world especially in developed countries such as United States of America, Canada, united kingdom, Germany, Australia, Italy et al.

Statistics have it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 5,842 licensed and registered intellectual property management agencies responsible for employing about 37,022 employees and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $43 billion annually with an annual growth rate projected at 3.7 percent.

It is important to state that the establishment with a lion share of the available market in this industry is The Walt Disney Company.

A recent report published by IBISWorld shows that the Intellectual Property Licensing industry has undergone changes while recovering from the recession but has fared relatively well. The report further stated that the industry was left stagnant by weakened demand from key downstream markets.

Nevertheless, businesses across the United States began to reverse the trend of contracting corporate profit and were able to reinvest in research and development, as they were no longer forced to cut costs to preserve profit margins. The report also stated that the industry’s prospects have since increased as investments into brand names have improved with the overall economy.

Increases in consumer sentiment and per capita disposable income have led to higher levels of consumer spending, boosting demand for industry services.

Over and above, the intellectual property management cum licensing industry has become a major part of how business is conducted in the United States of America and all over the globe. It is now easier for organizations to expand their market from local level to national and even international markets via franchising agreement, trademarks, brand names, licensing and selling patent rights et al.

2. Executive Summary

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is a U.S based and world class intellectual property and licensing management services agency. We have been able to secure a standard and well – positioned office facility in a central business district in Cape May – New Jersey.

We are an intellectual property management and licensing services company that is set to compete in the highly competitive intellectual property licensing industry not only in the United States market, but also in the global market because our clientele base will not be restricted to just businesses and organizations in the United States.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. will offer robust intellectual property management and licensing services to both corporate organizations and individuals. We will offer services such as:

  • Assigning rights to intangible assets (including patents, trademarks and brand names, except copyrighted works), assigning rights to franchise agreements (where a royalty payment or licensing fee is paid to the asset holder)
  • Selling or licensing
  • Music licensing to radio stations
  • Patent purchasing and licensing
  • Patent leasing
  • Performance rights
  • Publishing and licensing of assets and other related consulting and advisory services.

Our business goal is to become one of the leading intellectual property management and licensing services companies in the United States of America with high profile corporate and individual clients scattered all around the world.

Our workers are going to be selected from a pool of talented and highly creative experts in and around New Jersey and also from any part of the world as the business grows. We will make sure that we take all the members of our workforce through the required training that will help position them to meet the expectations of the company and to compete with leading intellectual property management and licensing companies in the United States and throughout the globe.

At Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc., our client’s best interest will always come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely. We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human and sustainable approach to earning a living.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is founded by Rex Wilberforce and his friend and business partner for many years, Fernand Mendez. They both graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology with a BSc in Business Administration and they have a combined experience that revolves around intellectual property management, licensing and business management.

3. Our Products and Services

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Intellectual Property Licensing industry. We want to compete favorably with leading intellectual property management and licensing companies in the United States of America and the world which is why we have put in place a competent team that will ensure that we meet and even surpass our customers’ expectations.

We will work hard to ensure that Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. do not just work for clients in the United States of America, but also for clients in other parts of the world. We are in this line of business to make profits, and we will ensure that we do all that is allowed by the law of the United States of America to achieve our business goals and objectives.

Our products and services are listed below;

  • Assigning rights to intangible assets (including patents, trademarks and brand names, except copyrighted works)
  • Assigning rights to franchise agreements (where a royalty payment or licensing fee is paid to the asset holder)
  • Franchises, selling or licensing
  • Performance rights, publishing and licensing of assets
  • Other related intellectual property management and licensing advisory and consulting services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

  • Our vision is to establish a standard and world class intellectual property management and licensing services company whose services and brand will not only be accepted in the United States of America, but also in other parts of the world.
  • Our mission is to provide professional and highly creative result oriented intellectual property management and licensing services and other related advisory and consulting services that will assist businesses, individuals and corporate organizations in promoting their brands and reaching out to a wide range of potential business partners and customers all over the globe. We want to build an intellectual property and licensing management services company that can favorably compete with other leading brands in the intellectual property licensing industry.

Our Business Structure

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc., is an intellectual property management and licensing services company that intends starting small in Cape May – New Jersey, but hope to grow big in order to compete favorably with leading intellectual property management and licensing companies in the industry both in the United States and on a global stage.

We are aware of the importance of building a solid business structure that can support the picture of the kind of world class business we want to own. This is why we are committed to only hire the best hands within our area of operation.

At Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc., we will ensure that we hire people that are qualified, hardworking, creative, result driven, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stakeholders (the owners, workforce, and customers) in the business.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our senior management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of five years or more as agreed by the board of trustees of the company. In view of the above, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Creative Director

Intellectual Property Management and Licensing Specialist

Human Resources and Admin Manager

  • Sales and Marketing Executive

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

  • Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities
  • Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
  • Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
  • Responsible for providing direction for the business
  • Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
  • Evaluates the success of the organization

Creative Director:

  • Serves as project manager for the organization; works directly with employees
  • Responsible for designing concepts and winning business proposals for the organization
  • In charge of copy writing and laying out chronological advertisement plans
  • Develops strategic plan by studying technological, and financial opportunities; presenting assumptions; recommending objectives
  • Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections
  • Coordinates efforts by establishing procurement, production, marketing, field, and technical services policies and practices; coordinating actions with corporate staff
  • Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices
  • Maintains quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards
  • Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies
  • Makes certain that operations and marketing department perform efficiently, coordinate employee efforts, and facilitate communications between management and employees
  • Ensures that the organization work in line with international best practices
  • Responsible for handling core services such as assigning rights to intangible assets (including patents, trademarks and brand names, except copyrighted works), assigning rights to franchise agreements (where a royalty payment or licensing fee is paid to the asset holder), franchises, selling or licensing, music licensing to radio stations, patent purchasing and licensing, patent leasing, performance rights, publishing and licensing of assets and other related consulting and advisory services
  • Handles other related intellectual property management and licensing advisory and consulting services
  • Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
  • Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations
  • Enhances department and organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments
  • Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
  • Carrying out staff induction for new team members
  • Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
  • Oversees the smooth running of the daily office

Sales and Marketing Manager

  • Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
  • Model demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
  • Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects
  • Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
  • Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
  • Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
  • Develop, execute and evaluate new plans for expanding sales
  • Create new markets cum businesses for the organization
  • Empower and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets

Accountant/Cashier:

  • Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
  • Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
  • Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis
  • Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting
  • Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
  • Responsible for administering payrolls
  • Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
  • Handles all financial transactions for the organization
  • Serves as internal auditor for the organization
  • Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person, online or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries
  • Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
  • Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
  • Manages administrative duties assigned by the creative director in an effective and timely manner
  • Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries

6. SWOT Analysis

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. do not intend to launch out with trial and error hence the need to conduct proper SWOT analysis. We know that if we get it right from the onset, we would have succeeded in creating the foundation that will help us build a standard intellectual property management and licensing services company that will favorably compete with leading intellectual property management and licensing service companies in the United States of America and in other parts of the world.

We are quite aware that there are several large, medium and small scale intellectual property management and licensing service companies all over the United States and even in the same location where we intend locating ours, which is why we are following due process of establishing the business.

We know that if proper SWOT analysis is conducted for our business, we will be able to position our business to maximize our strength, leverage on the opportunities that will be available to us, mitigate our risks and be well equipped to confront our threats.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. employed the services of an expert HR and Business Analyst with bias in the services industry to help us conduct a thorough SWOT analysis. Here is a summary of the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc.;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team of creative, result driven and highly proficient intellectual property management and licensing experts, a team with excellent qualifications and experience in various niche areas in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry and other related industries. Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected workforce, our services will be measurable, result driven and guided by best practices in the industry.

As a new intellectual property management and licensing services company in Cape May – New Jersey, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from top profile clients in the already saturated and highly competitive intellectual property management and licensing services industry; that is perhaps our major weakness. Another weakness is that we may not have the required cash to pump into promoting our business especially via main stream media (TV, Radio and Newspapers et al) the way we would want to.

  • Opportunities:

No doubt, the opportunities available in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry is massive considering the number of individuals and corporate organizations who are interested in the service offering of the intellectual property management and licensing services industry and who want to have active presence in the business world.

Also, higher corporate profit created resurgent demand for intellectual licensing agreements and other industry services, stronger consumer spending and company restructuring efforts resuscitated profit margins; and increased discretionary spending and marketing budgets will continue to open business opportunities for players in this industry.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing/spending power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of an intellectual property management and licensing services company in same location where our target market exists and who may want to adopt same Business model like us.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

  • Market Trends

No doubt, the Intellectual Property Licensing industry has undergone change while recovering from the recession but has fared relatively well. The industry was left stagnant by weakened demand from key downstream markets. Nevertheless, businesses across the United States began to reverse the trend of contracting corporate profit and were able to reinvest in research and development, as they were no longer forced to cut costs to preserve profit margins.

The industry’s prospects have since increased as investments into brand names have improved with the overall economy. Increases in consumer sentiment and per capita disposable income have led to higher levels of consumer spending, boosting demand for industry services.

Another important factor in this industry is that the target market keeps expanding, people and organizations are now seeing the need for them to engage experts to help them handle services such as assigning rights to intangible assets (including patents, trademarks and brand names, except copyrighted works), assigning rights to franchise agreements (where a royalty payment or licensing fee is paid to the asset holder), franchises, selling or licensing, music licensing to radio stations, patent purchasing and licensing, patent leasing, performance rights, publishing and licensing of assets and other related issues.

Another common trend in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry is that most intellectual property management and licensing services firms no longer settle for clients within the location where their physical office is located but also from any part of the world.

The truth is that with the advent of the internet, it is now easier for an intellectual property management and licensing services company to work for clients in any part of the world. An intellectual property management and licensing services company can be located in the United States of America and have their biggest client in india, Japan or in China, many thanks to the power of the internet which has brought the world closer to us.

Lastly, the intellectual property management and licensing services industry will continue to evolve due to the advancement of computer technology and software application designs and the need for business expansion via franchising and trademark sales et al.

8. Our Target Market

Before starting our intellectual property management and licensing services company, we are certain that there is a wide range of both corporate and individual clients who cannot successfully run their businesses without the services and support of a standard intellectual property management and licensing services company; a company that can help them protect their intellectual property and also reach out to their target market via the sale of franchise, brand names and trademarks.

In view of that, we have created strategies that will enable us reach out to various corporate organizations, non – profits, government agencies and individuals who we know can’t afford to do without our services. We have conducted our market research and survey and we will ensure that we meet and surpass the expectations of our clients

Below is a list of people and organizations that we will specifically market our services to;

  • Banks, Insurance Companies and other related Financial Institutions
  • Blue Chips Companies
  • Corporate Organizations
  • Manufacturers and Distributors
  • Software Developers
  • Research and Development Companies
  • The Government (Public Sector)
  • Schools (High Schools, Colleges and Universities)
  • Celebrities, Politicians, Public Figures and Public Speakers
  • Sport Organizations
  • Religious Organizations
  • Political Parties
  • Television and Radio Stations
  • Printing Press (Publishing Houses) and Authors
  • Branding and Advertising agencies
  • Musicians and Music Producers
  • Entrepreneurs and Start – Ups

Our competitive advantage

Surviving in the business world as an intellectual property management and licensing services company requires more than your expertise and knowing how to conduct your business but also how to network with key people that matters; decision makers that can decide who will get a contract or a business deal.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry means that you are not only expected to be able to deliver consistent and excellent services, but you must be result driven and able to meet set targets. No one would want to continue to hire your services if don’t always meet up with the target sales the organization intends to generate when they hired you.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (startups intellectual property management and licensing services companies in the United States) in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

  • Sources of Income

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to meet and surpass the expectations of all our clients.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be corporate organizations, government agencies, businesses and individuals who would need the services of intellectual property management and licensing services companies to help them protect their intellectual properties and also increase sales or promote their brands via the sale of franchise, brand name and trademarks.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six months of operation and grow our business to enviable heights.

We have been able to critically examine the intellectual property management and licensing services market space, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projections are based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in Cape May – New Jersey.

Below are the sales projections for Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of our services;

  • First Fiscal Year-: $300,000
  • Second Fiscal Year-: $700,000
  • Third Fiscal Year-: $1 million

N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same digital marketing services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

  • Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there are stiff competitions in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry, hence we have been able to hire some of the best marketing experts to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the intellectual property management and licensing services industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall business goal of Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc.

Our corporate goal is to grow Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. to become one of the leading intellectual property management and licensing services brands in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the world.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

  • Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to individuals, corporate organizations, government agencies, music producers, inventors, software developers, religious organizations and other key stakeholders
  • Advertise our business in relevant business magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations
  • List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
  • Attend relevant international and local expos, seminars and business fairs et al
  • Create different packages for different categories of clients in order to work with their budgets and still deliver excellent services
  • Leverage on the internet to promote our business
  • Engage direct marketing approach
  • Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our in house publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us work our way into the heart of our target market. We are set to become the number one choice for both corporate and individual clients in the whole of the United States and beyond which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our intellectual property management and licensing services company.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc.;

  • Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
  • Sponsor relevant community based events/programs
  • Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
  • Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around Cape May – New Jersey
  • Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
  • Contact corporate organizations, inventors, software apps developers and government agencies by calling them up and informing them of Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. and the services we offer
  • List our company in local directories/yellow pages
  • Advertise our services in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site
  • Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. we will keep the prices of our services below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services.

In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals. We are aware that there are one-off jobs or government contracts which are always lucrative; we will ensure that we abide by the pricing model that is expected from contractors or organizations that bid for such contracts.

  • Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. will make available to her clients;

  • Payment via bank transfer
  • Payment with cash
  • Payment via online bank transfer
  • Payment via check
  • Payment via Point of Sale Machines (POS Machines)
  • Payment via mobile money transfer
  • Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our clients make payment for our services without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials to clients who may want to deposit cash or make online transfer for our services.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up capital can either be low or high depending on your goals, vision and aspirations for your business.

The materials and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any differences in price would be minimal and can be overlooked. The detailed cost analysis for starting an intellectual property management and licensing services company might differ in other countries due to the value of their money.

This is what it would cost us to setup Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. in the United of America;

  • Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750
  • The budget for liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
  • Acquiring an office space or warehouse that will accommodate employees for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $150,000
  • Equipping the office (computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers/internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
  • Amount required to purchase the needed software applications – $3,500
  • Launching an official Website will cost – $500
  • Amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
  • Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
  • Miscellaneous – $5000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about two hundred and fifty thousand ( 250,000 ) U.S. dollars to successfully setup a medium scale but standard intellectual property management and licensing office in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup Capital for   Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is a business that will be owned, financed and managed by Rex Wilberforce and his friend and business partner Fernand Mendez. They are the sole financiers of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start-up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start-up capital;

  • From personal savings and sale of his stocks
  • From friends and other extended family members
  • Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility)

N.B:  We have been able to generate about $100,000 ( Personal savings $85,000 and soft loan from family members $15,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $150,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and their business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our intellectual property management and licensing services and other related advisory and consulting services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Business Solutions® Intellectual Property Management Company, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights, and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

We know that if all these are put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry, and they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

  • Business Name Availability Check: Completed
  • Business Incorporation: Completed
  • Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts in various banks in the United States: Completed
  • Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
  • Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
  • Securing a standard office facility in a good location: Completed
  • Application for business license and permit: Completed
  • Purchase of All forms of Insurance for the Business: Completed
  • Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
  • Generating part of the start-up capital from the founders: Completed
  • Writing of Business Plan: Completed
  • Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
  • Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
  • Design of Logo for the business: Completed
  • Secure trademark for our services: In Progress
  • Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging, Marketing/Promotional Materials: Completed
  • Recruitment of employees: In Progress
  • Purchase of the Needed furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
  • Creating Official Website for the business: In Progress
  • Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
  • Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
  • Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress

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Connecticut Small Business Development Center

Webinar: free resources to protect your intellectual property.

intellectual property for business plan

Live webinar event: February 29, 2024, 11 AM

There are many things to protect in your small business, from your cash to how you use your time. However, small business owners often ignore the potential of intellectual property as an asset to protect their business. Join us and a representative from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) to learn the basics of patents and trademarks, as well as low-cost or free resources that may be available to you to help you protect your business’s intellectual property.

Learning Objectives:

What is a Patent? What kinds of things can I patent? What is a Trademark? What kinds of things can I trademark? Available tools & resources to help you with your intellectual property needs. This webinar is offered in partnership with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Free to attend. Advance registration is required. If someone referred you to attend, please let us know in the “Referral From” section so we can thank them for helping us connect!

Register here

IMAGES

  1. Intellectual Property Business Plan Template

    intellectual property for business plan

  2. Fact Sheet Intellectual property and business plans

    intellectual property for business plan

  3. Steps For Building Intellectual Property Strategy Framework

    intellectual property for business plan

  4. Free Intellectual Property Agreement Sample

    intellectual property for business plan

  5. Business Intellectual Property Strategy And Management Life Cycle

    intellectual property for business plan

  6. What Is Intellectual Property Management? Why It Matters

    intellectual property for business plan

VIDEO

  1. Creatively stealing business ideas

  2. Level Up Your Brand: Intellectual Property & Branding Planning for 2024

  3. Understanding intellectual property and business assets

  4. Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation Procurement

  5. eCommerce Intellectual Property & M&A 101

  6. Small business owner explains how nonprofit helped him start his business

COMMENTS

  1. A Business Guide to Intellectual Property

    Intellectual property (IP) is a key driver of economic growth and innovation in business. In an increasingly competitive and crowded market, intellectual property protections offer incentives to keep pushing for new advances.

  2. Intellectual Property Business: Everything You Need to Know

    Intellectual property is a means by which you own your business identity, technology, works of authorship, logo, slogans, trade dress, and any other practical expression of the ideas that drive your business forward. Intellectual property is vital to all levels of your business.

  3. Why Intellectual Property is Essential for your Business

    Why Intellectual Property is Essential for your Business A well-crafted intellectual property strategy can help maximize the potential of your business. Using and understanding the IP rights, you can: • secure competitive advantages • generate revenue streams • reduce tax liability • serve as a source of competitive intelligence

  4. Intellectual Property: Why It's Important To Your Business

    Intellectual property (IP) is a legal term that covers a range of aspects of a business. IP can be something physical, or it can be intangible concepts that you've created. It's essentially the elements of your venture that have been designed or developed, that make the business you own unique.

  5. A step-by-step IP Strategy Checklist for SMEs

    Along with having a business plan, every innovative company should have an intellectual property (IP) strategy. Developing an IP strategy is not a one-time event. An IP strategy will evolve with a company's business goals and should be reviewed regularly. What is an IP strategy

  6. Intellectual Property For Small Businesses: What Every SMB ...

    getty. As a small business, the intellectual property (IP) you create is your competitive advantage. Protecting that property early can be the difference between the success and failure of your ...

  7. PDF I. Practical Ip Issues in Developing a Business Plan

    Why integrate intellectual property in a business plan? 2. To attract investors and convince financial institutions, public sector start-up service providers and/or potential business partners of the solidity of the project in order to obtain funds a business plan should reveal the coherence of the business idea.

  8. How to develop a successful intellectual property strategy for your

    Simply put, an intellectual property strategy is a plan, made to align with the company's business objectives, in order to protect its intellectual property assets and maximize the commercial benefits from such assets.

  9. Intellectual Property Explained—Trademark, Patent, & Copyright

    In the simplest terms, intellectual property (IP) pertains to things you create with your mind; not the ideas themselves, but the expression of the ideas. Names, designs, logos, automated processes, software, books, articles, music, etc., are all potential IPs. For a business, IP is an asset.

  10. PDF Fact Sheet Intellectual property and business plans

    business plan is a strategic document providing details on how a given innovation is going to be commercialised and brought to the market by an existing company or a newly created venture. The document typically describes the entire path to the market and provides details on the following issues:

  11. Intellectual Property Issues: Valuing IP in Your Business

    Intellectual Property Issues: Valuing Intellectual Property in Your Business. Written by Dave Lavinsky. Most companies that are worthy of raising venture capital have proprietary Intellectual Property (IP). In fact, the quality of the IP and the management team are often the two most important aspects of a venture capitalist's investment ...

  12. Intellectual property strategy

    An IP strategy is simply a plan—consistent with the company's business goals—to acquire IP assets and leverage the most value from existing IP assets. The definition of value is assessed in the context of the business goals.

  13. How to Protect Your IP as a Startup

    Intellectual property (IP) is an invention or creation of the mind, like artwork, symbols, designs, and more. In business, IP might look like company or product names, slogans, logos, and even unique brand colors. As a business owner, it's essential to protect any IP you may have so you can maintain your unique brand identity.

  14. PDF Strategic Management of Intellectual Property

    on firm strategy, the competitive landscape, and the rapidly changing contours of intellectual property law. (Keywords: Intellectual Property, Innovation Management, Strategic Management, Knowledge Management, Legal Aspects of Business, Licensing) W hen Pfizer acquired Pharmacia for $60 billion in 2003, the company booked $31 billion in ...

  15. Intellectual Property and the Business Plan

    Intellectual property is important for many businesses, but it is crucial for those that sell products or services based on the IP created by the company. The business plan for creating a sustainable revenue stream may depend heavily on the IP, and employees and management must know how to handle these items properly.

  16. PDF Enterprising Ideas: A Guide to Intellectual Property for Startups

    Intellectual Property for Business Series Number 6. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The user is allowed to reproduce, distribute, adapt, translate ... Business model vs. business plan 14 Protecting your innovation 16 Obtaining patent rights 17 Ensuring trade secrets are protected 20

  17. How To Protect Intellectual Property

    Your intellectual property includes the intangible assets you create for your business, such as names, designs, and automated processes. And just like tangible possessions — such as supplies, equipment, buildings, and inventory — your intellectual property contributes to the value and success of your business.

  18. Intellectual Property (IP) strategy is a business strategy

    The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in collaboration with the Arizona Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, will provide a brief overview of the four major types of IP and discuss why innovators and entrepreneurs should consider them in their business plan. Topics include: Overview of intellectual property types ...

  19. Intellectual property

    Intellectual property (IP) is the property of your mind or exclusive knowledge. If you develop a new product, service, process or idea it belongs to you and is considered your IP. IP rights provide IP owners with the time and opportunity to commercialise their creations. Types of IP rights

  20. Sample Intellectual Property Management Business Plan

    Intellectual property can be divided into four major categories; trademarks & design rights, patents & utility models, trade secrets, and copyrights. Now for many entrepreneurs, a crucial decision will have to be made about where to focus on. Of course, you should go for or choose a field you're most competent in.

  21. How to protect and structure an Intellectual Property Business

    A number of business groups elect to set up a vehicle to hold their intellectual property assets - an IP Holding Company. Using an IP holding to hold, administer and commercialize IP rights by licensing them to related companies or third parties may provide a number of benefits, and not doing so, may potentially lead to certain issues.

  22. PDF Model Intellectual-Property Guidelines for Business

    Overview. These Model Intellectual-Property Guidelines are designed to help busi-nesses implement practical internal policies to improve protection of their own intellec-tual property (IP) and that of others, and to increase compliance with IP laws, so as to reduce the business risks associated with counterfeiting and piracy.

  23. How IP laws can be reimagined to stimulate innovation

    IP laws need to adapt to protect multi-generational and collective knowledge, and need to move away from prioritizing norms such as individual rights and commercialization. By placing the focus of IP laws on diversity and innovation, we can incentivise collaboration, reward innovation, and offer more equitable opportunities for creators.

  24. Intellectual Property Management Business Plan [Sample Template]

    1. Industry Overview Businesses in the intellectual property management services industry help corporations, businesses and individuals manage their assets such as patents, trademarks, brand names and franchise agreements for a licensing fee which is paid to the asset holder.

  25. Webinar: Free Resources to Protect Your Intellectual Property

    Live webinar event: February 29, 2024, 11 AM. There are many things to protect in your small business, from your cash to how you use your time. However, small business owners often ignore the potential of intellectual property as an asset to protect their business. Join us and a representative from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) to ...