Advice for Optimizing Your Corporate IP Strategy

It is almost indisputable that a sound intellectual property (IP) strategy, and effective execution of such a strategy, are essential ingredients of a technology company’s road to success. An IP strategy is an action plan with principal objectives of (a) protecting company IP and leveraging it for economic benefit—an offensive component of the strategy, and (b) navigating the minefield of third-party IP rights—a defensive component of the strategy.

Some corporate IP strategies may seem sound in theory, but in practice they are (a) selectively or inconsistently applied within or across projects, (b) incompatible with how teams actually work, (c) relatively narrow in how they perceive innovation, and (d) distracting to innovators and IP practitioners while consuming enormous resources. Ultimately, the return on IP investment of such strategies may be questionable.

Enterprises that periodically take a step back to reflect on their current IP strategies, and recalibrate them if appropriate, are likely to derive the greatest possible value from IP.

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