Whatever you do, don’t just do an IP Audit.

The list of patents and trademarks that your company has is useful, but pretty simplistic in the overall scheme of things.  There is so much more that you need to think about.

You need to get together with the people who manage issues which relate to IP in their day to day jobs.  If there are too many of them, then go up the chain of command first, and come back down again later for details.  Get them all in a room together, if you can – it’s amazing what you can learn when they don’t agree.  If there are still too many for a single meeting, then break it up, but make sure it is multi-functional.

Work through the key IP issues relating to your company’s context, and make copious notes.  Look behind the scenes at what is really being said, and not said, and note down reactions and nuances to follow up later.

From this you will have a long list of things that need to be addressed – your list of IP Action points.

Now to prioritise them, that’s the next post…

[Image credit: romanlily]