5 ways to analyse your product or service IP Strategy (post 4 of 5 on Strategic IP Reviews)
It’s about leverage. It’s that simple.
A specific IP Strategy for each of your products or services will multiply your return on investment many times over.
Here are 5 simple tips to keep in mind when doing the product / service IP Strategy element of your Strategic Review. What would you add?
1 – Start small, do something credible and measurable and build from there. Do it in a way that doesn’t close the door on future opportunities, but instead opens new ones.
2 – Think carefully about where the market is going and why – make sure you take your technology there, and first. Build your intellectual property strategy around this future direction.
3 – The changes you make have to fit seamlessly into your current internal processes, be they innovation, product development, marketing or whatever. The minute that IP adds just that little bit too much grit into the system, is the minute you have provided another incentive for the business to ignore it. Another good reason to start small.
4 – Be creative. You’re not here to follow what everyone else does.
5 – Think around the product or service and all of the other aspects you should add to intertwine with your IP elements. Government approvals and regulation, marketing, sales feedback, technology development, geographic issues, etc. etc
[Photo credit: macca]
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One way to efficiently use these tools is to focus them on a product/service level and from there develop strategies that you can act upon to create greater value and minimize risk on a product by product basis.
Focusing on IP can help you in many instances in product or service development, starting from the more common ones like: choosing expansion options in different market (IP licensing, registration, filling, etc.), supporting branding efforts (trademark management, copyright policies, etc.) and continuing to more complex option such as: broadening or expanding the scope of your monopoly, identifying new adjacent market opportunities, other.
So how much effort and time do you need to dedicate for a product/service IP strategy? In essence it is an issue of understanding and focus. If you already have considered IP at corporate level then it becomes more an issue of focusing your efforts in a productive manner. If the tools and the expertise are not already within your company then it is a matter of creating a basic understanding of product specific IP strategic options (together with their implications in their implications) and reaching out for expert advice.
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