IP Philosophy for corporate, IP Strategy for Business Units

Can you really have a cohesive IP Strategy at the corporate level?

I don’t think so.

Unless of course they are one and the same thing.  (Small companies with effectively one business unit obviously have the same IP Strategy for both.)

Otherwise, each business unit needs its own defined IP Strategy – focused on the strategy and its execution required to meet its specific goals.  As soon as you start building a corporate IP Strategy over the top, you pretty quickly end up with vague platitudes about maximising return from IP, optimising freedom to operate and so on.

What is useful at the corporate level, is to clearly set out the company’s approach and philosophy where possible.  So for example, anything that is completely taboo (some companies will never litigate), can be spelt out here.  Similarly, anything that must always be kept in mind (eg. the IP corollaries of the company’s guiding principles) can also be recorded here.

The IP Philosophy document then serves as a guide to business units along with their overall objectives and business strategy when setting their individual IP strategies.

What have you found that works on this front?

[image credit: h.koppdelaney]