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There’s a lot of lip service given these days to ‘aligning IP with business goals’. Most times there’s no indication at all about how to do that or any of the practicalities. One practical matter that comes up time and again is around the goals themselves. Specific goals allow more room for compromise or pivots in the approach used to obtain what really matters. Putting it another way, an indirect strategy… Read More
Like many maturing companies, Facebook has been unwinding complexity from its business(1). What does this mean for the IP Strategy team? If you’ve built intellectual property strategies around products or services that are going to be shelved what do you do? Do you have a good understanding of the new strategy? Is there a new strategy? And if not, how can you optimize around a particular direction? If you’ve spent the time to map all… Read More
I received a great question at an IP strategy training course I taught. The question was about the difference between a strategy, a plan, and a process. It came about because while we expect on paper most people could match these three words to their appropriate definitions, in practice, they get confused. So to address the definitions in practice, I thought it might be fun to examine their purpose for their employer…. Read More
In my book Outpacing the Competition, I emphasize the importance of sales within the scope of an IP strategy. By sales, I mean the art of selling: prospecting, qualifying, presenting, overcoming objections, closing, and follow up. This, of course, is how IP ultimately realizes value. Somebody by some means needs to sell something, either the IP itself or a solution derived from that IP. When I think of where companies leave the… Read More
Most organizations create a system whereby IP tasks are created, assigned, monitored and enforced. IP responsibility is vague and it needs to be deduced into number of tasks of definite nature. Sometimes IP tasks do not adequately cover an underlying IP responsibility whereas in other cases IP responsibilities go unrecognized. So one check point is to confirm if responsibility to task conversion is done appropriately. Unless this conversion is perfect, no responsibility… Read More
The following is an excerpt from a new paper of ours published in IAM Magazine… The capacity to make better decisions faster than competitors is the pinnacle of strategic IP performance advantages. This is true at all levels of competition, from individual attorneys in a courtroom to the creative teams of entire multi-billion dollar enterprises. Proficient and rapid decision-making can be the difference-maker when all else appears to favor the opposition. In… Read More
Throughout some of my recent discussion with different companies and indeed one of the reoccurring themes since I have a started studying and working in the IP field is how to guide the organization towards capturing IP value and how to effectively do this on an on-going basis. Most often an asset deemed to be “valuable IP” would fall into one or more of the following categories: assets required for the company… Read More
Here are three that should be near the top of your priorities. 1 – Listen & learn Before you commit to anything, make sure you have spent a lot of time understanding the context, the people and the real goals of the organization. These are not always the same as the stated goals… Armed with this, you are going to be much more effective. 2 – Build relationships An IP Strategy role… Read More
Smplfy if u can You’ll be surprised at the results. (The more fundamental the IP Strategy, the more likely it will work.)
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