What marketing should know about IP

IP is a source of great value for our organisation – keep in touch with the IP function.

Messages around IP successes can really leverage our success in the market.  You have to be very careful about what you say to the world, but when you get it right, you can sing it from the rooftops…

Having said that, messages around IP enforcement successes have to be very carefully managed – we don’t want to come across as a bully, but we naturally need to protect our rights and the rewards for all of our hard work.

Oh and the one you were waiting for – check with the IP function before communicating positive or negative data, including comparative data against a competitor product, to the marketplace. Positive data could be a basis for a patentable invention; negative data may need to be communicated to the patent office (e.g. USPTO to avoid inequitable conduct issues).

What would you add?

[Image credit: third uncle]