When a company’s management can explain to its employees, in concrete, well-supported, financial terms, why the company has elected to pursue its chosen IP-related goals, those employees are more likely to understand their role in fulfilling those goals, to align their efforts with the company’s objectives, and to go above and beyond in helping the company succeed.
The foundation for your company’s IP-related goals is its strategic IP plan. Strategizing generally involves:
- Evaluating the current situation,
- Defining an ideal future, and
- Planning or mapping a possible route to that future.
In the IP context, strategizing starts with your company’s top management thoroughly understanding and embracing the fact that IP is absolutely essential to the long-term well-being of the company. Thus, its innovation process and intellectual assets should be managed accordingly to ensure the company’s prosperity.
That is, your company must own the IP to own the profits. Once top management is firmly on-board with this fundamental concept, it is truly ready to engage in high level IP strategizing.
Your company’s strategic IP plan not only should fit well with your company’s overall business strategies, but also should align with and reflect all your company’s directional statements, including its mission, vision, and core values.
When prepared thoughtfully, your company’s strategic IP plan might answer questions such as:
- Does your company want to be a provider of goods/services, a licensor of its IP, or both?
- Is your company willing to license its core IP to competitors, thereby earning money while raising competitors’ costs and spurring your company to continue innovating?
- Is your company agreeable to buying or licensing IP it needs but did not create internally?
- Has your company aligned sufficient financial backing to deter infringers?
The answers to these challenging questions will have a profound impact on what your company does, how it’s organized, and who it employs. And again, since your employees will play a big part in implementing your strategic IP plan, it is vital that they clearly understand it.