How to Develop an IA/IP Strategy Successfully

Intangible Assets (IA) and Intellectual Property (IP) are a huge part of many modern businesses today. Therefore, managing IP/IA with a robust strategy is key in optimising overall business value. Though keeping track of IP rights or competition in the world of IA might sound daunting, knowing how to develop an IA/IP strategy is simple if you know your business.

We break down some simple steps for developing an IA/IP strategy to get you on track for achieving your business goals.

Holistic Integration of Intangibles

The best place to start when developing an IA/IP strategy is knowing your overall business goals. An IP/IA strategy should be reflective of the wider business, and its relative strengths and weaknesses.

The strategy should be crafted in line with your business objectives:

·       Is it growing?

·       Is it wanting to develop or launch new products?

·       Is it going to enter a new market?

·       Is it wanting to achieve a premium price?

·       Does it need to reduce production costs?

The strategy should also account for the different political, economic, social, technological, and legal environments in which the business operates. For example, when managing IA for an eco-conscious company, one should be knowledgeable in the most recent science surrounding the environment. Learn about the newest technology, customer trends determining how green-led products are valued and specific areas of risk arising as a result. For the eco-conscious business space, ensuring business practices are in alignment with green branding is key in mitigating PR and reputational risk.

Maintaining a broad view of your business when strategizing for IA and IP allows for streamlined integration, reflecting its importance within the wider business.

Scope Out the Competition

Getting a gauge of the competitive market allows insight into where your business sits within the market. Market knowledge can help you develop ideas around your IA/IP strategy, allowing you to keep up or even outreach your competition.  Conducting regular trade mark searches for new brands filed in competitors’ names might give you early warning of a new product launch, or geographic expansion, for example.  Likewise, competitive patent searching can be used to get a sense of competitors’ R&D pipelines, and new directions and even identify valuable staff to get on board.

Scoping out the competition allows you to keep on top of trends, but only if your own R&D is an ongoing activity. Part of the IA strategy will be determining whether future R&D can, or should, be conducted in-house or whether it can be achieved through contract research or collaboration.  Ensuring a programme of ongoing R&D in line with commercial strategies and objectives will ensure your business sits ahead of the curve, to ensure its enterprise value increases and can be sustained over time.

Tailor Your Strategy to Your Assets

Knowing how to utilise your assets is of utmost importance for developing a successful IA/IP strategy.

Do an IA audit to ensure you know your assets inside and out. Businesses need to know:

·       When and how were the assets created?

·       How are they currently utilised within the business?

·       Where else might they be deployed?

·       Is there any formal IP protection in place?

·       What is their useful economic life?

·       Are there any contractual relationships concerning them?

·       Are there any known risks to their value?

With a good grasp of your IP/IA, you can be proactive in your strategic approach. Stay ahead of the game by effectively managing IP rights and tactics; this will help your business maintain a competitive advantage over the competition.   Don’t forget to address some of the “softer” forms of IA below.

Brands

Branding is an essential intangible that is often central to a successful business. Get a good grasp of how your market sees you, what your customers expect from you, and how you see your brand evolving. Ensure branding and rules for making decisions around what to protect (word mark, logo, tagline, colours, etc), where they are protected geographically and how they are protected (registered, common law, domain names, social tags) are spelled out in the IP/IA strategy.

Once you have a firm knowledge of your branding, you should have a clearer direction for managing brand-related IA/IP.  

Relationships

Relationships are often overlooked as intangible assets. However, creating and maintaining strong relationships can be make-or-break in getting your business to flourish or flounder.   

Get to know the people who matter. Whether that’s your fiercest competitor, most trusted supplier, VIP customer, or your heaviest investor, it pays to keep up good relationships, and trust. Building relationships means building reputation and pathways to achieving your business goals.  A great supplier can deliver cost savings and reduce supply chain risk whilst a long-standing customer delivers bankable revenue projections. Maintain relationships with follow-on investors to reduce the cost of capital. Even knowing a competitor could result in a great M&A target. 

Think strategically about how you build those relationships. Establish multiple points of trust in those organisations, so your relationship equity doesn’t vanish with one resignation.  

Licensing

Licensing is a business model that allows you to extract more value from your IP.  Authorise others to use IP in return for royalty income, from patents to trademarks, copyright in software, or any combination of these.

Royalties are a form of passive recurring revenue that goes straight to the bottom line.  Understanding which of your IP assets you could make available for licensing, to whom, in what territories and/or what particular fields of use, is a necessary exercise for creating an IA strategy that will build enterprise value.

For any existing licences in place, these assets must be monitored to ensure they continue to deliver value to the business. Good questions to ask are: 

·       When is the term ending?

·       Are there renewals?

·       What reports and other information should you be getting?

·       Should you be conducting a royalty audit?

·       What obligations do you have in the relationship?

·       How can you build and grow the relationship? 

If you want advice in developing your IA/IP strategy, Innovation Liberation Front Can Help

Managing IA and implementing a strategy can mean a sustainable competitive advantage for your business. At Innovation Liberation Front, we are dedicated to helping you understand how intangibles can become your strongest asset.

Get in touch today to talk to our professional team and get expert advice on developing an IA/IP strategy that makes your business goals business achievements.