Intellectual Asset Management means different things to different people.  To some, it means management of the mechanics of patent prosecution and maintenance. Others regard it as a chore associated either with helping to justify corporate R&D expenditure or the need to be seen to limit a perceived “black hole” of costs associated with registrable intellectual property. In some cases it is regarded solely as a means to produce impediments to competitors.  It is often delegated as an extra responsibility to an in-house individual whose lack of experience and existing workload make them ill-equipped to undertake it.

Effective intellectual asset management is much more than this; it can (and should) be closely aligned with a company’s commercial objectives, and be a vital part of a company’s business strategy. The effective intellectual asset manager will view a company’s intellectual assets not as pure costs but as potential income generators.

Any improvement generated by development activity can add value, whether it is patentable or not. Effective intellectual asset management will ensure that commercially valuable knowledge (“know-how”) is properly documented as an organisational resource, for either commercialisation (as part of a licensing transaction, for example) or as an effective way of preserving experience and/or expertise in the event that a key member of staff is lost.

Other frequently overlooked forms of intellectual asset (design rights, database rights, copyrights etc) can also contribute to the value of a company and the achievement of its commercial objectives, and an experienced professional intellectual asset manager will seek to deploy as many of them as possible to strengthen a company’s IP position.

If an advance is patentable, good intellectual asset management will ensure that patent filing strategy is optimised for cost-effective support of a company’s business objectives, both current and planned. Frequently, patentable advances made in the course of R&D activity will have more than one application, and as a consequence will be relevant to more than one market. A good intellectual asset manager will ensure that the associated patent protects all potential applications, and is structured to facilitate generation of additional revenue through licensing commercial activity outside the company’s “core” business.