By Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canadian Ocean Supercluster.
At school many years ago, I learned about the value of intellectual property (IP) as an intangible asset. This learning has become increasingly relevant to improve my understanding and complement the daily work I do funding collaborative technology projects. This involves identifying the background intellectual property brought to the project, the front-end intellectual property to be generated and how it will be shared as well as potential licensing opportunities. We also educate our members about intellectual property considerations in the ocean economy and have hosted several training sessions over the past few years.
Intellectual property is increasingly important to businesses, but it is difficult to understand and value. Intellectual property strategy is a topic for board discussion, and if it is not well understood by the board, education is important.
As I’ve deepened my knowledge of intellectual property, here are four things I’ve learned.
1. Many companies focus on trade secrets.
Trade secrets do not require complex patent filings and associated costs and are left up to the company to protect them. The challenge for companies is that they often do not take the time to properly define the trade secret: is it the product, the process, the data, or the unique approach to bringing the product to market and creating distribution channels ?
Unfortunately, without an adequate definition of trade secrets, they become difficult to protect. Have you taken reasonable steps to keep the information secret? Have your employees signed the appropriate non-disclosure agreements? Is access to trade secrets limited in your organization? Do your employees understand what your trade secrets are? Is your trade secret easily reproducible and difficult to define if an employee leaves? Do you understand the commercial value of your trade secrets if sold?
2. Ownership becomes more complex.
Although technological advancements have always raised questions regarding ownership of intellectual property, this appears to be accelerating and becoming more complex.
Who owns the design when you use a 3D printer, and what happens when you adjust it slightly? Have you properly compensated content creators or source code creators if you use their data to power your artificial intelligence algorithm? How do you identify and credit the sources natural language processors use to answer your question? Do employees use your data in third-party systems like ChatGPT that retain ownership of all information or data entered in queries and prompts?
As a business, being able to answer these questions is important to understand your risks before launching new technology and to be able to protect your own creation. Source code is protected by copyright; products and processes can be protected by patents.
Performing analysis and understanding the risks and how you will mitigate them if challenged is a strategic priority for your business, and this must be understood by both management and the board of directors. A process should also be in place to monitor any changes to legislation and regulations that may impact the organization’s intellectual property strategy.
3. The law changes from country to country.
Although technology can more easily cross international borders than equipment, intellectual property law applies per country.
In the ocean economy, for example, companies generally do not focus only on their domestic market. It is therefore important to think about the other countries you are targeting in your go-to-market strategy. Is there a partner you could consider working with? If you file a patent in one country, should you immediately consider filing in other jurisdictions as well, and are there any timing considerations to take into account? Have you done a full research before launching into a new market to ensure that you are not infringing on any third-party patents already in place?
4. Brands matter.
Companies don’t always pay much attention to registered or unregistered trademarks. But given the importance of branding, it is extremely important to develop a strategy around your brand – particularly linked to your international marketing strategy, as outlined in the third point – in order to reduce the risk that you will have to modify your brand as you grow. grow your business.
I learned that brands are essential to building trust between you, your customers, your investors and your suppliers. A clear, differentiated and easily recognizable brand gives your customers confidence in the quality of the product or service they are purchasing and can be a key asset in your growth strategy.
These are just a few considerations when thinking about intellectual property. Although many companies have sophisticated intellectual property strategies, many others do not see the point in spending time or money thinking about the complexities of intellectual property while they focus on developing of their business.
As with anything else in your business, from financing to supply chain to human resources, it is essential to properly plan your intellectual property strategy and understand what assets you are building, which ones need to be protected and the assets you might need to license to achieve your desired outcome. is part of your overall business strategy. Are your board and management spending sufficient time understanding and managing the value and risks of intellectual property? If not, now is the time to have the conversation.
The information provided here does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to replace the advice of an attorney on any specific matter. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney regarding your specific situation.
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