Admittedly, the subject of intellectual property can be rather arcane and difficult for a non-specialist to embrace with earnest. This no doubt results in many corporate managers resisting development of engaged knowledge of their company’s intellectual assets. However, failure to develop engagement with their company’s intellectual property strategy is self-defeating: continued resistance will result in corporate value left on the table and the company falling further behind in realizing its intellectual asset.
Fortunately, it is not as hard as it may at first seem to develop engaged knowledge of your company’s intellectual assets. Just as a business professional need not become an expert in environmental science and policy to participate in his company’s sustainability strategy, one does not need to become a legal expert to develop engaged knowledge of their intellectual property strategy. For example, engaged knowledge does not require you to be able to recite with specificity the number of patents pending and what products or technology are covered by your company’s patents. Such tactical knowledge properly rests with your organization’s intellectual property specialists. Instead, engaged knowledge of your company’s intellectual assets requires you to have a strategic understanding of where your company stands today with respect to its intellectual property, as well as the strategic efforts your organization plans to undertake the intellectual property realm.
When you develop such engaged knowledge of your organization’s intellectual assets your company will improve the probability that your short and long term business strategies will pay off and your company’s financial objectives will be achieved. In short, you will more likely capture your company’s intellectual asset value and stop leaving this money on the table.
I agree that most of the value of the average corporation today is intangible. But just focusing on the IP is missing the point. Knowledge assets exist in an ecosystem. By this I mean that the value of a patent to a company is dependent on the team of people that work to leverage it, the processes that help produce value from it, and the network that either helps build or buys the value. It’s important to protect your rights and focus on IP. But the value will come from leveraging IP in that ecosystem.