The Challenge
In 2022 we were approached by one of the R&D team after an IP presentation to help a well-known Chemical company introduce Intellectual property best practices into the business.
After some initial discussions it became clear they needed support around
- Education of key teams around the importance of the protection of IP. (especially R&D, marketing and procurement teams)
- Identification of their full portfolio of IP (there was no central list of all their IP assets)
- Better focus on what IP assets were important and what protection they needed
- A process for encouraging innovation and creation of new IP in the business alongside IP protection
- Assessment of infringement from competitors and action plans to manage this
The difficulty with this plan was that they were budget constrained and had no additional spending available to spend on IP. If the business were to achieve their five objectives, then we would have to find a way of delivering the changes without any cost impact.
One Stop IP Involvement
The business wanted to feel that One Stop IP would be a suitable partner and needed to create budget flexibility to fund the important elements.
In the first instance OneStopIP reviewed invoices for IP services. Initially looking at what had been expended in the previous 3 months and what costs were coming up in the next three months. It was important not to impact the close relationships with the IP attorneys used by the business but to assess where services were outsourced and if there was an opportunity for saving. What we found was that we could make a saving of 50% on the fees charged for recurring outsourced services and so we planned our programme of work to utilise the savings made.
Once we had created budget flexibility, we started by using our library of IP procedures from the IP handbook to provide a framework for operation and training in the business. Using a “train the trainer” approach.
We audited their IP portfolio and using our online portal included all the IP of the business in one place and for all the IP types and subsidiary businesses (Patents, Designs, Trademarks, domains, social media, licence contracts). In this process we demonstrated the IP portfolio was approximately 50% bigger than they had believed with a large amount of duplication and unused assets. From this we could “rank” the IP by value and importance and decide what needed to be kept, sold or lapsed. This assessment created more involvement by the teams around IP and stimulated discussion around infringements that had been noted by the teams but never acted upon by the business.
Outcomes
- Business teams understand relevance of IP and importance to the business
- IP processes of the business are now proactive rather than reactive
- IP is relevant for the business into the future not historic and a cost burden
- Business can afford to pinpoint and tackle infringements that has led to an increase in revenues
- 50% cost savings on non-value add outsource services funded approach development
Funding savings has meant the business has greater investment in relevant IP services and greater
