A strong, proactive IP strategy is essential for businesses to protect their innovations, stay competitive, and drive growth. This includes fostering a culture of innovation, using the right IP protections (e.g., patents, trade secrets), and regularly reviewing your IP portfolio in alignment with business goals. As technology advances, updating your IP strategy ensures your company secures valuable assets and remains ahead of the curve.
As innovation continues to accelerate, companies need more than just great ideas; they need a proactive intellectual property (IP) strategy to secure their competitive edge. With the explosion of artificial intelligence and other transformative technologies, businesses face unprecedented opportunities and challenges in protecting their innovations. In this fast-moving landscape, an effective IP strategy is essential for navigating new risks and maximizing the value of cutting-edge advancements like AI.
Since launching the 2018 National IP Strategy, the Canadian government has expanded support for innovators to help startups strengthen their IP capabilities to emphasize the importance of fostering innovation and enabling startups to thrive.
Although intangible, IP remains one of the most valuable assets a company can possess. But if Canada wants to unleash a generation of startup entrepreneurs, these emerging titans of technology will never see their companies reach critical mass without a proper IP strategy.
Building a Culture of Innovation
An IP strategy is a proactive, deliberate process that continuously evolves, and it includes fostering an innovation-minded culture within the company. To effectively capture and protect innovation, simple invention-disclosure processes should be in place, supplemented by regular idea-mining sessions to identify innovations before it’s too late to protect them.
The strategy could include incentive programs to reward innovation. These programs don’t necessarily need to be monetary; non-monetary rewards are also effective in ensuring everyone buys into the process. All employment agreements should include assignment of IP developed by employees and contractors during the course of employment to the company.
Choosing the Right Protection for Your Innovations
A company’s strategy should include a clear decision-making process or committee that decides in a timely manner whether to protect each idea via patents, trade secrets, trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights, plant breeders’ rights, or other forms of formal IP protection.
For software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications—where all the intelligence and innovation is secured on a cloud server—leveraging trade secrets may offer better protection. In such cases, no public disclosure of the innovation occurs, giving the company a longer lead in the market and possibly worldwide protection. The only way the trade secret can be uncovered is if someone hacks the server or an employee leaves and divulges the secret, both of which are illegal offences. However, trade secrets are less useful when the innovation resides in a product that can be purchased legally, as reverse engineering could uncover the invention.
A good IP strategy also includes efficient filing “recipes”—considering which countries to apply for protection in, the sequence of filings, and whether to fast-track applications. The recipe will vary depending on the idea or type of protection.
Stay Informed: Competitive Intelligence and IP Mining
Part of staying competitive means staying informed. A solid IP plan includes regularly searching IP databases for industry intelligence on what competitors are securing and identifying emerging competitors. Leveraging recently expired patents can provide valuable research and development opportunities, allowing a company to build on earlier innovations. There is a wealth of IP available to license or purchase to expand a company’s portfolio.
Aligning IP Strategy with Business Goals
Every IP initiative should keep the end goal in mind. Is the IP portfolio being developed for offensive or defensive purposes? Is the goal to generate additional revenue through licensing or asset sales, or to increase company valuation ahead of an acquisition or IPO?
As the business landscape evolves, so should your IP strategy. It should align with the company’s business plan and overall strategy. Formal IP registration (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, copyrights, etc.) should be treated like products, with an IP lifecycle management process applied to these assets. Regular review of these assets in light of the company’s strategic plan is key to avoiding unnecessary spending on IP that could be monetized elsewhere.
A Proactive Approach to IP
Finally, IP is far more than filing a patent, and it should never be approached in a piecemeal, after-the-fact manner. An IP strategy is only useful if the company cultivates a culture of continuous innovation and fosters a climate that rewards the disclosure of ideas.
As technology advances, is your IP strategy keeping pace? Connect with us at Stratford Group to ensure you’re protecting your most valuable assets—and setting your business up for long-term success.
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[FROM THE ARCHIVES: A version of this blog post originally appeared in the Globe & Mail in 2018 as "Companies Need Intellectual Property Strategies which Always Keep the End-Goal in Mind". It has been updated with new content.]