Business Power: Creating New Wealth from IP Assets

Chapter 8. Intellectual Property Drives Corporate Changes to Create New Wealth

BOB SHEARER AND BRUCE STUCKMAN

Key Points to Look For

• IP value is driving changes in the way companies must manage their businesses and are increasingly expected to communicate their capabilities to manage the IP class of assets to financial and capital markets.

• The external business requirements of IP demand leadership skills that many IP attorneys cannot find time to develop because of the increased burden of “doing” rather than “managing” the workload.

• Chief IP counsel need to adjust to the increased prominence of their role in value creation, recognition, and reporting within the corporation.

• Most companies react to fast-moving IP changes by simply demanding more from their IP counsel, when what is needed is help in the form of increased resource allocation.

• The pervasive nature of IP management means that more people need to be more sophisticated about IP and its effects on their responsibilities in the enterprise.

The Increasing Influence of Intellectual Property (IP)

There was a time when, apart from a few patent-focused industries, IP laws and practices were relegated to the backwaters of a company’s R&D program. More often than not, patents were accumulated to demonstrate the technological prowess of the ...