MarkCrest - Step 5 | Access, Trade Secrets, Shielding IP, Mechanisms
A major breach can be a potential blow to you or the organization if the individual or employee has not agreed to protocols for which the IP is to to be managed.
The Entrepreneur and Corporate communities have different tendencies where the entrepreneurs go from one project to another within weeks or months corporation can have a very long term vision with significantly greater resources to restrict access and enforce compliance. Entrepreneurs can have a much more fluid interaction with their communities that can wreak havoc on access policies and required constraints for IP integrity.
Limiting access to details of the IP or technology is one way to protect its integrity. The other is to have a dedicated compliance officer to enforce compliance. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. Both have their costs and whether undermining the value of the IP or cost in capital to monitor compliance.
Sometimes the desire to provide access to IP instead of of shielding IP, or exchange of secrets and techniques is important for the future of the organization and can impede the adoption or even enforcement if the person providing access does not understand what can and cannot be disclosed. Exclusive facts must sometimes be shared in situations to maximize commercial opportunities and value of transtions. For enterprise to run, particularly when entrepreneurs are involved as contributors, wearing many hats can be the norm. It can be important for everyone to share ideas and that is a challenge when IP is involved.
Trade secrets and techniques are guarded closely in most organizations and can supply commercial enterprises with a significant benefits. The exchange of commercial secrets can also be required contractual conditions or to entice a partner to the table in a transaction. Situations may or may not require this type of protected disclosure notwithstanding public expertise or specialties within identical niches or markets. Secrets of techniques must have industrial treatments of value as sometimes the failure to disclose can cost more than the value to protect.
Despite strict IP safety mechanisms in place, personnel may try to use or borrow IP either out of malice or truly believing they have the right or are the rightful owners. The simplest method to lower this potential event from occurring and your IP misappropriated is to determine team or personnel member loyalty. If loyal the probability of this happening decreases dramatically.
Knowledge is valuable and entrepreneur as corporate communities are full of those locked into funding new recruit, new talent, for others to succeed. It is something competition creates in any environment.
The challenges within entrepreneur, small to medium sized organizations is greater as the cost to enforce and compliance is greater than their resources can endure. So having this baked within the policies is a very important factor to consider when sharing your secrets, inventions or ideas.
Step 4: Policies
When you have created a plan you then need to put in place protocols either personally or corporately on how to manage the newly protected IP. Click here...
Step 6: Agreements
Nothing is agreed until it is in writing. You need this proof in the event the individual or employee does not follow the protocol established for your idea or IP. Click here...
Steps 5 to 7 - Access, Agreements, Ownership
Important steps to monetization. Create policies surrounding your intellectual property. Understand what access means and how to protect. Create agreements to protect access and value. Document ownership.
Steps 8 to 10 - Audits, Infringement, Documentation
It is important to audit your intellectual property and status of each asset. It is also important to understand what infringement means and the best way to approach whether you are infringing or being infringed. Documentation will ultimately be the most important piece of the monetization process. Think of it as a documented audit trail.