Step 1: Idea, Concepts, marketable and proprietary business processes, and brand

The starting point is an idea, a vision, an architecture: the intellectual property that may be unique, and could be valuable if protected.

Map the value first

First and foremost, map the value. Map your ideas, your concepts, your proprietary IP and your marketable brand. You can’t build a house without a blueprint, and the same holds for intellectual property and its value: you can’t keep growing your business, or defend it, until you have identified your IP.

Anything you or your people create can be eligible for protection. Make a customized list that documents how your IP could improve other products, services or business processes.

Find the IP you already have

Everyone in your business or organization, or just you, should be asking: “Do I have IP, and does it matter in the marketplace today?” Before you try to protect your IP, find out what forms of IP you possess. You may know which trademarks and copyrightable material you or your organization hold, and still own IP you never recognized as such.

Many businesses understand that a good number of their internal processes could be IP. Unique business practices can be your most valuable assets. Understand their value, and how you could profit from them both inside and outside your own organization.

Then decide what type of IP you have created: an idea, a concept, a proprietary process or a marketable brand. Put simply, IP is something new that you create.⁠^[1]⁠^[2] It makes your business unique and sets it apart from others in the market.

An idea needs a form

IP can be any thought you have, a model, or even your methods and procedures. Can you trademark an idea? Until an idea is expressed or embodied in some form, it can’t be legally protected.⁠^[3]⁠^[4] To encourage creativity and innovation, public policy has developed to protect the creations of the mind, and to let their owners draw economic benefit from them.⁠^[1] Never assume that any part of your business is “too common” or “probably can’t be protected.”

When in doubt, err on the side of caution

Key business practices that are unique to your organization are IP that you own, and they bring value. Marketing campaigns, formulas, or anything else that gives you a competitive advantage in your field is IP that could, and should, be protected. As you identify which assets are IP and have value, ask which of them give you an advantage over your competition. Treating them as assets also raises your valuation if you ever plan to sell your IP piece by piece, or the business as a whole.

Before and after Step 1

Next step

Step 2: Protect

Is the idea unique? If it is, you need to decide how to build a framework that protects it.

After that

Step 3: Plan

Life goes on and things happen, even after your IP is protected. What you have created and protected needs attention too.

Protecting value, all the way to monetization

Steps 4 to 7: Policies, access, agreements, ownership

These are the important steps to monetization. Create policies around your intellectual property. Understand what access means and how to protect it. Create agreements that protect access and value. Document ownership.

Steps 8 to 10: Audits, infringement, documentation

Audit your intellectual property and the status of each asset. Understand what infringement means, and the best way to approach it, 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.

References

a b What is intellectual property? World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
↑ Intellectual property. Wikipedia.
↑ Idea–expression distinction. Wikipedia.
↑ What is copyright? U.S. Copyright Office.
↑ RIF Industries: Technology and intellectual property. Maynard L. Dokken, the record. maynardldokken.com/rif-industries/#technology

Every source above was opened and checked on 3 November 2026.