MarkCrest – Step 3 | Plan, Filings, Monitor, Look for Opportunities
Life goes on and things happen even though IP has been protected.
Many times once the IP has been protected the inventor or organization is distracted and takes their eyes off the focus of all their effort. This includes missing changes in the business landscape or the reason they created the intellectual property in the first place. Putting in place plans to monitor for changes and opportunities is important for the integrity and future value of your IP.
The action needed to continue with intellectual property beyond registering a claim for protection is beyond simply responding to requests from registering organizations to changes in the business or technology environment of landscape. Leaving everything is akin to leaving a produce department for a month and expecting all the produce to remain fresh, for the building to remain intact. If you just left it alone and the building burned down then the produce and the building are gone. Your IP and protection gone. Things change and IP can require updates to remain relevant.
So keep your eye on the ball so to say. Good intellectual property needs renewals, ordinary registrations and filings. You need to pay attention to the marketplace in case of infringements including for trademarks. Failure to monitor the marketplace can actually cause your trademark or intellectual property to become less enforceable. This can also cause you or your organization to miss opportunities for income or revenue as well new developments or enhancements built on your idea or IP.
One strategy is to consider is appointing someone to monitor your IP portfolio for opportunities. These inside and outside representatives based on the potential markets value within your niche or vertical. The cost versus benefit ratio is a straight forward process. Take the time to do a quick review of your market whether through a professional or through web searches.
Networks including social can assist in the monitoring process. Understanding the possible methods to pull this into your social community can make all the difference and provide a cost effective solution for you to find out who is viewing and using your idea or invention. Use a service that monitors articles on the internet so you can see if your idea is being talked about and who is interested. It may also provide potential licnesing business.
Many ideas and inventions had a make or break moment based on attention to the marketplace. You need to plan and make sure you are not missing real opportunities.
Step 2: Protect
Is the idea unique? If it is you need to decide how to create a framework to protect the idea. Click here...
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...
Steps 4 to 7 - Policies, 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.