I believe…
1. Intellectual property is a valuable business asset (maybe even your most valuable asset!).
Your patents, trademarks, copyrights, and ‘know-how’ have value. In fact, they have a lot of value. It’s estimated that 60 – 80% of a business’s value lay in its intellectual property.
In April 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department released a comprehensive report, Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus, which found that:
- Every industry in the United States is touched by intellectual property in some way;
- IP-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs; and
- Those industries contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
That’s over 25% of US jobs and over 33% of the GDP of the United States.
What piece of that pie does your business represent? If you utilized your IP a little better, could you create more revenue? I’m pretty sure you could.
2. Every company, regardless of size or age, has intellectual property.
You do business under a tradename. You make, use or sell a product or a service. You compile a customer list. You don’t tell your competition how you set prices. You put up a website. You have a Facebook page. You create content (lots of content) on blogs, twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
If you do any of these things (and more), you have intellectual property. (Surprise!)
So what are you doing to protect it?
3. You must treat your IP with care and respect.
Why would you ever knowingly jeopardize your business’s value by skimping on how you protect and manage your intellectual property?
Let’s face it. If over half of your business’s value lies in its intellectual property, it’s way too important to ignore or leave up to chance. So you must do something about it.
How much value you actually realize depends on what you do to protect it. How well you protect your IP depends on what you know, how well you manage your IP, and to a lesser degree, how much you’re willing to spend.
4. IP is the most misused, misunderstood, and misappropriated business asset today.
Why? Because IP owners don’t know what they don’t know about intellectual property. How can you get value out of something you don’t understand?
Look at it this way: Getting value out of your physical assets is easy. You know what to do with a delivery van, your computers, and the building you rent. If you don’t, most things come with some sort of instruction manual.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to your intellectual assets.
Did your patent come with an owner’s manual? How about your trademark?
No? Well then who are you going to ask for guidance?
I bet you rely on your attorney or the internet. But is that enough?
Let’s be honest. Intellectual property attorneys are not doing a great job educating their clients on what IP really is, what it does, and how it works. If they were, you’d know all about your IP, right?
And how about the internet? Yeah, the information you need is probably out there somewhere, but do you know where? Do you know if it’s accurate? Do you know if you have enough information to get the job done right? If you don’t know what you don’t know, how do you know you’ve got it all?
5. You need an Intellectual Property Owner’s Manual.
To get the most out of your intellectual property, you need to know what it is, what it does, and how to use it.
That’s what an owner’s manual is designed to do. It says…
“You just bought a Chop-o-matic 6000, and I slice and dice like nobody’s business. To start chopping up your veggies, just…” (You get the picture.)
That’s why I created IP made simple.
It’s a system of programs and workshops that provides you with the ‘owner’s manual’ to your intellectual property! And in plain English, so you can understand what you’re reading.
Every company deserves the chance to take charge of its future, create value, and reduce risk. All it needs is a little focus — and some (clear and logical) instructions!