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IP Audit
An IP audit or IP inventory is no different. An IP audit will capture and
analyse information so informed and considered decisions can be
made. In this case, intellectual property is the subject of the audit or
inventory.
If you are conducting an IP audit for the first time, you may be surprised
at how many IP assets your company has and how valuable they are to
your business. Furthermore, an IP audit may uncover potential risks to
your business that could ultimately result in costly legal proceedings
with employees or third parties.
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Identify
To help you identify which IP rights may be relevant to your business,
and to better understand the advantages of each one, the different
types of IP, both registerable and non registerable, are briefly described
below.
Trade marks
A registered trade mark can protect elements of your brand such as a
product name, tag line or logo. In this way, the trade mark helps to
distinguish a specific product or service from a competitor's product or
service. By doing so, this creates customer loyalty and enables the
product or service to more effectively compete with other similar goods.
View more on trade marks
Registered Design
A registered design protects the appearance and visual features of a
product. It protects the shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation
which gives a product a unique appearance.
View more on registered design
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Confidential Information
Confidential Information is information which has value and is not
publicly known, giving your business a competitive edge that would be
lost if it were obtained by your competitors. For example, this could
include manufacturing know how and trade secrets, databases of
customers, databases of suppliers or the functionality of computer
programs.
These are all things which are intellectual in nature and a business
should seek appropriate strategies to keep these items confidential.
Intellectual Capital
Intellectual capital is broader than intellectual property, and broader
than trade secrets, know how, or confidential information. In broad
terms, intellectual capital is knowledge that is useful to an enterprise. It
can be broken into three categories: human capital; structural capital,
and relational capital.
The meaning of these categories, and some examples, is set out in the
table below:
Category
Meaning
Examples
Human Capital
Structural Capital
Brand
Training programs
Registered IP rights
Customer database
Value-creating relationships
Conclusion
The sheer diversity of IP and circumstances surrounding its creation,
can make it difficult for a company to be fully aware of the extent of its
IP. An IP audit can help remedy this.
From: http://intellectualpropertyexplorer.com/identify/